We want to warn everyone against attempts to extort money by fraudsters who illegally obtained user data, probably a Ledger hardware wallet, and send ransom-demand emails.
Some people received a disturbing message, which showed that the author knows about our “crypto”, if we do not pay the ransom, we can expect a brutal visit by a bandit. The perpetrator writes that it will not be a nice meeting, as the e-mail contains information directly pointing to the criminal nature. The author threatens the addressee with burglary and aggression, which will result in bloodshed. As you probably guessed, this is nothing more than blackmail aimed at extorting a cryptocurrency. The question of who received the described message and why.
Some time ago, there was information about the data leakage of the Ledger hardware wallet owners. It is likely that the blackmailer obtained data from the Internet from a hacker forum after the user data was published on the Internet. They could be accessed by anyone who entered Raid Forums – a hacking forum available even without logging into DarkWebu. The list contains a database of 270,000 customers of the service along with e-mails, names, telephone numbers and addresses of residence.
The company was silent for a long time, but after the leak, it began to assure on Twitter that it “regrets what happened and that user privacy has always been crucial for them.” Unfortunately, Ledger’s terms of service are formulated in such a way as to prevent clients from taking legal action against the company.
The criminal, knowing that people who buy a hardware wallet usually keep more than a few dollars on it, decided to write a message to extort cryptocurrencies. People with a few hundred dollars in BTC won’t spend half their savings on a wallet. However, someone who has 1, 2 or more BTC will already think about securing their cryptocurrencies. So the criminal’s target audience is very accurate.
Back to the content of the e-mail. The message titled “FUNERAL” is merely a scam attempt to trick a potential victim into paying a ransom by preying on fear. The message suggests that the offender will give up hacking or murder once a payment is made to his account. The extortionist gives the address of the Bitcoin and gives a time of 48 hours.
Messages can be sent in different languages, with grammar errors, and they can differ from each other. Do not be subjected to intimidation. They are ordinary smarts who 99% of the only thing they can do is sit in front of the computer and prey on the fear of people on the other side of the monitor.