FBI Warns of Email Death Threats Demanding Bitcoin (abc7.com) 95
An anonymous reader writes:
"I will be short. I've got an order to kill you," the note said, demanding $2,800 in U.S. dollars or Bitcoin. "I switched from being upset about it to, 'I need to get the word out'," one of its targets told a local newscaster. They filed a report through the FBI's web site.
"If only 1% of people send money -- there's no overhead for them; that's money in the bank," one FBI agent tells the news team. A quick Google search finds recent reports of two nearly identical threats using the same text.
"I have been thinking for a long time whether it is worth sending this notice, and decided that you still have the right to know... I've got an order to kill you, because some of your activity causes trouble to several people... I decided to break some rules, as this will be my final order... As soon as I receive the funds, I will forward you the name of the man [this] order came from, and all other information I have."
"If only 1% of people send money -- there's no overhead for them; that's money in the bank," one FBI agent tells the news team. A quick Google search finds recent reports of two nearly identical threats using the same text.
"I have been thinking for a long time whether it is worth sending this notice, and decided that you still have the right to know... I've got an order to kill you, because some of your activity causes trouble to several people... I decided to break some rules, as this will be my final order... As soon as I receive the funds, I will forward you the name of the man [this] order came from, and all other information I have."
Excellent Investment (Score:5, Funny)
I think investing in the currency of extortionists and criminals is a prudent move.
I'll take one bitcoin for $20,000 please, and please store my investment on a web server controlled by the Yakuza.
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Considering that just a few steps down the story Deanonymizing Tor: Your Bitcoin Transactions May Come Back To Haunt You [slashdot.org] exists this could start to get interesting.
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They also have the pee tape.
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I'm as skeptical of the pee tape thing as the next guy (Although it would be goddamn hilarious if it was true), but wheres the evidence that /pol/ had anything to do with it. That would require them to have had access to the intelligence guy who did the report well before anyone really had any idea the guy was working on this project.
Now /pol/ taking credit for it, just to make shit even sillier, thats a probability.
But I could be wrong.
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I'm as skeptical of the pee tape thing as the next guy (Although it would be goddamn hilarious if it was true), but wheres the evidence that /pol/ had anything to do with it. That would require them to have had access to the intelligence guy who did the report well before anyone really had any idea the guy was working on this project.
/pol/ is about 40% intelligence agents and 60% Jews, as unbelievable as that may seem.
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wait, what's the remaining 40%?
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wait, what's the remaining 40%?
Autists.
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They also have the pee tape.
I think you are right. Isn't that the only part of the Dossier that hasn't been proven yet?
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The FBI has been known to have a backdoor into Tor ...
+1 for reminding us about it
-4 for not providing technical details or following up on a three year old story
The "backdoor" was accomplished by having the Tor user access a web page containing a compromised Adobe Flash element. Obviously this would only work if the victim had not disabled Flash in their browser. If a user is going to do bad stuff and try to hide behind Tor, they should figure out how to run NoScript or at least disable flash. For some people this was apparently too technical. From the [wired.com]
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Difference was there were reasons to use the internet that weren't either highly illegal or tinfoil-hat-crazy.
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It is obviously time for Trump to put his money where his mouth is - and ban the US dollar!
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put his money where his mouth is
Have we banned his mouth? I feel like I would know about this by now.
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It is obviously time for Trump to put his money where his mouth is
I don't think even he has that much money.
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Controlled by the Yakuza is great. Who steals from them?
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I think investing in the currency of extortionists and criminals is a prudent move.
You mean US Dollars, right? I'm afraid there aren't many alternatives, because extortionists and criminals have been known to use ALL currencies, although using one with inherently traceable transactions like Bitcoin would be most unwise -- that's why most criminals stick with USD or switched to Monero....
Talking about.. (Score:1, Troll)
About death threats. The head of the FFC skipped the CES event because of threats. Slashdot whined that he did not attend because he could not defend his anti net neutrality standing.
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So that's why there are so many car accidents in Russia?
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A dead one...or so they would have you believe. Rumor has it he's taken over Patton Oswalt's identity. It's obvious from the recent photos.
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In my world, "justice" includes things like a trial in which the prosecution must prove charges beyond a reasonable doubt, conviction, and sentencing in a court of law.
Not too sure about yours.
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In my world, "justice" includes things like a trial in which the prosecution must prove charges beyond a reasonable doubt, conviction, and sentencing in a court of law.
