LXer: Patreon Hack: Users Now Receiving Threatening Emails

LXer · 11-21-2015, 10:04 PM

Published at LXer:

Members of the popular Patreon crowdfunding site for makers and artists who had accounts that were open before the beginning of October are now receiving threatening emails demanding payment of one Bitcoin (about $325 U.S) or else personal information such as Social Security number, tax id, tax forms, name, address, and credit card details will be made public.

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Sefyir · 11-21-2015, 11:04 PM

Email from Patreon to users reporting email. Basically - just a scam / bluff

Quote:

“Hey there,

I’m so sorry for this and I apologize for the delay in getting back to you and for the scare. You can ignore that email, it’s clearly spam. I can assure you that this individual is lying.

The only accounts that had tax forms, which are very well encrypted with RSA 2048-bit encryption, are creators that have earned more than $600 in a year. No other accounts had that information associated with them, and even those records are safe given the level of encryption.

Also our system does not have access to your full credit card details, the only portion that gets passed to us is the last four digits of the number.

The information associated with the data breach does not present a risk to your credit score or identity theft. Again, I’m sorry that you had to encounter this and I appreciate you sending it our way.

We’re in contact with the FBI, consulting with legal firms, and will handle accordingly.

Let me know if you have any additional questions. We’ll be sending an email to all users tomorrow morning.

Best,
Patreon”