Ha, I have to laugh. I got the following email to an address I setup as a bogus email address for a website I didn't want to use my real one on.
"Good morning...
Do not pay attention on my English, Im foreign.We put mine malicious program onto your system.Now I thiefted all individual information from your OS. Additionally I received slightly more then just data.The most amusing evidence that I received- its a videotape with your masturbation.I put deleterious soft on a porn web site and after you installed it. The moment you chose the video and pressed play, my malicious software instantly loaded on your system.
After setup, your front-camera made the videotape with you masturbating, additionally I saved the porn video you masturbated on. In next week my malicious software collected all your social and work contacts.
If you wish to eliminate all the evidence- pay me 580 usd in BTC(cryptocurrency). Its my Btc number - 13yDLUKctXXSvuDd94SN2iHPk2fBLV5SzyBS
You have 24 hours from this moment. When I see transaction I will destroy the video evermore. Otherwise I will send the video to all your friends.
"
Now, I am all for innovation, but really? I can't give money to someone that can't spell correctly.
Do you think the spammer would be upset if I transferred Bitcoin and the exchange rate wasn't exactly $580 USD?
Should I be ashamed that footage of me is only worth $580? I would have hoped for more.
In all seriousness, I wonder how many people do get scammed by this sort of stuff! I guess it costs the spammer nothing to send out the email and if only one in a thousand send money...
One thing people don't realise is that these bitcoin addresses are actually quite traceable.
it may not be known who set this address up but eventually if they do get paid and want the money they have to transfer it to either another address which can be traced easily and is recorded as proof. Or alternatively to an exchange where they have to have 100 point I'd. Both are traceable.
Bitcoin transactions are a lot harder to trace than a bank transfer but in saying that it's really only the difference between walking and running. Just as easy to see but more time consuming to confirm.
Interesting that the biggest bitcoin wallet other than the wallet of it's creator (and master data miner) is the FBI (approx. US$100m)
Select to expand quotePaddles B'mere said..
Interesting that the biggest bitcoin wallet other than the wallet of it's creator (and master data miner) is the FBI (approx. US$100m)
Ponderings... Is it the FBI sending out the scam emails because they get all the 'bating videos direct from the NSA?
I wonder at what point we will have to turn it off due to the power bill. Environment won't be able to handle to cost of mining something intangible. Quite ironic.....
www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/17/bitcoin-electricity-usage-huge-climate-cryptocurrency
Killing ourselves with cleverness...... ?
internet - waaayyyy off its original intent.
bitcoin- likewise. The design was brilliant - to make it appreciate as money does, through being harder to make as time goes on, was the thing that made it possible to use as currency. Seems that will be the undoing of it though, its becoming untenable
The 'dot com' crash came when idiots who picked upon anything new n cool realised that their owning intangible things only lasted so long and domains were not worth what they had paid, and it was borderline for Ponzi scheme....... tech investing in itself to pay itself in vicious circles and people trying to get rich. I wonder when alll the quids will be lost on bitcoin 
Select to expand quoteFormulaNova said..
Now, I am all for innovation, but really? I can't give money to someone that can't spell correctly.
The mistakes are intentional; they weed out the smart people. Too hard to deal with. Nigerians do this too. Actually it's pretty common with scammers, they only want idiots.
However, that's not even a valid bitcoin address:
blockchain.info/search?search=13yDLUKctXXSvuDd94SN2iHPk2fBLV5SzyBS
"I wonder when all the quids will be lost on bitcoin?" - when no one wants it, ie when no-one can use it
You're right there Chris, it's not like you can go and bury it in a paddock like Pablo Escobar.
Select to expand quoteMark _australia said..
I wonder at what point we will have to turn it off due to the power bill. Environment won't be able to handle to cost of mining something intangible. Quite ironic.....
The vast majority of bitcoin mining farms use renewable energy, and/or at night, when it's cheapest. Hydro never turns off.
The fiat system requires all the electricity for all the banks and all the credit cards and all the support systems for those systems and all the support systems required for all the people that run and support those systems.
Here are some gold mines:
Imagine the above images were the result of bitcoin mines. You'd rightfully flip your lid!
But it's gold, so you aren't flipping your lid.
Why not?
^^^ I am not flipping my lid about bitcoin either..... I am just saying it had unintentional consequences. Everybody goes on and on about the new thing like its an iPhone11 and seem to not know how it really works.
We need to figure out how we will deal with the massive impost on the power grid ........ and saying it is renewable is not necessarily an answer. The other way to put it is, "bit coin mining is using up all our renewable...."
Maybe if we knew how the gold / diamonds etc crap would eventually go, we'd have done things differently in the past.
(I doubt it, as greed wins)
So when currently bitcoin creation (which is only for profit) uses more power than Ireland why are they smacking the average guy in his 3x2 house with ever increasing power bills and making him feel like a paedophile for turning on the aircon or daring not to car pool?
