Published
5 years ago on
November 02, 2018
“You probably noticed how many entrepreneurs have had to close their doors recently by order of the municipality. To prevent you from being the next one, you must immediately take action.â€The extortion fee, victims of the scheme are instructed to open an account on one of two giant crypto exchanges, Coinbase and Coinmama. They are required to then buy Bitcoins on either exchange and transfer them to a specific address. Since summer this year, a nightclub and at least three coffee shops have received the threats. The criminals made it clear that the extortion fee will be doubled to 100,000 euros if the payment isn’t made within five days. As reported by CCN:
“The emails also demand confidentiality and warn recipients against informing the police or anyone else. Failure to maintain confidentiality, the emails warn, will result in the extortion fee being quadrupled to bitcoins worth 200,000 euros. Immediate action to ensure the business shuts down for a minimum of three months will also be taken, the emails add. So far no business has confessed to paying the extortion fee.â€This isn’t the first time While this isn’t the first time that criminals have extorted digital currencies from businesses, the use of threats of violence and terror is rare. Most thugs usually use the threat of deploying ransomware and has proven to be a lucrative business. The firm Sophos - cybersecurity company - predicts that teh creators of the SamSam ransomware have generated Bitcoin in over $6 million since 2015. What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down below in the comments!
