On each coasts of Canada, residents are receiving “unnerving” letters demanding $1,900 in bitcoin or danger having their nudes and soiled browser historical past despatched to their family members.
Whereas these bitcoin sextortion scams are nothing new, fraudsters at the moment are utilizing Google Maps streetview to idiot victims into pondering that scammers have been standing exterior their houses.
“It’s very unnerving, it’s very upsetting,” one Ontario girl advised CTV Information. “They had my name, address, email, cell phone and a picture of the street on which my home is.”
York Regional Police (YRP) have just lately warned these within the Larger Toronto area that fraudsters are more and more utilizing publicly obtainable data to seem reputable. Passwords, addresses, cellphone numbers, social media accounts, and extra are all simply discovered if victims had been a part of a third-party information breach, for instance.
Certainly, with out including these particulars, bitcoin sextortion letters can learn like they had been despatched by your annoying little nephew.
Learn extra: Hong Kong busts crypto rip-off that used AI deepfakes to create ‘superior women’
“I suggest you read this message carefully,” reads one letter shared by the YRP. “Take a moment to chill, breathe, and analyze it thoroughly. ‘Cause we’re about to discuss a deal between you and me, and I ain’t playing games.”
Some sentences even learn just like the lyrics of a track (that will slap). “Yeah, Yeah, I’ve got footage of you doing filthy things in your room (nice setup, by the way).”
In response to a spokesperson for the North Vancouver RCMP, all reported bitcoin sextortion threats have fortunately been empty.
“So far, from all the victims that we’ve had, [the suspects] have not provided any images of the victim, so it’s just merely them saying that they have images,” (through North Shore Information).
What’s extra, it looks like victims aren’t simply satisfied by these letters. Protos examined a bitcoin handle despatched to a number of sextortion victims, which confirmed zero transactions and a steadiness of $0.
That mentioned, anybody who receives these messages are suggested to comb their units for malware, instantly report the incident to native police, and to by no means ship a dime.
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