Over the first nine months of this year, the Bitcoin sextortion emails have dramatically increased and the price of the asset made the attackers wanting more. In the latest cryptocurrency news, we are about to read more about the reports on bitcoin-related illicit activities.
Sextortion emails happen usually when the hackers gain illegal access to a users’ camera and has oversight over each move the person makes. The hacker then tries to sell the videos on photos via a BTC payment. The scheme is less critical in comparison to ransomware threats which were extremely active over the past years. The expert on Email Security at Symantec Talha Obaid commented:
‘’The sextortion scam is gaining popularity and it’s a typical case where someone hacks into your webcam, records intimate acts and threatens to send the recordings to everyone in your contact list unless you pay them several hundred dollars in Bitcoins’’
The emails sometimes target specific people and regions and the emails are usually sent out through botnets. Symantec has intercepted more than 300 million attack emails and the trend is a part of the increasing number of scams spreading by social media and email as BTC is once again seen as a very valuable asset. The scams started very slow over the past few months but the effect of the constant inbox bombarding materialized later this year. More than a thousand of emails were sent and the wallets of the scammers collected 243 payments. Symantec estimated that this is a good return for the mass generated emails that had no targeting. The texts of the emails managed to convince many people that they are specifically attacked. The variation of the email involves a bomb message that is planted in the building where the receiver works. The scammers empty out most of the watched wallets so it is still possible to use BTC in a more anonymous manner.
All of the illegal activity related to the BTC will only complicate the recent drive for transparency since each address in connection to bitcoin sextortion emails or illegal activities is tainted. As the best cryptocurrency news sites reported, Symantec advises the users to set up stronger passwords and not to repeat the passwords.
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