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For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

nytimes.com

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Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#11

Post by chrisper »

nadams wrote: post #5
sorrythrowaway9 wrote: post #3

I know this is not 100% specific to this article, but this is happening right now to a friend of mine's gmail account. Scammer was able to social engineer the cell phone company to forward his number, then did a password reset, and locked him out of his account. 20BTC Ransom. He followed every single google customer service link/resource he could find and tried to reset link, which said they would contact him in 3-5…

I'm sorry if this sounds like me being a jerk - that's not my goal. I just want to point out cold hard facts. > but this is happening right now to a friend of mine's gmail account I can't stress this enough but please enable OTP on your accounts. Facebook, gmail, and even your Windows system if you are paranoid enough. Yeah it adds some hassle - but the value of increased security far outweighs the hassle. Also backu…

The non-existent support problem exists also with other Google products, even when you pay. For example, I used to use Google Nearline. I pay the storage fees etc., but I cannot even contact some basic support without buying a support package which cost quite a lot. So for now I deleted all my data there.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#12

Post by sorrythrowaway9 »

o87dv wrote: post #9
sorrythrowaway9 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cellphone provider was sprint. My friend is a paid customer of Google Apps. In part of the process he called called Google Apps, and they immediately disabled his Apps account but -- but they couldn't or wouldn't do anything else including helping him escalate to the right people -- They said they did not know who to contact. Eventually after he called back several times, he got a manager/supervisor who was able…

He is a paying customer... wow unbelievable. Why can the police/FBI help in this case, given all the threads and demands? Were they contacted and informed of the situation?

Yes he has a FBI complaint id and met with them. Basically the FBI said there is nothing they can do. I'm going to get him to contact the journalist for this article and see if there is another FBI agent he can work with. Sprint wouldn't work with him at all and only after dozens of calls did they start to help him get his number back. (The entire number was in the process of being ported). We didn't even think about him being SWAT'd until I read this article. The threats were specifically towards his parents. If anybody has any suggestions please let me know.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#13

Post by rwallace »

nadams wrote: post #5
sorrythrowaway9 wrote: post #3

I know this is not 100% specific to this article, but this is happening right now to a friend of mine's gmail account. Scammer was able to social engineer the cell phone company to forward his number, then did a password reset, and locked him out of his account. 20BTC Ransom. He followed every single google customer service link/resource he could find and tried to reset link, which said they would contact him in 3-5…

I'm sorry if this sounds like me being a jerk - that's not my goal. I just want to point out cold hard facts. > but this is happening right now to a friend of mine's gmail account I can't stress this enough but please enable OTP on your accounts. Facebook, gmail, and even your Windows system if you are paranoid enough. Yeah it adds some hassle - but the value of increased security far outweighs the hassle. Also backu…

> It's a free service - what do you expect?

No reasonable person expects support for free, but relying heavily on a free service would be a lot less scary if there was an option to get customer support for $100, refundable if they can't solve your problem. At the moment there doesn't seem to be a middle ground between 'behave like a company and open a commercial account before you know there's going to be a problem' and 'if a problem does arise there's nothing you can do for any price'.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#14

Post by superuser2 »

chrisper wrote: post #10
o87dv wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully the next step is going to be switching from Google to a different provider.

Do you know any good alternative? I was thinking about self hosting and just use google as a relay.

fastmail.fm is where people disillusioned with GMail traditionally go.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#15

Post by nadams »

sorrythrowaway9 wrote: post #7
nadams wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry if this sounds like me being a jerk - that's not my goal. I just want to point out cold hard facts. > but this is happening right now to a friend of mine's gmail account I can't stress this enough but please enable OTP on your accounts. Facebook, gmail, and even your Windows system if you are paranoid enough. Yeah it adds some hassle - but the value of increased security far outweighs the hassle. Also backu…

The cellphone provider was sprint. My friend is a paid customer of Google Apps. In part of the process he called called Google Apps, and they immediately disabled his Apps account but -- but they couldn't or wouldn't do anything else including helping him escalate to the right people -- They said they did not know who to contact. Eventually after he called back several times, he got a manager/supervisor who was able…

> My friend is a paid customer of Google Apps. In part of the process he called called Google Apps, and they immediately disabled his Apps account but -- but they couldn't or wouldn't do anything else including helping him escalate to the right people

I would be calling sales and support until I got someone who could do something. I would call any number related to Google - including for services not even related to gmail.

