Bitcoin scammers target wealthy, threaten to expose ‘secret’

CHEVY CHASE, Md. – Men in a wealthy Washington suburb have been receiving letters threatening to expose their dark secrets to their wives.

The problem, The Washington Post reports , is some of these men don’t even have wives.

The letters are part of a growing scam that tries to extort people for Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that’s hard to track.

FBI Washington Field Office spokesman Andrew Ames says these scammers tend to flood high-income neighbourhoods, trying to fool at least one person.

Jeff Strohl says he received a Nashville-postmarked letter from “GreySquare15” demanding a Bitcoin “confidentiality fee” worth $15,750. After his initial shock, he figured it was a scam. He posted about it on a community listserv to find he was far from the only Chevy Chase resident to receive such letters.

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com