Threatening Letters Circulate Among Palisades Residents

By TRILBY BERESFORD | Reporter

There has been a resurgence of nasty scam letters targeting male residents in Pacific Palisades this month. A number of locals, many of them lawyers, have received the same typed letter mailed to their home residence from an assailant who calls himself “BlackStar~70.” Some residents received the letter via email.

The letter addresses the victim by their correct name and claims to know about, and have evidence of, an extra-marital affair. BlackStar~70 gives two options: to ignore the letter and face the disastrous consequence of the affair being revealed to their wife or pay a “confidentiality fee” of $8,300 via a Bitcoin address to ensure that the affair remains a secret.

“We knew it was a scam as soon as we opened it,” one savvy resident shared with the Palisadian-Post. “But we were troubled by the fact that it claimed copies would be sent to neighbors on our street.” Another resident who received the letter back in January said that she sent it back to the post office, only to have it returned to her. She recalled that it was sent from interstate.

LAPD Detective Kristin Y. Cho told members at a Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting last year that scams come in many variants. But luckily, most of them fail.

A computer technician at DAIT, a cyber security company, did some basic searching around the Bitcoin address that was listed on the letter and was able to see that, indeed, nobody has fallen for this particular scam. However, the Postal Inspection Division is looking into it.

If you have received this letter or anything similar, the best thing to do is contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455 and report mail fraud. Non-emergencies can be reported to the LAPD on 877-ASK-LAPD. You can also report suspicious cyber activity with the Department of Homeland Security by submitting a report at us-cert.gov/forms/report.

It goes without saying, but don’t send money to anyone you don’t know or visit any websites that are listed in the letter. Simply report the incident.