New Bitcoin scam warning

A Kelowna woman wants to warn others about what she describes as a disturbing scam email she recently received.

Cindy Shaw recently received an email saying her computer had been hacked and a fraudster had captured compromising photos of her. The email demanded nearly $2,000 in Bitcoin to keep the photos private, and it contained Shaw's address and a Google Street View image of her home.

"They contacted me through my Gmail, it was a PDF, so I wasn't too concerned about opening it up. But yeah, the fact that it included a picture of my home and my phone number and stuff was freaky," Shaw said.

She says she knew right away it was a scam, but her daughter works at a local bank and she has many stories about others falling for similar emails.

"I'm savvy enough to know that this is a scam, but my daughter works at a bank, so she sees all these scams all the time. She's like, 'I'm shocked at the amount of people who go in to make payments,'" says Shaw.

The scam PDF letter contained her name, email address, home address, phone number and a picture of her house.

"Look I was not caught jerking off in front of my camera. So I know that there was no possibility of it being accurate or correct," Shaw says.

"But I could see how someone could get very intimidated and for them to use facts like my address and threatening, 'I'm going to send this to your neighbours and all your contacts, and I've installed malware on your computer and your phone,' could be very disconcerting to someone who doesn't fully understand the scope of scams."

Lower Mainland RCMP have also issued a warning about what they describe as the Bitcoin extortion scam targeting residents.

RCMP warn that the fraudster contacts victims demanding approximately $2,000 in Bitcoin. The scammers threaten to release personal information — such as victims’ full address, phone number, occupation, and compromising photos — if the ransom is not paid.

Shaw says this is exactly what happened in her case and she has reported the incident to RCMP.

"These frauds are extremely distressing because they involve legitimate personal information that scammers have obtained," says Cpl. Adriana O’Malley, Richmond RCMP media relations officer.

"Thankfully, all of the victims recognized the scam and did not pay. However, with the sensitive nature of the information, it’s easy to see how someone could fall prey to such tactics."

Shaw says she knows what to do, but she was concerned enough to reach out to Castanet.

"I'll just block this person on my email. But I was like, you know the fact it just seems very threatening, they know where I live, 'I'm coming after you, you better pay me in Bitcoin.' I've not seen this scam before."

RCMP offers the following tips to help protect against online scams:

• Familiarize yourself with social media privacy settings, and consider limiting who has access to your personal information (i.e. friends list, location);
• Be skeptical of unexpected messages, especially those that attempt to pressure or scare you;
• Don’t comply with any threats;
• Cease all communication with the individual if you suspect fraud;
• Deactivate (but do not permanently delete) any accounts used to communication with the fraudster;
• Report the incident to police.

To learn more about fraud trends in Canada and ways to protect yourself click here.