God knows, I'm with you fully on the need for a fair trial for someone who is accused.
That being said, justice and the law are two related, but separate things. They're like morality and ethics: one is an innate sense of what is right, and the other is an attempt by humans to codify it into a set of rules and procedures.
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Even those accused of treason are entitled to a fair trial.
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The FBI should pay the $2,800 in Bitcoin, then deanonymize the transaction to find out who received the money. Once they know who received the money, execute the person who made the threat. Chances are that they're not in the United States, but there are more than enough American operatives around the world to make it happen. It would do society a favor to eliminate those who use criminal activity to mooch off of others and possibly terrify them in the process. In this case, it would be justice to execute the criminal.
That's why they're demanding Bitcoin.
The trouble with a traditional extortion scheme is the money has to go somewhere, you either need to hand it off in person (big risk!) or arrange some kind of wire transfer (you can probably make this close to untraceable, but it's tough).
But with Bitcoin all they know is the address of the wallet (they know that if they pay or not), and unless the owner of the wallet does something dumb to reveal their identity there's no way to know who actually owns the wallet.
This is
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This is Nigeria's way of getting back at us for passing the Shithole Nations Act. But without it, we would still be in a government shutdown.
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Add ID theft and some other crimes as well to that.
Re:Legalize lynching again (Score:5, Insightful)
Bring back lynching. It would do a tremendous about of good for society.
Yes, it's much more fun to string up those uppity Negroes [wikipedia.org] or even set them on fire [wikimedia.org] than be bothered with the niceties of a trial.
(And do not even try to tell this good ol' Southern boy that lynching means anything else other than "those people aren't real people like us, so we can kill them whenever we feel like it".)
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(And do not even try to tell this good ol' Southern boy that lynching means anything else other than "those people aren't real people like us, so we can kill them whenever we feel like it".)
Did anyone claim that these extortionists are black?
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Bring back lynching. It would do a tremendous about of good for society.
Yes, it's much more fun to string up those uppity Negroes or even set them on fire than be bothered with the niceties of a trial.
You forgot dragging them behind pick-m-up trucks.
In a country where white people are rapidly becoming a major minority, it isn't wise to encourage lynching. But then, we have some pretty good proof we aren't all that wise.
Just to be certain, I'm agreeing with you.
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It ought to be legal to lynch criminals who create scams like this. Bring back lynching. It would do a tremendous about of good for society.
I don't recall that lynching was ever legal. Certainly it was never just.
Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. What if a mob decided that you were guilty of something, and they were not prepared to wait for a trial to determine your fate?
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First they lynched the nazis, and I said nothing because I was among the slightly educated by comparison.
Serving hits since 2006 apparently (Score:4, Informative)
"The scam e-mail, which first appeared in December 2006, purports to be a hired assassin, but is in reality a mass spamming looking to grab your personal information. Replying to the e-mails just sends a signal to senders that they’ve reached a live account. It also escalates the intimidation, the FBI said in a report last year."
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2007/january/threatscam_111507
Re:Serving hits since 2006 apparently (Score:4, Funny)
"The scam e-mail, which first appeared in December 2006, purports to be a hired assassin, but is in reality a mass spamming looking to grab your personal information.
Right. Because if someone emails you, saying "By the way, I've been hired to kill you," the very first thing you do is give them your personal information.
Re:Serving hits since 2006 apparently (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah. As soon as they ask for that, a sane person should probably ask, "If you don't know who I am, I guess you can't kill me, then," and ignore all further emails.
WARNING: SARCASM AHEAD. DO NOT ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING SUGGESTED BELOW.
That said, if you want a response that would be far more entertaining (for anyone observing from a sufficiently safe distance), one could always up the ante. For example:
Scammer: For $2,800, I'll give you the information about the person who hired me to kill you.
Victim: I'll give you [some significantly larger amount], under one condition: First you have to bring me the severed head of the person who hired you to kill me.
This is likely to provoke one of two reactions: A. They're the FBI. You spend a few months in a jail while your lawyers smack them around for entrapment, and if you're really unlucky, you spend the rest of your life with a cellmate named Bubba. B. They think you're the FBI. They flee to another country that lacks an extradition treaty with the United States and never contact you again.
