DHL-ERPRESTER wants 10 million euros in bitcoins

DHL-ERPRESTER wants 10 million euros in bitcoins

One could have guessed it: the extortionist who sent a nail bomb near the Potsdam Christmas market with the post. Thanks to Bitcoin, blackmails will be chic again?

It is not the first time that someone tries to blackmail bitcoins. We only had a food presser in June, and Bitcoin blackmailed ransomware has been a plague for years, which sometimes also affects hospitals and Deutsche Bahn. Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies are a good currency for blackmailers because they simplify the transfer of money very much. This is nothing new.

However, the dimension of blackmail. Someone sends a package with nail and firecrackers – a nail bomb – near the Potsdam Christmas market, of all people to a pharmacy. The bomb was built in such a way that when you open the package you may exploded. However, the pharmacist noticed strange wires, which stood out of the crevices of the package opening. After hearing a hiss when he started to open the package carefully, he preferred to have it closed and informed the police.

In the package, in addition to the nails, firecrackers and a detonator, the police also found a QR code through which the blackmailer had encoded his claim. The DHL should pay 10 million euros in Bitcoin. Otherwise, further bombs are sent nationwide. According to the news, the extortionist has already sent a similar package to an electric dealer in Frankfurt an der Oder. The dealer has opened the package, which causes this to get on fire. It seems as if the blackmailer is not an experienced bomb builder.

The police expect that there will be further package bombs. Small companies, but also private individuals, are asked to exercise caution when accepting packages. If you have not expected a package, the sender is unknown or there are other abnormalities, such as outstanding wires, you should rather call the police and the package meanwhile put the package in a place where it is far away from other people. In Ulm, an employee of a company in a commercial area followed this request this morning after accepting a suspicious package. The police arrived, evacuated the building and even blocked the access roads to the city center. In the end it was a false alarm, it was advertising.

The blackmail plays with the fears of the population. It is no coincidence that a Christmas market near the capital should have been the first goal. One of the first major terrorist attacks in Germany took place here a year ago. The Potsdam Christmas market was immediately sealed off after the discount of the package and only reopened a few days later. The blackmail also plays with a civil right- the letter and package secret. If Big Brother searched for a reason to reduce the letter of mail – then he found it at the latest now.

The role of Bitcoin in this disgusting drama cannot be talked away. A cryptocurrency like Bitcoin coapes any physical connection in the transfer of money, without, such as bank transfers or other uniform means of payment, a trail to the addressee. The fact that the blackmail has a Bitcoin address says nothing, nothing at all, about him. Bitcoin does, even that cannot be talked small, blackmails are attractive again.

With Bitcoin you can receive money anonymously. But what you can’t do – and what is not quite aware of it is to send money anonymously. If the DHL pays, the extortionist should still feel the consequences of the lack of anonymity of Bitcoin. Because the address to which the bitcoins go will certainly be marked. As soon as the blackmail moves it, for example to sell them against euros, you will follow the trace of the coins. Probably the blackmail would be caught at some point if he deposits the coins on a stock exchange – or he would leave them in his wallet for a long time, where they would actually increase the already large amount of lost bitcoins.