Bitcoin Scammers ‘Tired’ of Crypto as Focus Switches to Prepaid Cards

Bitcoin (BTC) scammers may be abandoning the cryptocurrency to focus on extorting money via prepaid debit cards, a new study suggests.

Revealing its findings in a blog post on Dec. 16, cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab highlighted a growing trend in Brazil as an example of hackers’ growing taste for prepaid cards.

Prepaid cards’ international appeal

Specifically, a so-called “sextortion” scam — demanding a victim pay money to avoid compromising information about his or her private life going public — targets Acesso cards in the country. 

“The debit cards in this particular sextortion scheme — Acesso cards — are sold in Brazil and work with the Mastercard system,” Kaspersky explains. As such, money gleaned from cards can be spent anywhere Mastercard is accepted, the post continues: 

“One of the features of these cards is that they are usable not only in Brazil, but internationally as well. Perhaps that’s the feature that the cybercriminals in question are…