Cybercrime is far from a new phenomenon. This is equally true in the world of cryptocurrency. From hacking into crypto wallets to duping others of cryptocurrency, there is little limit to what crimes can be committed over the internet.
Cryptocurrency is an easy target as the nature of crypto often makes it harder to track.
Cheapair.com, a site that deals in airplane tickets at a reduced price, recently learned about this the hard way as they are currently being blackmailed for the cryptocurrency.
Being Threatened
In a post on their official blog on August 28, Cheapair.com revealed that they are being blackmailed in exchange for $10,000 in Bitcoin.
While they did not name the blackmailers, they did reveal that the blackmail came with the threat of a social media smear campaign.
The people in question have threatened to start a campaign on social media designed to spread false information about the site and damage its relationship with new and existing customers.
Working of the CampaignÂ
The blackmailers made it a point of duty to outline what exactly they intend to do to ruin cheapair.com’s reputation.
First, they intend to share negative ratings and replies on their social media pages. Many brands interact with and respond to customer complaints and feedback on their social media pages.
These negative remarks aim to give potential customers on social media a negative image of cheapair.com and discourage business.
They also intend to post negative reviews of cheapair.com on review sites such as Trustpilot. These sites are created to help consumers make informed decisions on various businesses.
By swarming their profiles on these sites with negative reviews, they aim to discredit cheapair.com even in the eyes of those who have already patronized them in the past.
Lastly, they intend to ruin cheapair.com’s SEO ranking by spamming their blog anchor links with anchor texts that are SEO unfriendly and vulgar. This is designed to hopefully get Cheapair.com banned by Google and make sure they do not show up in search engine result.
The Plans
To their credit, cheapair.com does not plan to take these threats lying down.
They have put out a statement on their official blog informing their users of the threat and letting them know that whatever negative content they might see on their pages shortly is fabricated.
They have also stated that they have no plans to pay the blackmailers and will carry on business as usual while looking for a way to resolve the problem.