However, there is always the risk that you might come home one day to find a head-sized box on your porch. So one should probably have a passport ready before contemplating such a response, along with a plane ticket to a country that lacks an extradition treaty with the United States. :-D
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"I have been thinking for a long time whether it is worth sending this notice, and decided that you still have the right to know... I've got an order to kill you, because some of your activity causes trouble to several people... I decided to break some rules, as this will be my final order... As soon as I receive the funds, I will forward you the name of the man [this] order came from, and all other information I have."
Hit REPLY to respond.
Dear Sir,
I appreciate you coming forward to inform me of this unpleasant business, however I am already aware of whom it was who hired you, and as of 43 minutes ago, they are deceased. Also of note, our security services are already tracking your whereabouts thanks to information gleaned from your message. To show my appreciation, I will give you a full 24 hours to say goodbye to you family and friends, and to make peace with whatever God you choose to believe i
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You forgot C. They're definitely not in the US already - there is no downside for them.
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...snipsnip... Nothing can protect any individual anywhere from the wrath and power of the United States. Don't believe that? Just ask Osama Bin Laden.
Or the politicians, economists, credit rating executives, bankers and brokers [theguardian.com] who steered us into the subprime mortgage crash in 2007. Boy they're suffering now.
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"The scam e-mail, which first appeared in December 2006, purports to be a hired assassin, but is in reality a mass spamming looking to grab your personal information.
Right. Because if someone emails you, saying "By the way, I've been hired to kill you," the very first thing you do is give them your personal information.
"If you respond to the scammer, he will then try to intimidate you into sending the initial $3000, ostensibly to stop him proceeding with your murder. At this point, of course, he knows nothing about you. But, during your correspondence with the scammer, he may trick you into revealing personal information about yourself. And, once he has some initial details such as your name and location, he may be able to discover more information about you via publicly available records. He can then twist this informat
'threatening' http urls too (Score:2)
websites used also get requests like
i_will_killl_you_today
back then and recorded - so the nsa and five eyes know as they record traffic in Room 641A
Wrong 1% (Score:5, Funny)
Man if they're only asking for $2800, they're definitely targeting the wrong 1%.
Fools (Score:4, Interesting)
People watch too many movies. Hired killers aren't Leon the Professional. They're Joe-Bob the alcoholic that your wife met at the bar and slipped $500 to whack you with a crowbar. That's why they get caught all the time, in the rare case that it's not just a sting to catch people trying to hire a contract killer.
Only $2800? (Score:4, Funny)
I'd like to think that the guy hired to kill me would need a lot more than $2800 to double-cross the guy that hired him to kill me. How little did I piss someone off for it to only be worth $2800 to call off the killing?
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You should really reread the death threat. It said nothing about calling off the hit, just forwarding you information on who the person who call for the hit. So, they can bring the information along and give it to you right before the kill you. You'll just be stupid enough to have spent $
It's all these gig economy apps (Score:2)
Damn, those Nigerian Princes have gotten violent. (Score:2)
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Banning Bitcoin will work about as well as banning gold did (remember?). Better to let BTC run away until some exchange gets hacked for $10 billion right in the middle of one of those periodic price plunges, setting off a cascade of panic selling. That's the only way to educate people.
If it only costs $2800, then.... (Score:3)
Honestly, the letter would sound a whole lot more convincing if there were a few more zeroes in the figure... at least 2 more, and more likely 3.
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Considering that the aim of the scam is to convince the victim to hand over money... how many people could come up with $2,800 by tomorrow if they thought their life depended on it? Now add a zero or two and ask the question again. (Also, how many people could even tell you the going rate for a contract killing?)
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I remember seeing a stat on the average price of a contract killing. It was much lower than Hollywood would have you believe. IIRC, something like $5000. I'm not going to google it, but go ahead if you're curious.
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Even less believable than (Score:2)
the one that purports to come from l33t haxorz in .ru or .ro, claiming to have downloaded malware to your computer when you visited a porn site, harvesting your address book and social media contacts, and turning on your webcam and microphone to record you masturbating. "Pay us bitcoin or we'll send the footage to everyone in your contact lists. Your police can't do anything as we're not in your country."
The spelling from the threat above is just a guess, my interpretation of what was actually received. The
Much threat (Score:4, Funny)
So death
Please send $2800 in DogeCoin to stop
Wow
Sad (Score:1)
Once you've lived in downtown L.A... (Score:1)
I'm dead meat (Score:2)