Thieves use Bitcoin ATMs to scam Australian immigrants out of $50,000

Being in a new country can be confusing and scary at times. Australian crooks are taking advantage of this and are using Bitcoin ATMs to scam newly-arrived migrants out of their life savings.

It seems the crooks managed to scam more than $35,000 USD ($50,000 AUD) out of four Australian immigrants by telling them they needed to pay a tax debt. The victims were told they would be arrested if the amount was not paid, The Age reports .

Believing that their immigration status might be in jeopardy, the targets obliged.

It appears the victims were told to withdraw money from their bank accounts and pay the cash into a specific Bitcoin wallet address using a Bitcoin ATM in Braybrook, Melbourne.

Local police officers handling the investigation believe that there may be more victims, urging anyone who may have been targeted to come forward.

“We believe that there are a number of victims out there who have not reported the matter for one reason or another, they may be here on visas or they are not aware that authorities would never tell them to deposit money into an ATM,” acting Detective Sergeant Katherine Lehpamer s said.

Australian consumer watchdog, Scamwatch, revealed in May that Australians had lost around $2 million in scams involving cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings.

Bitcoin ATMs have often been touted of signs of mass adoption, but that doesn’t mean that they are immune to exploitation.

If you ever receive unsolicited phone calls or emails, do some background on who is sending it to you. If someone claims you have an unpaid tax bill, contact the tax office and see what they have to say.

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FCC threatens arrest, hardware seizure for those using popular bitcoin miner

After determining a popular piece of bitcoin mining hardware was interfering with local internet connections, the Federal Communications Commission today took action.

T-Mobile first complained to the FCC about interference to its LTE network in Brooklyn, stating radio emissions coming from a local residence were wreaking havoc on its broadband network.

After an investigation, the culprit was determined to be a local bitcoin mining operation. The miners relied on a piece of hardware known as Antminer s5, which “[generated] spurious emissions on frequencies assigned to T-Mobile’s broadband network [which caused] harmful interference,” according to FCC representatives.

The agency’s enforcement bureau said continued use of Antminer s4 — or, presumably others that interfered with the same 700 MHz frequency — would be subject to fines, criminal prosecution or seizure of the equipment.

The Antminer s5, however, is a few generations old at this point. It’s unclear whether more recent hardware causes the same interference.

Google dev found an Electrum wallet bug that let sites steal your Bitcoin

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts relying on the popular Electrum wallet to store their Bitcoin ought to hurry up and update to the latest version of the app: Google researcher Tavis Ormandy discovered a critical flaw in the wallet that allowed any website to steal your coins.

Over the weekend, Ormandy took to Twitter to urge Electrum users to get the latest reiteration of the wallet as soon as possible, adding that he recently stumbled upon a severe vulnerability which has since been patched. The bug purportedly affected all versions from 2.6 to 3.0.3.

The Googler further noted that another sharp-eyed researcher had already reported the issue by the time he spotted it himself. Still, he had to reach out to Electrum to stress the urgency of the matter.

“ I was gonna report it…but there was already an open issue from last year,” Ormandy said. “I pointed out this is kinda [sic] critical, and they made a new release within a few hours.”

Following Ormandy’s tweets, Electrum has released one more patch (version 3.0.5), which is currently available to download from their official website here .

In a statement attached to the update, Electrum notes that users “need” not to “rush the upgrade.”

“In fact, in cases like this it can be prudent to wait a while just to make sure that everything is settled,” the post read . “The important thing is to not use the old versions. If you have an old version sitting somewhere not being used, then it is harmless as long as you do not forget to upgrade it before using it again later.”

However, users that have in any point in the past left their Electrum wallet “open with no wallet passphrase set” and “had a webpage open” might want to remain extra careful.

“ Then it is possible [sic] that your wallet is already compromised,” the statement warned. “Particularly paranoid people might want to send all of the BTC in their old Electrum wallet to a newly-generated Electrum wallet.”

“[I] f you had a wallet password set, you can reduce your panic by a few notches,” the post continued. “[B]ut you should still treat this very seriously.”

The latest version of the Electrum wallet for Mac, Windows, Linux and Android is available to download here .