# Dumbest blackmail attempt ever. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 19, 2017, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-blackmail-attempt-ever/786974 "2017-05-19T01:01:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-blackmail-attempt-ever/786974/1 "2017-05-19T01:01:54Z")
Apparently Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher’s family were the target of one of the dumbest blackmail attempts ever. > [@](#): > > Police were easily able to trace the blackmailer after he included his bank details in the e-mail to Schumacher’s wife Corinna. > > “To put it cautiously, giving your own bank account details is not sensible,” judge Eberhard Hausch told a court in the city of Reutlingen. From [here](http://en.f1i.com/news/268610-gruesome-schumacher-blackmail-attempt-foiled.html). Usually you are trying to \*get \*people’s bank info when trying to scam them. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-blackmail-attempt-ever/786974/2 "2017-05-19T01:20:27Z")
Kinda like the bank robber who writes his demand note on the deposit slip in the back of your checkbook; you know, the ones with your name & address printed on them. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-blackmail-attempt-ever/786974/3 "2017-05-19T01:34:27Z")
I’m surprised by the sentence… > [@](#): > > An investigation by German police traced the grisly demand to an individual who has since been handed a suspended jail sentence, a fine of €4,500, 50 hours of community service as well as the obligation to seek psychiatric help. Even making the assumption that the threat wasn’t found to be credible, I’d think being involuntarily committed for at least a while would be the start, rather than simply ‘the obligation to seek psychiatric help’… ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-blackmail-attempt-ever/786974/4 "2017-05-19T15:01:45Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > I’m surprised by the sentence… > > Even making the assumption that the threat wasn’t found to be credible, I’d think being involuntarily committed for at least a while would be the start, rather than simply ‘the obligation to seek psychiatric help’… German courts are [frighteningly lenient](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Seles#Stabbing) on people who commit crimes against celebrities. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-blackmail-attempt-ever/786974/5 "2017-05-19T18:09:11Z")
Journalism Fail: The headline reads “blackmail”, but the suspect was threatening Schumacher’s family. That’s extortion, not blackmail. The terms are not interchangeable. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-blackmail-attempt-ever/786974/6 "2017-05-19T20:58:26Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Journalism Fail: The headline reads “blackmail”, but the suspect was threatening Schumacher’s family. That’s extortion, not blackmail. The terms are not interchangeable. According to [Google Translate](https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT#en/de/extortion%0Ablackmail), they are. In German, one word, “erpressung”, for both concepts. (Maybe Google Translate’s wrong but in this limited context I doubt it.) Maybe blame the English translator, I suppose. The fact English makes the distinction may not be common knowledge to ESL speakers. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-blackmail-attempt-ever/786974/7 "2017-05-19T21:10:33Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > According to [Google Translate](https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT#en/de/extortion%0Ablackmail), they are. In German, one word, “erpressung”, for both concepts. > > (Maybe Google Translate’s wrong but in this limited context I doubt it.) > > Maybe blame the English translator, I suppose. The fact English makes the distinction may not be common knowledge to ESL speakers. Too late to ETA, so tackily quoting to add: Doing some cross-comparisons in German-language Wiki, apparently German borrowed the French word “chantage” for blackmail as distinct from extortion. If the original German material used “erpressung” (as that’s what the crime is called), it would have probably been more natural to use “extortion” than “blackmail” in the English, but “blackmail” seems to be treated as an extension of the crime of extortion so lumped in with it. Understandable confusion, IMHO.