Websites paid over $100,000 in BTC to a DDoS group that did not act on its threats

Recently, ransomware occurrences carried out in the form of distributed-denial-of-service attacks (DDoS), have become quite common, considering the fact that in less than two months, online businesses from all around the world paid more than $100,000 to these scammers.

However, a recent Cloudflare report states that not all these claims are real, and that most of the times, DDoS attacks do not even take place. According to this, a group of scammers known by the name of Armada Collective began sending online businesses from all around the world extortion emails, demanding sums as large as the equivalent of $23,000 in bitcoin to cancel attacks.

Their usual emails included a timeframe during which the payments could be sent, alongside with a claim that if the payment is not sent on time, the online business will be taken down, and the ransom sum would be doubled every day. Most emails ended with a claim saying that the extortion attempt is not a joke.

Regardless of this, CloudFlare went ahead and carried out sufficient research to conclude that so far, Armada Collective did not act once on its threat. Additionally, it also seems like the scammers asked businesses to send out the same amount in bitcoin to the same addresses, thus making it impossible for scammers to know who sent what. Still, over $100,000 in bitcoin was received into the bitcoin addresses controlled by the scammers, thus showcasing the level of fear that extortion attempts have caused in the last couple of months.

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what do you personally think about these false DDoS claims, and the hackers’ attempts to get their hands on more money? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

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