Warning Issued by the Federal Trade Commission Against Bitcoin Blackmail Scam

By Sumedha Bose

The cheaters may soon be cheated, or so says The Division of Consumer and Business Education of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which published an article  on August 21, directed at men, regarding a new bitcoin blackmail scam that men are falling prey to. The article is titled “How to avoid a Bitcoin blackmail scam.”

A new bitcoin blackmail scam is targeting men, threatening to expose their alleged affairs to their spouse, if they don’t pay a “confidentiality fee” in crypto. The brief letter issued by the US FTC states:

“Here’s how it works. Scammers have been sending letters to men, demanding payments using [B]itcoin in exchange for keeping quiet about alleged affairs. The letter also explains how to use [B]itcoin to make the payment.”

The FTC has made it clear, that any such incident is to be reported to the local police and FBI. The letters that the scammers keep sending, contain a blackmail note, along with instructions on how to pay the fee. They read something like this:

“I know about the secret you are keeping from your wife and everyone else. You can ignore this letter, or pay me a $8,600 confidentiality fee in bitcoin.”

There have been accounts by women stating that they have faced something similar. One such comment read:

“I am a female and have also received a similar threat… The email had somehow confiscated one of my passwords and threatened to use pictures, etc. to make pornographic videos and posters using my face. They also demanded that I pay thousands of dollars in bitcoin,”

Such scams are on the rise, not only in the US, but other countries across the world. It is advisable to any potential victim, not to fall prey to such petty threats and instead seek help from the authorities.