Police are urging New Canaan men not to comply with what appears to be a creative, and highly devious, blackmailing scam where those targeted are told to pay a fee lest their wives find out about an unspecified secret.
This is what the scammer’s form letter looks like, in at least one version of it. Courtesy of the New Canaan Police Department
According to Police Chief Leon Krolikowski, New Canaan residents recently received the snail-mailed letter and should not pay the blackmail fee it details “since it will lead to requests for more payments.”
The letter itself—printed in full below—starts out by saying “I know about the secret you are keeping from your wife.”
It continues: “More importantly, I have evidence of what you have been hiding. I won’t go into the specifics here in case your wife intercepts this, but you know what I am talking about.”
The letter-writer says the person receiving it doesn’t know him or her personally “and nobody hired me to look into you.”
“Nor did I go out looking to burn you,” the letter continues. “It’s just your bad luck that I stumbled across your misadventures while working a job around New Canaan. I then put in more time than I probably should have looking into your life. Frankly, I am ready to forget all about you and let you get on with your life. And I am going to give you two options that will accomplish that very thing. Those two options are to either ignore this letter, or simply pay me $3,500. Let’s examine those two options in more detail.”
The form letter is personalized insofar as it specifies a town of residence and uses an individual’s first name several times within it, according to Krolikowski.
Ultimately, the scammer asks that recipients of the letter pay through an online service using a specific code.
Here’s the full text of the letter:
Hello [Name], I’m going to cut to the chase. I know about the secret you are keeping from your wife. More importantly, I have evidence of what you have been hiding. I won’t go into the specifics here in case your wife intercepts this, but you know what I am talking about.
You don’t know me personally and nobody hired me to look into you. Nor did I go out looking to burn you. It’s just your bad luck that I stumbled across your misadventures while working a job around New Canaan. I then put in more time than I probably should have looking into your life. Frankly, I am ready to forget all about you and let you get on with your life. And I am going to give you two options that will accomplish that very thing. Those two options are to either ignore this letter, or simply pay me $3,500. Let’s examine those two options in more detail.
Option 1 is to ignore this letter. Let me tell you what will happen if you chose this path. I will take this evidence and send it to your wife. And as insurance against you intercepting it before your wife gets it, I will also send copies to her friends and family. So, [Name], Even if you decide to come clean with your wife, it won’t protect her from the humiliation she will feel when her friends and family find out your sordid details from me.
Option 2 is to pay me $3,500. We’ll call this my ‘confidentiality fee.’ Now let me tell you what happens if you choose this path. Your secret remains your secret. You go on with your life as though none of this ever happened. Though you may want to do a better job at keeping your misdeeds secret in the future.
At this point you may be thinking, ‘I’ll just go to the cops.’ Which is why I have taken steps to ensure this letter cannot be traced back to me. So that won’t help, and it won’t stop the evidence from destroying your life. I’m not looking to break your bank. I just want to be compensated for the time I put into investigating you. $3,500 will close the books on that.
Let’s assume you have decided to make all this go away and pay me the confidentiality fee. In keeping with my strategy to not go to jail, we will not meet in person and there will be no physical exchange of cash. You will pay me anonymously using bitcoin. If you want to keep your secret then send $3,500 in BITCOIN to the Receiving Bitcoin Address listed below. Payment MUST be received within 10 days of the post marked date on this letter’s envelope. If you are not familiar with bitcoin, attached is ‘How-To’ guide. You will need the below two pieces of information when referencing this guide.
[Bitcoin details]
Tell no one what you will be using the bitcoin for or they may not give it to you. The procedure to obtain bitcoin can take a day or two so do not put it off. Again payment must be received within 10 days of this letter’s post marked date. If I don’t receive the bitcoin by the deadline, I will go ahead and release the evidence to everyone. If you go that route, then the least you could do is tell your wife so she can come up with an excuse to prepare her friends and family before they find out. The clock is ticking, [Name].
I received this letter requesting $15,500! It was addressed to my late husband’s first and middle name – no last name. I was amused.