An adultery blackmail scam is underway in Florida, the FBI warned on Monday after receiving numerous complaints from people receiving threatening letters, CBS News reported.
It starts with an anonymous letter sent by a scammer claiming to have evidence that the recipient has committed adultery, the FBI Jacksonville Division said in a statement.
The scammer then demands that a payment be made and threatens to make the "evidence" available to the recipient's spouse, family and friends should he or she not comply and insists on payment being made in bitcoin, a crypto currency, in order to avoid detection.
One of these letters in the blackmail scam was obtained by WLTX.
In the correspondence, the scammer claims to know about "the secret you're keeping from your wife and everyone else," adding "I have evidence of what you've been hiding."
The FBI said it is not clear how widespread this particular scam is but similar letters have been reported to law enforcement agencies across the country.
The scam is also not new, but has evolved as scammers change their tactics, the FBI said.
It is not said how the scammer decides on who to target, and it may just be at random, but many have been duped by the scam which leads to the question — is it pure coincidence? And how do victims fall for it?
One resident, Dave Eargle, offered some clarity on what goes through the minds of the victims.
Earlier this year the happily, and faithfully, married assistant professor at University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business, was targeted by a similar scam and found a note in his mailbox, CNBC reported.
"I had to think for a second because I was in a bit of a fluster, 'Am I actually keeping a secret from my wife?'" he said. "It was scary because I felt like I was being targeted."
He added that "the cost of an incorrect guess about someone being unfaithful is … the cost of a stamp these days, 50 cents... That's not bad odds for an attacker."
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