In August, the cryptocurrency news website Web3 Is Going Just Great published an article about the arrest of Roman Ziemian, founder of the cryptocurrency trading platform FutureNet, who was suspected of defrauding victims of a total of $21 million. .
For news site administrator Molly White, a software engineer and one of the world's fiercest critics of the cryptocurrency industry, it was a routine post. Over the years, Mr. White has documented scams, hacks, and scams committed by influencers, cryptocurrency project founders, and Web3 companies on his website.
And last week, things got a little less routine.
On October 18, a person who did not identify himself but claimed to run a “reputation management company” that cleans up “customer images on the internet” asked White to delete X posts about FutureNet and Ziemian. requested to do so. ”
That person then offered White a $200 bribe to remove the post from Web3 Is Going Just Great, according to a copy of the exchange White shared with TechCrunch.
White declined the offer, insisting there was no error in her post. The anonymous person agreed, but still raised the price to $500, according to a response seen by TechCrunch.
“This isn't the first time someone has tried to blackmail me into removing my factual reporting, and it's not the first time they've been successful,” White told TechCrunch. He added that this was the first time he had made an offer. money to do it.
The anonymous person did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.
A few days later, a person claiming to be an attorney named Michael Woods sent White an email. According to an email exchange that White shared with TechCrunch, Woods cited the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which governs copyright law in the United States, and said that White's post read “The content on this page comes from our website.'' The claim was that it was a copyright violation because it had been copied.
Woods included a link to a Blogspot website called WP Media News that displays the exact content of White's post word for word. It was reportedly dated August 18, 2024, the day before White's post, and was allegedly written by Woods himself.
At first glance, the Blogspot site appears to be some kind of content farm, dating back to 1995 and filled with dozens of articles on various types of news, including crypto fraud, sanctions against Russia, and the coronavirus pandemic. I can see it. All written by Woods. (TechCrunch discovered that part of this site was powered by Rankify, a service that uses AI to generate “SEO-optimized human-like content” is.)
“There are penalties for false DMCA applications,” White told a person purporting to be an attorney. Woods responded by offering White $100 to “permanently delete” the same blog post about Ziemian.
White declined the offer.
TechCrunch was unable to confirm whether Woods is a real person. TechCrunch has confirmed that Woods' address in the email signature does not appear to exist in the real world. Woods listed an address in Los Angeles that appeared to be a completely vacant lot. And, according to the California Bar's website, Michael Woods is not registered as an attorney in Los Angeles.
Woods did not respond to TechCrunch's requests for comment via email and voicemail.
TechCrunch reached out to the email address used to register on the FutureNet official website for comment, but did not receive a response.
White told TechCrunch: “If I make a mistake, I'm always happy to correct it, but I won't delete a post simply because the people or companies I'm writing about don't like what I say.”
“If I did that, there would be almost nothing left on my website,” White said.