UK police received 562 complaints of Bitcoin-related extortion in the past two years

A large number of cases have occurred in some areas

The statement said that the North Yorkshire Police in England received a significant increase in reports of Bitcoin extortion in 2019. The agency reported only six incidents in 2018, but 115 in 2019.

A report suggests that in a malicious ransomware attack, hackers locked all of a user's business data. They then demanded Bitcoin as a fee to unlock the data, threatening to increase the price if the victim did not pay within a certain period of time.

Another report revealed that if the victim did not provide BTC, the perpetrators threatened to release their private information to the public.

Some regions face high concentrations of hacker attacks

Reports show that several regions have high numbers of Bitcoin-related crimes, including Greater Manchester Police with 89 cases, Hertfordshire with 82 cases and Leicestershire with 21 cases.

Andrew Martin, CEO of Retail Financial Consulting, said in the statement:

“The rising tide of digital financial crime will send shivers down the spine of consumers, who are already acutely aware of the risks of fraud and extortion by malicious hackers.”

The incidents highlight the risks associated with virtual currencies, which are often an easy way for anonymous third parties to extort money from victims without detection.

Martin added: “Looking further ahead, the big banks should recognise that the aggressive push towards a cashless society is forcing many people to try new forms of investing, some of which carry significant risks.”

“Restricting consumers’ access to cash limits choice and leaves many in our society behind in this increasingly dangerous online world, which can only be a bad thing.”

According to the figures, Bitcoin extortion accounted for about 4% of all extortion incidents in the UK between 2018 and 2019. In the other 96% of cases, the extortionists demanded traditional currencies.

Source: Cointelegraph

Solemn statement: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. The article is reproduced for the purpose of spreading more information. If the author information is marked incorrectly, please contact us as soon as possible to modify or delete it. Thank you.