'Bomb threat' scammers linked to earlier sextortion campaign Yesterday's 'bomb scare' spam campaign may have been a follow-up to another infamous email extortion effort. Researchers with Cisco's Talos say that the rash of emails floated yesterday demanding that recipients pay a Bitcoin ransom or face the possibility of a bomb attack on their offices are simply an evolution of the scare- …
Many years ago we received a visit from the FBI and an employee was interviewed for half a day and they went through her computer files, because someone had emailed a "threat" to a federal employee after he was accused of making sexually suggestive comments to her daughter. Apparently the threat was just a suggestion that he should be careful what he drank at a party ... I thought it was a joke but the FBI were taking it very seriously, much more so apparently that his comments to a 13 year old girl.
There's a sporting chance that the people responsible for all of this are from a country where the law enforcement is patchy to say the least, unless someone big in the government is spurred into action. At this point the law enforcement reaction generally tends to overkill, with the emphasis on "-kill".
Quite frankly I rather hope that this actually happens to a few of this gang. Random extortion like this really ought to be stamped upon if only to force the perpetrators to up their game somewhat.
The bomb threat spam all came from machines in a minor web-hosting network in Russia. Unless the sender is stupid enough to lave some sort of trail to their real-world identity from the BTC addresses AND travel to somewhere that US law enforcement can detain them (more places than just the US, but not including Russia) they need not worry.
Don't pay any ransom demanded by an unsolicited email, and report all threats to an admin and/or the police. ®
If we all reported all the crap coming our way, that could DDoS the police, perhaps so effectively as to preclude any resources at all for action against these or other malefactors.
I had forgot about that earlier campaign in July when I wrote my comment "While in the UK..." yesterday on the bomb threat article comments section.
The mail I received yesterday was very similar in tone and phrasing as the one described in the July article, EXCEPT that they did not quote or pretend to know any of my passwords (and that the amount was lower)
Either the bad guys are casting a wider net to reach the general population, or it's another group of copycats who don't have actually have any hacked database
I still receive sextortion threats based on a throwaway password I used on the websites which quality I respected least (one of them was Yahoo which is the one I believe the password was stolen from). The spams seemed more fun than a threat.
However the new idea of sending out bomb threats shows how stupid those people are. They upped their game from fraud to terrorism with all the expected legal consequences.
Quote: They upped their game from fraud to terrorism with all the expected legal consequences.
And all the expected extra-legal consequences of course, and all the consequences where the legal profession is not involved at all (although the human rights people may complain that leveling 14 city blocks was perhaps.. a tiny bit over the top)
It may make an improvement in my case. :(
But the sad thing is, because of it really happening to some people, there is a fear that it will happen to all of us.
I wish I could send a jar of my bravado when it comes to scam phonecalls/emails to other people for them to use. Until then, I can only say "pass me the phone, I will DEAL with them!"
I enjoy the stock photos that illustrate the stories. When a computer can explain why they work when similar stock pics are a signifier of lameness, maybe AI will be real. anyway. The guy on the left is having a fag! Takes me back to my first job, where I had an ashtray on my desk.
"Takes me back to my first job, where I had an ashtray on my desk."
In the 1980s a small company were eager to have my knowledge to fix their product. Being shown round the office - every person was smoking. One even had a cigarette and a pipe in his ashtray.
That was something of an anachronism by that date. Big IT companies' offices had been like that a decade or so earlier - as had school staff rooms, buses, cinemas etc - but the health risks were now being recognised.
I turned the job down. A wise move as the company folded soon after - and I doubt I could have saved them.
"Being shown round the office - every person was smoking. One even had a cigarette and a pipe in his ashtray."
I wouldn't have got past the door, would've been sneezing/headaches the entire time. _NO_ _WAY_ could I _EVAR_ work in an office with open smoking like that.
(fortunately, the rest of the world has caught up, and you don't see that any more in any place I'm aware of)
"I wouldn't have got past the door, would've been sneezing/headaches the entire time."
Me too - and in the environment I worked before antismoking legislation in NZ some of the smokers went out of their way to be obnoxious.
What did them in was their behaviour when the laws were passed - in the first round workplaces could vote on being smokefree or not and the abovementioned smokers went out of their way to be extra obnoxious, claiming it was "their right" - so much so that most of the other smokers joined the non-smokers in voting for 100% smokefree everywhere.
"Takes me back to my first job, where I had an ashtray on my desk."
Cue the obligatory More doctors smoke Camels video.
At least the person's spectacles appear to have lenses in them, which is more than you can say for the usual Shutterstock stock images.
"shutterstock_dumb.jpg" - Doh!.... yeah, you just realised what it was you forgot- to get some glass for your glasses.
"Shutterstock_glum_kid.jpg" - Glum because she can't make out the screen any better than before she got her specs. For some reason.
SPAM tactics will not work for a campaign which involves a physical threat big enough to hit the news.
One of the reasons why previous extortion campaigns worked is that the recipients did not tell any one. The stupid ones paid, the smarter ones filed it in the rounded folder.
In this case it hit the news and everybody realized it is a fluke within half an hour.
Latest from the scumbags digging ever deeper into the cess... As received last week. Pretty nasty TBH.
Amazing how fucked up these scammers are.
Received: from unknown (HELO psyproblems.net) (185.178.47.125)
Hi
I host a forum in the deep web, I perform all sorts of services - basically it is demolition to bussiness and injury. Basically, all but the homicide. Often main reasons are rejected love or competition at work. This month he talked me and set me the task of splashing acid in your visage. Standard order - fast, painfully, forever. Without too much fuss. I get money only after finishing the order. So, now I suggest you pay me to be inactive, I propose this to nearly all the victims. If I do not get money from you, then my performer will fulfill the task. If you give me money, besides to my inactivity, I will give you the information that I have about the customer. After finishing the order, I always spend the performer, so I have an option, to get $1700 from you for info about the customer and my inaction, or to receive $ 4000 from the customer, but with a high probability of waisting the performer.
I’m getting money in Bitcoin, its my bitcoin address - 12Y12HNMtrBpKAudLBZNSjHFKVoHwW8wos
The summary I told above.
36 hours to decide and pay.
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