Extortion Emails Targeting Physicians

Since March 5, 2011, the IC3 has received over 50 complaints reporting extortion emails targeting professionals, mainly physicians. Victims were told complaints had been filed against them and posted online, claiming they were facing prison for sexual indecency. Also posted were the victims’ names, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses. The victims were told “these types of comments will destroy your reputation and are permanently archived on search engine sites; you will lose thousands of dollars in revenue with a bad reputation.” Victims were also told the sender could “convince the people who posted the comments to remove them”; however, the removal fee was $250 USD.
The IC3 also received complaints from individuals residing in Asia who claimed they were hired to write complaints, collect “complaint reports,” and add them to website. Individuals reported that the subject also had job ads posted on Asian online classified job sites looking for writers for the website.
The complainants claimed they were promised $10 USD for each post on a weekly basis via an online payment service or check/money order. One reportedly did 150 posts in one week; however, the subject neither paid the complainants nor responded to their emails.
Workers also stated that the subject uses various aliases and hired another company, which they believe he owns, to remove the complaints.