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Monday 18 March 2019

"Central Intelligence Agency - Case #79238516" extortion spam

I've seen various extortion spams over the past 12 months or so, but this one has a particularly vicious twist.

If you haven't seen one of these before - it's just a spam, randomly sent to your email address. You can safely ignore it.

From:    Liza Guest [liza-guest@eosj.cia-gov-it.tk]
Reply-To:    liza-guest@eosj.cia-gov-it.tk
To:    [redacted]
Date:    18 Mar 2019, 06:33
Subject:    Central Intelligence Agency - Case #79238516

Case #79238516
Distribution and storage of pornographic electronic materials involving underage children.
   
   
My name is Liza Guest and I am a technical collection officer working for Central Intelligence Agency.
   
It has come to my attention that your personal details including your email address ([redacted]) are listed in case #79238516.
   
The following details are listed in the document's attachment:
   
  • Your personal details,
  • Home address,
  • Work address,
  • List of relatives and their contact information.
   
   
Case #79238516 is part of a large international operation set to arrest more than 2000 individuals suspected of paedophilia in 27 countries.
   
The data which could be used to acquire your personal information:
   
  • Your ISP web browsing history,
  • DNS queries history and connection logs,
  • Deep web .onion browsing and/or connection sharing,
  • Online chat-room logs,
  • Social media activity log.
   
The first arrests are scheduled for April 8, 2019.
   
Why am I contacting you ?
   
I read the documentation and I know you are a wealthy person who may be concerned about reputation.
   
I am one of several people who have access to those documents and I have enough security clearance to amend and remove your details from this case. Here is my proposition.
   
Transfer exactly $10,000 USD (ten thousand dollars - about 2.5 BTC) through Bitcoin network to this special bitcoin address:
   
3QTV16BBsaEBVuwZv8wCjEgWZTKVVQPJ3h
   
You can transfer funds with online bitcoin exchanges such as Coinbase, Bitstamp or Coinmama. The deadline is March 27, 2019 (I need few days to access and edit the files).
   
Upon confirming your transfer I will take care of all the files linked to you and you can rest assured no one will bother you.
   
Please do not contact me. I will contact you and confirm only when I see the valid transfer.
   
Regards,
Liza Guest
   
Technical Collection Officer
Directorate of Science and Technology
Central Intelligence Agency

Another version comes "from" tannerlynch@oiks.cia-gov-it.gq and solicits payments to 32ngJWq6YYGUfvCbj3Ji7MNSnqi3rdM5qa. There are probably others. At the time of writing, neither of these two Bitcoin wallets had received any payment.