Back story on how Roger Ver did it:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2642600/Are-going-order-hitman-kill-Digital-currency-millionaire-known-The-Bitcoin-Jesus-turns-tables-blackmailer-placing-20-000-online-bounty-head.html'Are you going to order a hitman to kill me now?' Digital millionaire 'Bitcoin Jesus' turns tables on blackmailer by placing $20,000 online 'bounty' on his head
- Hacker 'Nitrous' had seized control of email account belonging to Roger Ver
- He threatened to sell-on his personal information unless ransom was paid
- But Ver offered reward on Facebook offering same sum for Nitrous's capture
- Terrified Nitrous quickly backed down offering cowering apology
- Mr Ver is believed to have amassed a small fortune through Bitcoin currency
- It is linked to the SilkRoad marketplace where hitmen are offered for sale
By DANIEL MILLER
PUBLISHED: 04:05 EST, 29 May 2014 | UPDATED: 08:35 EST, 29 May 2014
A millionaire businessman known as 'The Bitcoin Jesus' turned the tables on a hacker who was attempting to blackmail him by offering $20,000 worth of the digital currency as a reward for his capture.
U.S. born Roger Ver has amassed a small fortune in Bitcoins after investing heavily from 2011 and using the currency, which has since exploded in value, to back a number of start-up firms.
But last week he received a threatening message from a hacker known as Nitrous who had taken control of an old Hotmail account using it to steal personal information including Mr Ver's social security and passport numbers.
Nitrous then threatened to sell the information to fraudsters unless Mr Ver paid him 37 bitcoins - worth a cool $20,000, Wired magazine reports.
Although Mr Ver is believed to be easily be able to afford such a sum, he refused to pay up and instead used Facebook to offer the same amount as a reward for information that would lead to Nitrous's arrest.
While Bitcoin is often trumpeted as simply being a libertarian currency and way to move money across international boundaries it is heavily linked to the sinister online marketplace SilkRoad where drugs, guns and even hitmen are offered for sale.
Soon after the bounty was placed on Facebook a clearly terrifed Nitrous backed down contacting Mr Ver with a cowering apology.
He wrote: 'Sir, I am sincerely sorry. I am just a middleman. I was being told what to tell you.
'Are you going to order a hitman to kill me now?'
Response: Mr Ver posted this message on Facebook after which the hacker quickly backed down
It was a far cry from the blackmailer's original messages in which he brazenly threatened to exploit Mr Ver after seizing control of the old email account which Mr Ver had used several years ago to register the internet domain memorydealers.com for his computer parts business.
After taking over the account Nitrous was not only able to access Mr Ver's personal information but also that of his mother which he threatened to sell to 'fraudsters' who would 'ruin both of your lives'.
'I think we both know this won’t be pleasent [sic] and let’s be honest: there is nothing you can do to have me caught. I’ve been around too long,' Nitrous wrote, before adding: 'I have to say: I respect you as a BTC user/icon.
'Let's be honest I will sell your information to fraudsters that will credit f*** you then get your moms social and credit f*** her too and ruin both your lives.'
'37.6 BTC isn't worth s*** to you, the damage I cause to you financially/family-wise will be way worse than that.'
Mr Ver, who is now based in Japan, decided to stall for time, attempting to negotiate with Nitous, while he and close associate Jason Maurice, chief hacking officer of Japanese security startup Wiz Technologies, attempted to wrestle back control of the hacked accounts.
After an hour-long exchange through Skype, Nitous attempted to up the ante, threatening to 'own' Ver 10,0000 times harder.
'You Fag,' he wrote. 'Listen, my mom needs a liver transplant that starts at $15,000, man…I am so sorry for having to do this, but it’s just what I have to do.'
But Ver cooly responded by posting a link to the Facebook post offering the reward and Nitrous quickly backed down.
He then wrote: 'Sir, I am sincerely sorry I am just a middleman I was being told what to tell you.
'I was seriously being told what to tell you by someone else I don't even know what's going on.
