alt Hacker NewsIt seems to me that extortion is incredibly difficult to prevent. I imagine most people have weak spots that are potentially exploitable with only a few weeks of effort.
So I have to wonder why it isn’t more common, and why spam emails and spam callers are still widely used when it clearly has greater exposure risk.
Is it that the punishment for spam is more relaxed than the punishment for targeted extortion? Or maybe targeted extortion would reveal more about the criminal? Perhaps spam emails, while highly exposed, do offer some level of anonymity that is greater than extortion. Or perhaps the thieves prefer to live stable lives and extorting people in a specific area would make them a greater target.
Just trying to figure out why spam emails is still a thing.
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TBF as the author has pointed out, this particular scam doesn't seem to work at all - he has received multiple different bitcoin addresses to send money to over the years and none of them have ever received any money. So extortion might be difficult to prevent, but this one seems to be relatively benign.
I thought about this as if I was starting my own scam-ring. Targeting individuals by cornering them into desperate situations may be more lucrative, but, in a matter of time, will lead to very real threats made against you. Spamming random email addresses fishing for the weakest seems like a better long-term play. Though it would be wise to never underestimate who you are targeting, simpler minded targets will always be easier.