Ironically also the pics of large scale mining show why renewable energy will not power the world as we have to dig up the rare earths and minerals 2000km from nowhere to make the solar panels and batteries and so on.....
Lastly - why are the Left types protesting against all manner of things capitalist, but not bitcoin's wastage of power when we have a perfectly acceptable monetary system? It seems a frivolous and unnecessary pursuit when one considers cash and EFT works. But thats not what geeks get excited about is it....
Select to expand quoteevlPanda said..Mark _australia said..
I wonder at what point we will have to turn it off due to the power bill. Environment won't be able to handle to cost of mining something intangible. Quite ironic.....
The vast majority of bitcoin mining farms use renewable energy, and/or at night, when it's cheapest. Hydro never turns off.
The fiat system requires all the electricity for all the banks and all the credit cards and all the support systems for those systems and all the support systems required for all the people that run and support those systems.
Here are some gold mines:
Imagine the above images were the result of bitcoin mines. You'd rightfully flip your lid!
But it's gold, so you aren't flipping your lid.
Why not?
Ah, but bitcoins are made from the capitalist system that creates the ability to make them through technology founded on mineral exploitation
Select to expand quoteevlPanda said..FormulaNova said..
Now, I am all for innovation, but really? I can't give money to someone that can't spell correctly.
The mistakes are intentional; they weed out the smart people. Too hard to deal with. Nigerians do this too. Actually it's pretty common with scammers, they only want idiots.
However, that's not even a valid bitcoin address:
blockchain.info/search?search=13yDLUKctXXSvuDd94SN2iHPk2fBLV5SzyBS
Yes, I know. I remember reading an article on that, and it makes a lot of sense. If people self select for dumbness, it cuts down on the intelligent people you would have to otherwise wade through.
Yes, I munged the bitcoin address. Take the BS off the end, and its the one that was in the email I got. I tend to do that to URLs too in case someone makes the mistake of wanting to use them.
Hang on, I have a guy on the phone from Microsoft, in India by the sound of it, and it seems I have a virus on my PC, so I had better go talk to him.... 
Select to expand quoteMark _australia said..
So when currently bitcoin creation (which is only for profit) uses more power than Ireland why are they smacking the average guy in his 3x2 house with ever increasing power bills and making him feel like a paedophile for turning on the aircon or daring not to car pool?
Well, this 'lefty' thinks that the reason electricity prices are going up is because governments keep selling electricity assets to private enterprise, with the argument of 'it will be cheaper' and then allowing the new private owners to set their prices so that they pay a motza for the asset in the first place.
Its funny how all those things work. Somehow selling to private enterprise should make it cheaper/more efficient/and more reliable, all at the same time.
Even if electricity was cheap, the providers would be charging you $10 a day in service availability charges anyway just to make their bottom line.
(Yes, and Bitcoin is only for speculators. Like Australian property investment.)
Select to expand quoteMark _australia said..
We need to figure out how we will deal with the massive impost on the power grid ........ and saying it is renewable is not necessarily an answer. The other way to put it is, "bit coin mining is using up all our renewable...."
When you plug your hair-dryer in (I imagine Mark with long, luscious hair blowing in a stiff Seabreeze, gazing out to sea) it doesn't send a signal to the power station to produce more electricity.
etc.
A pool pump is about the equivalent of, say, a DragonMint 16T.
www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/mining/hardware/
Ditto air conditioning, playstations, Telstra boxes (worse than a fridge), and electric cars.
As you'll see you need cheap electricity to be profitable; you're not adding to peak hour productivity because it's too expensive. A renewable source like hydro is wasted at night because nobody is using it and it can't be stored, nor turned off. Ditto wind.
Look, it's not as good as zero electricity, but it's blown out of proportion because hyperbole and emotionally baited headlines. There's an argument at least that it is a lot, lot lighter on electricity than the current financial system as a whole.
It could be better.
Select to expand quoteevlPanda said..
I imagine Mark with long, luscious hair
Dunno if Mark can remember that far back
I got a similar message from a Cnineeze, and now my computer is plundered by badware...
Salute! I guess that this letter is totally surprising for you! I have displeasing news! Previous time when you visited adults web portal, you laptop computer was attacked by badware. Given`Above mentioned program forced front camera of yours laptop computer.And now I have damaging information against you. On the vidoerecord you jerk. Very soon thebadware will have entrance to yours contact numbers. And it will deliver videorecord to your lovely and dear. If you want to check it? Then you must give me 362 U.S. dollars in BTC cryptocurrency. Its my Bitcoin number - 1JxppXsU3EJ4ERDdXFSz7zi9xmcGShw4cT Make haste! I can wait just 24 hours!Sorry for grammar- I my native language is Cnineeze. I have plundered hobbled it this electronic address.It is not main email! Please don't reply to this email.
You had better be careful of that badware!
I like the use of 'haste'. I guess in this case it is an accurate use of the word.