'Please stop I am so sorry I told him that you are now going to have me killed over something he made me do I didn't even do this it was someone else.'
Mr Ver said he has not been contacted by the hacker since. In the spirit of the above, Brock Pierce suggested to the person who had their bitcoins stolen to mound a similar campaign, thus amassing the troops, so to speak, so that at least one person could reap the reward when the stolen bitcoins are returned.
The amount of bitcoins stolen was 1,132 BTC.
The person they were stolen from was me, Bruno Kucinskas, a.k.a. Phinnaeus Gage on this forum.
The bitcoins were stolen on April 1, 2013, during the infamous InstaWallet "hack".
The person who stole the bitcoins is David François (David Francois), a.k.a.
davout of InstaWallet/Paymium, et al. and staff on this forum.
The bitcoins resided in two URL wallets: 1,000 BTC here
https://www.instawallet.org/w/rL2DhMWW9tDvs24oFwtiq99zhh7A3ii6bg and 132 BTC here
https://www.instawallet.org/w/gZh1afVVl5aAtjNwXo0BiYChTxjwln33abI filed three claims at the earliest possible time, the other being for only 0.835 BTC. At first David François wasn't going to honor that claim in spite of offering up various proof that that wallet was indeed mine. The reason for him not wanting to do such is because he knew that the IP associated with that one URL coincided with the the other two URLs Paymium continues to not recognize.
At the onset of the InstaWallet fiasco, all three URLs didn't have a bitcoin wallet associated with the generated pages. It wasn't till after I brought it to Boussac's attention that the lesser bitcoin-containing wallet was well-document that it mysterious had the associated wallet address visible on the URL generated site. This is why they refuse to release the name of the forensics auditor(s) because there wasn't one (or more, according to Boussac), in spite of them saying they couldn't because of some fuckin' idiotic NDA clause.
InstaWallet is now officially off-line in spite of ~20K wallets yet to be refunded, with only >1K wallets returned to their rightful owners, in spite of all the principals of Paymium being refunded first.
It is well-documented that David François announced a week prior to the "hack" that he was going on vacation for a week, but not returning to this forum until April 18, 2013, leaving
Boussac - Pierre Noizat - to start and man a InstaWallet claims thread of which is now locked in spite of still owing ~20K wallet claims, according to their estimates.
After hundreds of requests, David François, et al. has refused to name the independent auditors (plural, according to Boussac, singular, according to davout, as stated on this forum) that conducted the investigation, over and beyond what the French PD supposedly conducted.
I firmly believe that my 1,132 BTC is currently residing in one of David François' fat-ass bitcoin wallets, namely
https://blockchain.info/address/16d1yGrEDqSY1xhCnAUWrkahGY2mkWdAYk, of which 1,384.35491053 BTC can still be found there.
The above address was amassed during the shutdown of InstaWallet and Bitcoin-Central, with the funds funneled to said address above via some sort of creative Bitcoin Money Laundering, i.e. one of the gambling bitcoin dice sites (not Satoshi Dice).
All three principals of Paymium have acted like assholes during the entire InstaWallet fiasco to their non-customers, a term they coined and used.
Boussac put me on ignore from the moment I entered the InstaWallet claims thread.
Davout now has me on ignore and ceased all communications with me.
Boussac was approached in Amsterdam prior to going on stage at the recent Bitcoin conference held there, and refused to discuss any of the InstaWallet claims.
Bitcoin-Central, owned by David François, is supposedly backed by a bank, when in fact it's back by Lemon Way, an app provided, who three days prior to the InstaWallet "hack" inquired on its Twitter account how to go about obtaining bitcoins, all the while being walking distance from Paymium's backdoor.
Details of the 400 BTC bounty can be seen in Post #3 of this thread, with Post #2 reserved for when I'm duly compensated.~Bruno Kucinskas
? Sending 250.000$ in exchange for 50.000$....Would be kind of stupid doesn't it?
