Some people will do just about anything to cover up their dirty deeds.
Over the past few weeks, the infamous hacking and release of the personal information of users on affair-focused website Ashley Madison has made headlines not only for the scope of the hack and the resulting ethical issues, but also for the economics of the matter.
This past week, Coin Desk reported on security firm Cloudmark’s revelations involving the profits from the string of blackmail schemes which have surfaced since the Ashley Madison leak.
The premise is simple: pay us in bitcoin and we won’t expose you to your friends, family, and employer.
It is estimated that at the very least, $6,000 has been made in the bitcoin-for-anonymity blackmail transactions.
Researchers were able to track down Ashley Madison-specifics because the blackmail demands all asked for roughly the same amount of bitcoin – 1.05.
Cloudmark’s blog offered its own insights into the blackmail scheme.
The company said the extortion racket was “bound to happen.”
It was bound to happen: someone decided to blackmail members of online affairs website Ashley Madison. Shortly thereafter, an unknown group or individual has been sending extortion emails demanding bitcoin for silence.
The post included an image of the letter used to extort Ashley Madison users.
It made reference to the hackers’ ability to log in to each user’s Facebook account and send messages to friend and family revealing their involvement in the website.
Near the end of the letter, the blackmailer (named “Barton”) put serious heat on the recipients of the letter, saying “Consider how expensive a divorce lawyer is.”
Consider how expensive a divorce lawyer is. If you are no longer in a committed relationship then think about how this will affect your social standing amongst family and friends. What will (they) think about you?
Bitcoin-for-silence rackets aren’t the only scams showing up in the wake of the leak. The New York Times reported that internet security officials have seen an uptick in phishing scams as a result of the Ashley Madison scandal.
