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A bomb threat that requires a Bitcoin payment has led to the evacuation of businesses, schools and other offices across the country.
A bomb threat e-mail requesting a Bitcoin payment that appears to have been sent to thousands of businesses, schools, hospitals, news agencies and individuals in the United States has led to dozens of precautionary evacuations.
Bitcoin scammers began arriving at about 1:00 pm. Eastern, according to Twitter users who received the notes. The bomb threat requires $ 20,000 to be delivered to a BTC wallet and threatens to detonate explosives if this money is not paid. The e-mails say that the explosives were planted in the place where the email recipient works from a sender's "mercenary". The emails have topics like "Think twice" and "Think how they can help you" and it seems to be a spam generated by robo.
According to KOCO-TV, the Oklahoma City police have declared that a nationwide survey is ongoing on current e-mails. There have been no reports of explosives found in any of the locations where bomb threats were received.
The FBI stated in a statement: "We are aware of the recent bomb threats made in cities across the country and we stay in touch with our partners of the forces of order to provide assistance. public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities that could pose a threat to public safety ".
Here is the text of the e-mail:
Good day. My mercenary brought the bomb (lead azide) to the building where your business is carried out. My mercenary built the explosive device under my direction. It can be hidden anywhere because of its small size, it is impossible to destroy the supporting construction structure with this explosive device, but if it denotes there will be many people injured.
My recruited person is looking at the situation around the building. If you notice suspicious activity, panic or cops, the device will be blown up.
I can call my man if you make a bank transfer 20,000 usd is the price for your security and your business. Transfer me to Bitcoin and I assure you that I will have to withdraw my mercenary and that the bomb will not explode. But do not try to deceive me: my guarantee will become valid only after 3 confirmations in blockchain.
It's my Bitcoin address: [redacted]
You have to solve the problems with the transaction by the end of the working day, if the workday is over and people start leaving the building by exploding the bomb.
Nothing personal, this is just a business, if I do not see the bitcoin and a bomb explodes, the next time other companies will send me other bitcoins, because it is not a one-off action.
I no longer access this email, I check my wallet every twenty minutes and if I receive the money I will give my man the command to leave.
If the bomb explodes and the authorities see this e-mail, we are not a terrorist society and we do not take responsibility for the explosions in other places.
Other versions of the e-mail contained different descriptions of the type of bomb and several BTC portfolio addresses. The e-mails appear to have been sent by fake e-mail addresses or e-mails violated and stolen by the scammer.
Here are some of the tweets of email address recipients:
Massachusetts State Police tweeted"MSP Fusion Center that tracks multiple bomb threats e-mailed to numerous state-owned companies: MSP missile missile team and local departments are responding in their communities, similar threats have been received in other states and we will share more information when available . "
According to Eric Tendian, About crime tweets in Chicago, at least 12 companies have received threats with calls for e-mails still coming to the police.
The Oklahoma City police tweeted"We are working on a series of calls for threats against bombs in OKC There have been similar threats called at different locations across the country, no credible threat found at this point, we encourage the public to continue to be vigilant and to call with any what is suspicious ".
"These are apparently the same email threats that have occurred across the country," said Captain David Mohlis with the Waterloo, Iowa, police department at Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier after numerous threats were reported there. "The FBI is aware of this and is asking us to get the information (from the mailer) that is sent to these business owners."
WNDU-TV in Indiana was among the companies to be evacuated:
The North Carolina News & Observer newspaper was also evacuated after an employee received an email from an employee:
Even schools, banks, zoos, government offices, medical centers and a wide range of other businesses have been evacuated:
The Cedar Rapids police tweeted"Many companies in the area are receiving what appears to be a robo-email saying that there is a threat of bombing for their business unless they pay money in Bitcoins. We have not found any credible evidence that none of these emails is authentic. "
The New York Police Department said in a statement: "We currently monitor multiple bomb threats sent electronically to various locations in the city, and these threats have also been reported to other locations nationwide and are not considered credible at this time."
On Twitter, added the NYPD, "Please be advised – an e-mail containing a bomb asking for payment of bitcoins is circulated, although this email has been sent to several locations, searches have been conducted and no DEVICES have been found. It seems that these threats are intended to cause interruptions and / or obtain money.We will respond to each call concerning these e-mails to conduct a search, but we wanted to share this information so that the credibility of these threats can be assessed as probable. CREDIBLE. "
The computer security expert Brian Krebs wrote: "The bitcoin address included in the email was different in every message forwarded to KrebsOnSecurity In this regard, this scam recalls the various campaigns of sextortion e-mail which became viral at the beginning of this year, which brought with a password the recipient used in the past and threatened to release embarrassing videos of the recipient unless a ransom bitcoin was paid. "
Krebs added, "I could see this extremely disruptive spam campaign in the short term, and there is no doubt that some companies that receive this extortion email will see it as a credible threat, which is exactly what happened today in one of the banks that forwarded me their copy of this email. "
Jason McNew, a Pennsylvania-based security consultant, told Krebs: "There are several serious legal problems with this: people will call the police, and they can not ignore even a known prank."
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