Scammers switch from Ashley Madison extortion to death threats

Last week, Salted Hash reported on the extortion attempts by a group of scammers targeting the leaked Ashley Madison email list. Since that report, the extortion attempts have continued, but on Friday, the latest emails shifted from promises of leaked information and DDoS attacks, to direct death threats.

The email address delivering the death threat is the same address that delivered all the other extortion attempts; sharingservices [at] aol.com.

The previous report on this group and their scams covered the period from September 22 until October 19, 2015. Since that time, the group has sent four other emails.

On October 24, the message demanded $999 USD; otherwise a stolen sex tape would be published to a number of pornographic websites. A message sent on October 25 demanded the same amount, promising the same results if the funds were not delivered.

A second message on October 24 (three hours after the first message from the group that day) focused on the leaked Ashley Madison data.

The email sent to Salted Hash on October 30 reads as follows:

“Hey! You do not know who we are, but we have been tracking you and your loved ones for a while now. We know your schedules. We know where you all live and spend your time. We also know how to kill any one of you without being caught. Now, don’t panic. This isn’t personal. You did nothing to deserve this. You were just one of a handful of families unfortunate enough to draw our attention. However, nobody has to die. Allow us to explain.

“You have until 12:00 PM on Oct 03, 2015 to pay us $3,000. If you do not comply with that simple demand, the following will happen: we will kill you, or someone else to whom you are close. Or you can simply pay us the $3,000.”

Update: A reader has contacted Salted Hash to confirm that they received the death threat email on October 29, about six hours before our email was delivered. The wording, and sending address (including the wallet address) were the same.

Unfortunately for yours truly, the email arrived on October 30, so I’ve missed the deadline (no pun intended) by 27 days. Yet, here I am, writing an article. Perhaps I was given a reprieve?

The group delivering the messages is known as DD4BC (DDoS for Bitcoin). They’ve been connected to DDoS attacks against a number of targets in the public sector, mostly financial, but they’ve also targeted publishers and other businesses.

They first surfaced in July of 2014, and aside from their extortion attempts as of late, the group was last observed initiating DDoS attacks this past August. So far, the Ashley Madison extortion campaign has earned them nearly $30,000 USD.

The death threat email demands payment to the following Bitcoin wallet, at the time this article was written, it was empty:

19Be4i4wdDPqgqJYFD16KfBNQ8KK4HJ5p1