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Since July, numerous local government offices in at least 18 prefectures have been under siege by an online extortionist. In each case, the city hall or school would receive an email threatening to detonate an explosive unless a payment of Bitcoin was transferred to them.
The exact amount varied from email to email but one reported threat made to Yamagata City demanded 40 BTC. That has a current value of U.S.$536,000, but analysts are expecting a bull run on Bitcoin in the very near future which will drive its value up dramatically. So, it would appear the offender is adhering to the “ransom low, sell high” philosophy of trading.
At least it would if any of these extortion attempts actually paid out. Despite the large number of attempts, no victim has reported paying the money. While the Japanese government has actually been rather progressive with accepting cryptocurrencies in legislation, they have time and time again shown an overall lack of tech savvy.
And that’s the apex of government, which has not been reportedly hit by this spate of bomb threats. Instead, isolated cities in relatively rural areas such as Sanjo, Niigata; Tara, Saga; and Minami, Tokushima, to name a few, appear to be favored targets.
The person or persons behind this are still at large and reports of other local governments receiving email threats continue to come in as of this writing. It has left many wondering what is going on and why these criminals think they could possibly get Bitcoin out of municipal facilities.
“Last year I got a bunch of strange emails demanding Bitcoin. I wonder if it’s the same people?”
“Asahi City Hall was also threatened for Bitcoin, but they don’t have any Bitcoin in the first place.”
“There was a bomb threat in my area last week. I heard they demanded Bitcoin but no one paid and nothing happened. It’s pretty annoying.”
“My hometown got a threat. They probably want Bitcoin because it’s coming from outside the country.”
Although it’s not clear at this point, the theory that these emails are coming from abroad would certainly explain the choice in currency and lack of common knowledge about how behind the times Japanese bureaucracy can be.
Source: J-Cast News
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© SoraNews24
22 Comments
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alana
From my previous experience its not that easy to get back a lost it stolen bitcoin because these scammers are very smart and they will cover their tracks but if you manage to find a trustworthy and reliable Recovery company, I said trustworthy and reliable because many scammers are out there disguising as Recovery agents and will only take your money without recovering your bitcoin, I was a victim of such myself after loosing my bitcoin to an investment scam I sort for help and I met few recovery agents and was scammed by a particular one again. Luckily for me I was referred to a company on telegram. You can send a complaint mail to fightingscams(@)AOL{.}com, he should be able to help you. They Recovered my stolen bitcoin after risking a token to their Recovery program. It was worth it in the end.
Strangerland
As are cash and banks. What is your point here?
sf2k
proof again that Bitcoin is a coupon for criminals; only valuable when converted
Otacon512
Are you under the illusion that fiat currency isn't digital? Because 99% of it is just ones and zeroes on a bank server somewhere.
Yup, those $10 would have been a rather nice $11,500 today.
commanteer
You don't keep up with the news much, do you?
Goodlucktoyou
Bejesus! A while back my friend told me to buy Bitcoins when they were $10. 40 Bitcoin now equals $500000???
Stewie
Sending an extortion email ? Really? This is Japan, we only deal with fax machine please.
kohakuebisu
If I read my junk email, I get messages every day asking for Bitcoin in return for someone destroying a video of me watching porn that they claim to have taken with my computer's non-existent webcam.
This is just the Nigeria thing again. It must be a slow news day.
nandakandamanda
PS And Bitcoin needs to be talked up.
nandakandamanda
Possibly someone who has invested in Bitcoin needing to get more publicity for it since it dropped out of the headlines. (Requiring massive amounts of power it is not especially environmentally friendly).
Ego Sum Lux Mundi
You know very well why, stop being coy.
Alfie Noakes
Astonishing, isn't it. Trillions of dollars laundered by global banks and there's virtually no coverage at all in the corporate media. Why could that be?
Erik Morales
here come the russian hackers!
timeon
Quite possibly the same scammers who kept sending me for a while emails about monitoring my computer, and asking bitcoins to erase the logs. I guess they target anybody with a public address. They were obviously foreigners because of the broken Japanese used; and their claims of releasing screen shots with the porn I was supposedly watching were weak, they should know that most of the people don't/can't watch porn on the company laptop.
Yubaru
I am surprised it even made it into their in-boxes.
since1981
Yup, let's go digital. Trust me, it's safe.
sf2k
ActiveX protection through antiquity
kurisupisu
The theory is based on what?
ISP addresses?
Emails written in a foreign language?
Speculation is not news...