> Meanwhile the scammer is making threats to his family and pretending to be him send out emergency BTC loan requests and resetting bank passwords.

But if his account is disabled how is the scammer sending out emails?

> He could be SWAT'd at any moment.

That is very unlikely and if it did it would have to churn through the legal system first.

> a trivial 5 minute look at the account and seeing the ransom artist texting him

That is a sticky situation - many would argue that Google shouldn't read another user's email. And that's probably why support is an issue.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#16

Post by feld »

superuser2 wrote: post #14
chrisper wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know any good alternative? I was thinking about self hosting and just use google as a relay.

fastmail.fm is where people disillusioned with GMail traditionally go.

can't say enough good things about fastmail

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#17

Post by ikeboy »

rwallace wrote: post #13
nadams wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry if this sounds like me being a jerk - that's not my goal. I just want to point out cold hard facts. > but this is happening right now to a friend of mine's gmail account I can't stress this enough but please enable OTP on your accounts. Facebook, gmail, and even your Windows system if you are paranoid enough. Yeah it adds some hassle - but the value of increased security far outweighs the hassle. Also backu…

> It's a free service - what do you expect? No reasonable person expects support for free, but relying heavily on a free service would be a lot less scary if there was an option to get customer support for $100, refundable if they can't solve your problem. At the moment there doesn't seem to be a middle ground between 'behave like a company and open a commercial account before you know there's going to be a problem'…

Iirc you are able to get priority support for resetting a Google password if you pay.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#18

Post by rwallace »

ikeboy wrote: post #17
rwallace wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a free service - what do you expect? No reasonable person expects support for free, but relying heavily on a free service would be a lot less scary if there was an option to get customer support for $100, refundable if they can't solve your problem. At the moment there doesn't seem to be a middle ground between 'behave like a company and open a commercial account before you know there's going to be a problem'…

Iirc you are able to get priority support for resetting a Google password if you pay.

That would certainly be good news! I don't suppose you remember any references to how?

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#19

Post by sorrythrowaway9 »

nadams wrote: post #15
sorrythrowaway9 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cellphone provider was sprint. My friend is a paid customer of Google Apps. In part of the process he called called Google Apps, and they immediately disabled his Apps account but -- but they couldn't or wouldn't do anything else including helping him escalate to the right people -- They said they did not know who to contact. Eventually after he called back several times, he got a manager/supervisor who was able…

> My friend is a paid customer of Google Apps. In part of the process he called called Google Apps, and they immediately disabled his Apps account but -- but they couldn't or wouldn't do anything else including helping him escalate to the right people I would be calling sales and support until I got someone who could do something. I would call any number related to Google - including for services not even related to…

the ransom artist is in full control of the account and sending out emails and text (through google voice) as him. His account is not disabled. The google Apps access account is not the same as his Gmail account, that is where you might be confused. The apps access is disabled. He is an active member of the bitcoin community just like the two bitcoin members mentioned in the article, where one of them got swatted, for about the same ransom amount. It could be related. Obviously he was targeted to some extent because the attacker knew he had BTC. Google Gmail end user license agreement specifically allows google to read your emails. My point is they could do a better job, they just don't care. You can't trust them, they don't have any financial incentive to treat you as a real human person. Right now Google ads is happily serving ads to right of my friend's gmail account while ransom artist is using the account, and google is making money off those clicks -- that's all they care about. Ultimately, there is no human dimension in their company vision.

Re: For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills

#20

Post by fallat »

roflchoppa wrote: post #6
o87dv wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully the next step is going to be switching from Google to a different provider.

Yeah thats one way to address the issue (or even using multiple emails), but you know what's even better than that? Having competent customer support, that would be able to address situations like this. Esp. with the amount of people that are using these home automation services with "cloud" support, its only going to get worse the more integrated these services become. My friend has had a similar situation with the…

What are more companies like Valve? Seriously...
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