An Imposter Scam With A Twist

March 8, 2025 – Published on Forbes

Imposter scams have long been among the most lucrative for scammers. According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost $2.7 to imposter scams second only to investment scams in 2023.

Now, in an unusual twist on the usual imposter scam, the FBI is warning people about scammers posing as members of the infamous Russian ransomware gang BianLian. The real BianLian has developed ransomware that it has deployed against numerous companies since 2022. BianLian’s business model is to encrypt the data of its targeted victims and then threaten to make the data public unless a ransom was paid.

According to cybersecurity experts at GuidePoint Security, the phony BianLian scammers are sending snail mail letters to business executives telling them that they used social engineering to gain access to thousands of sensitive, confidential data files, including payroll reports, Social Security numbers, tax filing and investor information. In the letter they threaten to make the data public unless the targeted victim of the scam uses a QR code included in the letter to pay a ransom of between $250,000 and $500,000 by Bitcoin.

GuidePoint Security also noted that the wording and content of the letter differs from actual ransomware notes sent in the past by the real BianLian. In an effort to appear legitimate, the letter does include links to sites on the dark web where the real BianLian has leaked data, but these links are meaningless as the addresses are commonly known.

Read More HERE.