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I received a SPAM/Phishing/Blackmail email demanding payment to a specific Bitcoin wallet.

BTC: 15vUqauqHybEPvXYLv97WW4XwM2YHXYC1d

How can this criminal be shutdown?

If legal action is problematic, could a "User Rating/Classification" be added to BTC Wallets so that it's possible to "tag" Bitcoin users who are using this technology for illegal purposes?

EDIT (evening of 20181125)

BitCoin Address Transactions for Wallet 15vUqauqHybEPvXYLv97WW4XwM2YHXYC1d

         |  Number of   |
         |   Receive    |
Date     | Transactions |
-------------------------
20181116 |         5    |
20181117 |         4    |
20181118 |         7    |
20181119 |        11    |
20181120 |         3    |
20181121 |         3    |
20181122 |         1    |
20181125 |         2    |

1.55036944 BTC scammed so far to just this wallet.
Other accumulator/consolidation wallets hold much more.

On 20181119 everything was transferred to BTC Wallet 38b3k1qkYDQDxX7FTZ14UtioemUmvH6Wfv. This wallet then showed receiving two transactions for the sum of 3.78129807 BTC.

On 20181120 small transactions to the origin wallet continued.

BTC Wallet 38b3k1qkYDQDxX7FTZ14UtioemUmvH6Wfv received one more transaction for a total of 3.78129807 BTC. This wallet was then transfered to BTC Wallet 1KNY4i1642h7Rhrd2YUUv6RCJ3eifybbeF which shows a total receipt of 15.31805607 BTC - all apparent consolidations on 20181120.

On 20181122 the contents of the original wallet was transferred to BTC Wallet 38ezWFTTFJbyAD1oHXzydfVAxsXUwZYukg. Less than 20 minutes later, this entire wallet was transferred to 2 other wallets.

Being a BitCoin criminal seems to be very lucrative.

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  • 4
    Possible duplicate of Can we report a fraudster by their bitcoin wallet address?
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Nov 17, 2018 at 18:23
  • 1
    You can report it to your local police. It's unlikely they'll be able to do anything. There is no centralized authority who can "shut them down".
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Nov 17, 2018 at 18:23
  • @NateEldredge There is no technology to notify users they are dealing with a user suspected of nefarious activities? Or some sort of "BTC Wallet Rating"?
    – rickhg12hs
    Commented Nov 17, 2018 at 18:32
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    No, there is not. And it wouldn't help. People can generate any number of Bitcoin addresses. Probably nobody has ever seen that specific address before the scammer created it to send to you, and each other victim is seeing a fresh new address also.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Nov 17, 2018 at 18:46
  • @NateEldredge There are nine transactions/victims there already. blockchain.com/btc/address/15vUqauqHybEPvXYLv97WW4XwM2YHXYC1d
    – rickhg12hs
    Commented Nov 17, 2018 at 18:49

1 Answer 1

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Bitcoin is supposed to be permissionless and censorship resistant. That's the whole point. So, no, you can't do that.

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4
  • It's a shame that BitCoin is abused by criminals. This wallet now has 13 transactions/victims.
    – rickhg12hs
    Commented Nov 18, 2018 at 19:00
  • Maybe someone will develop a BitCoin transaction processor that includes a voluntary rating system.
    – rickhg12hs
    Commented Nov 18, 2018 at 19:03
  • Finding Pseudonymous BitCoin Criminals
    – rickhg12hs
    Commented Nov 29, 2018 at 19:34
  • That "Finding Pseudonymous BitCoin Criminals" article does not mention CoinJoin, which is tecnique that exists, works and allows various parties to join together their bitcoins in a single transaction in a way that nobody knows for sure who paid to who (JoinMarket and Wasabi Wallet, for example). Bitcoin isn't fully traceable if you know what you are doing.
    – Kristaps Kaupe
    Commented Nov 30, 2018 at 22:04

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