Nanaimo RCMP issued warnings after a series of attempted scams in recent weeks in which the scammer claimed to have compromising images and demanded payment.
In a press release, police outlined three similar cases. In the first case, a male complainant received a threatening e-mail from someone who claimed to be in possession of "compromising videos and photos taken from the complainant's dark web activities." The blackmailer said if he didn't receive a $2,000 bitcoin payment, he would send the images to the complainant's e-mail contacts. The scammer knew the complainant's full name, phone number and street address, presumably through hacking, and included a street view image of the complainant's property.
"The complainant told police he had no dark web content and would ignore the e-mail. He did, though, want others to be made aware," police noted.
The second and third reports were nearly identical, with the scammer claiming possession of compromising pictures and video of online activities, providing street view images of the complainants' residences, and demanding bitcoin payment. The third complainant told police that his wife works at a large company that had its personnel database hacked, and suspected that was how the scammer obtained the personal information.
Anyone who has information on any of these incidents is asked call the Nanaimo RCMP non-emergency line at 250-754-2345 and cite file No. 2024-30628, 2024-30653 or 2024-30670.
For more information about other current frauds and scams, visit http://antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca.
