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Comment by TedDoesntTalk | Hacker News Reader

> On or about May 9, 2022, the government says, Singh sent a friend screenshots of text messages between himself and someone he had doxed … and was trying to extort for their Instagram handle. The data included the victim’s Social Security number, driver’s license number, cellphone number, and home address.

“Look familiar?” Singh allegedly wrote tthe victim. “You’re gonna comply to me if you don’t want anything negative to happen to your parents. . . I have every detail involving your parents . . . allowing me to do whatever I desire to them in malicious ways.”

I struggle to understand what could be so important about an Instagram account that you threaten someone’s family.

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Premium Instagram handles can go for tens of thousands of dollars on the grey market. Similar to how premium domain names can be very expensive. Thais particular situation with extortion for Instagram handles is pretty common.

Money? Some people will do very bad things for money.

> I struggle to understand what could be so important about an Instagram account that you threaten someone’s family.

I struggle to understand how having random personal information of that sort would be considered a threat.

Oh noes, not my address! You're threatening me with the same information that tmobile already pissed all over the web a year or two ago...

Honestly, faced with such a PM I would most likely threaten the crook back and mock them when they inevitably fail to show up.

I guess I could use some excitement in my life.

> allowing me to do whatever I desire to them in malicious ways.

Really? You really struggle to see the threat? Really?

If you don't think someone knowing your home address is a threat, post yours here.

178 Concord St Brooklyn NY

Google your own name and the first hit you'll get is your address.

I’ll preface that none of this is meant as an actual threat.

Psychologically to someone not IT savy, the instagram hack might seem like someone means business. If I made the same threat and showed someone photos of their children, they’d surely feel similar, despite the fact that all that proves is that I know where they live and I own a camera.

Are you suggesting the threat was a bluff? How can you know that?

A whopping number of online scams begin with bluffs, the scammer only needs 1% of people to believe them. The instagram account takeover is for emotional leverage to get a person further away from their friends. A second story will be concoted to get money from them.

Aren't most armed robberies a bluff too? "Give me your wallet or I will kill you."

Even if the robber has no intention of actually killing the victim and just wants their money, this is still very much a threat, and whether it was a bluff or not, it still causes distress and possibly trauma.

I’m not suggesting either direction, I’m saying that some people may take an Instagram hack+threat more seriously than others, but that all threats could be bluffs and the objective of any data provided by the blackmailer is to increase plausibility, and the victims literacy in the topic is relevant to their response

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