Bitcoin used for blackmail? Is it real?

Few days ago a popular woman (at least in my country, so she is not internationally known) made a confession on television, saying she was blackmailed by some geeks... They asked her to pay a certain sum of money by bitcoin... Otherwise they would have put acid on the face of her daughter...

I don't know much about bitcoin but... can this be real? Can bitcoin be really used for this kind of blackmail Or is this just another try by television to show I.T. (and everything related) as a bad thing?

its real. most of the criminals use bitcoin to better hide their indentity.

don't let bitcoins name get bad because of these idiots
bitcoin can save the world

Yes it’s real. Surprisingly enough, criminals do very similar things with US dollar, Canadian dollars, Chinese yuan, the euro... etc. This isn’t unique to bitcoin.

Don’t be misled, this is a terrible thing that criminals do this sort of thing. But of the many anti-bitcoin arguments out there, this is definitely one of them founded in some very hypocritical logic.

Ooo, should I move this to the lounge or the crypto section? Let's move it to the crypto section for now.