I Have A Friend In The CIA

I just got an email from “Joellen Branch”, a Technical Collection Officer, from the CIA, telling me that she will remove my name from a current child-porn case, and thus prevent my arrest, if I send her some bitcoin in the next few days.

It was sent from an email address with a .CF Domain Extension… which is the Central African Republic… so you KNOW it is legit.

They quote a Case Number, and have the CIA logo and everything… so I have NO DOUBT about its veracity!

; J

Here is the text:

Case #36925481

Distribution and storage of pornographic electronic materials involving underage children.

My name is Joellen Branch and I am a technical collection officer working for Central Intelligence Agency.

It has come to my attention that your personal details including your email address (my email was here) are listed in case #36925481.

The following details are listed in the document’s attachment:
• Your personal details,
• Home address,
• Work address,
• List of relatives and their contact information.

Case #36925481 is part of a large international operation set to arrest more than 2000 individuals suspected of paedophilia in 27 countries.

The data which could be used to acquire your personal information: • Your ISP web browsing history,
• DNS queries history and connection logs,
• Deep web .onion browsing and/or connection sharing,
• Online chat-room logs,
• Social media activity log.

The first arrests are scheduled for April 8, 2019.

Why am I contacting you ?

I read the documentation and I know you are a wealthy person who may be concerned about reputation.

I am one of several people who have access to those documents and I have enough security clearance to amend and remove your details from this case.

Here is my proposition.

Transfer exactly $10,000 USD (ten thousand dollars – about 2.5 BTC)
through Bitcoin network to this special bitcoin address: – REDACTED –

You can transfer funds with online bitcoin exchanges such as Coinbase, Bitstamp or Coinmama.

The deadline is March 27, 2019 (I need few days to access and edit the files).

Upon confirming your transfer I will take care of all the files linked to you and you can rest assured no one will bother you.

Please do not contact me.

I will contact you and confirm only when I see the valid transfer.

Regards, Joellen Branch

Technical Collection Officer
Directorate of Science and Technology
Central Intelligence Agency

At the top of this post, my comments are tongue-in-cheek, and may come off as being too cavalier, with regards to this email.

I am now getting several of these spam, every week, in various different incarnations… some threatening me with violence for cheating or work grudges… some threaten to expose me as a child-molester… some threaten to literally expose nude pictures of me performing explicit acts.

None of these allegations… or threats… are real.

As I have stated previously, the only “real” parts of these emails, are my email address… and the scammers bitcoin account number.
EVERYTHING ELSE (the originating email address, the threat or potential threat, are all nonsense, meant to intimidate and bully the recipient into compliance.

I have posted these emails, because they are a NEW online version of the CRA Phone Scam… and (perhaps because of the lacivious nature of the “charges” leveled in the emails) the media doesn’t seem to be alerting the public to this scam as diligently, as they have previous scams.
I have no intent of paying anyone, for anything… but am posting it, in case someone else gets it, but is concerned if the threat is real, or that their reputation may be falsely maligned.

None of the threats I have posted were real.

As I have stated previously, the only “real” parts of these emails, are my email address… and the scammers bitcoin account number. EVERYTHING ELSE (the originating email address… the threat or potential threat… and the supposed law enforcement agencies involved… are all nonsense, meant to intimidate and bully the recipient into compliance.)

I have posted these emails, because they are a NEW online version of the CRA Phone Scam.

I’m not sure why… (perhaps because of the nature of the “charges” leveled in the emails?) …but, the media doesn’t seem to be alerting the public to this scam as diligently, as they have with previous incarnations.

I have no intent of paying anyone, for anything… but am posting this version, in case someone else gets it, and is concerned whether the “threat” is real.

It SHOULD be noted, that, if you have any concerns about online threats, blackmail, extortion, or threatened computer piracy, you should contact local law enforcement, and appropriate Governmental Agencies.
(For Canadian agencies, you can find links in a previous post.)

Be savvy… there are a lot of scammers and spammers out there!