Page 16 - IAV Digital Magazine #480

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Bitcoin Scammers Try and Fail to Sextort 86-Year-Old Woman Who Just Wanted a Free Bagel
By Victoria Song
All 86-year-old Arlene Kaganove wanted was a free bagel from Panera on her birthday. Instead, after signing up for the My Panera rewards program, Kaganove was sent threatening emails demand- ing she pay $1,400 worth of bitcoin—in exchange for a supposed record- ing of her watch- ing porn.
“I am always signing up for whatever comes free on my birth- day,” Kaganove told local Chicago station NBC 5.
According to Kaganove, the extortionists sent her emails saying they had a recording of her watching porn. The reason she connected the dots to Panera was the emails
noted the actual username and password she used to sign up for the My Panera account. And because Kaganove, unlike most of us, exer- cises extremely good security hygiene, she says the user- name and pass- word were not used for any other account. In a video interview
with NBC 5, Kaganove showed off a physical note- book where she writes down all her passwords and usernames for each site.
Panera suffered a data
leak affecting up to 37 million cus- tomers last April. That data includ- ed names, emails, physical
addresses, birth- days, and the last four digits of cus- tomer’s credit card numbers. However, Panera itself told NBC 5 that less than 10,000 cus- tomers were impacted by that leak, stating, “No My Panera Rewards account passwords were exposed during the April 2018 incident.” With
regard to Kaganove, the company added, “We also went over our forensic records from last year and con- firmed that Arlene’s account was not accessed improp- erly.” Sure, Panera—though to be clear, extor- tionists don’t have to access an account to use leaked data
in shitty ways.
For her part, Kaganove at least has a good sense of humor about the inci- dent, saying she found it “hilari- ous” the black- mailers said they had evidence of her watching porn.
“They told me I have very good taste in porn, so I thought that was nice,” Kaganove told NBC 5. However, she added that if they actually did have a recording, all they’d see is “a little old lady cursing at the computer because it’s not doing what I want it to do.”
Kaganove also added that her favorite bagel is the everything bagel and that she wasn’t plan- ning on investing in bitcoin. Be like Arlene.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine