Extortionist Spammers Scare Users with Fake Bomb Threats

A massive spam campaign has caused real panic among residents of the United States and Canada, prompting police departments in New York, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Washington, and other cities to reassure people on social media. This time, the extortion emails from cybercriminals look much more sinister than usual. Instead of threatening to release nonexistent compromising material, as in the case of “sextortion” scams, the spammers are now threatening to detonate explosive devices unless victims transfer $20,000 in Bitcoin to a specified wallet address.

These emails, which appeared earlier this week, have already led to the evacuation of several buildings. One of the most high-profile incidents so far occurred in Los Angeles, where the offices of Infinity Ward, the developer behind the Call of Duty game series, were evacuated. In Toronto, five subway stations were closed due to bomb threats.

Example of a Ransom Email

Below is an example of the type of extortion message being sent:

As with other similar extortion emails, these messages are complete fakes, and bomb squads have not found any explosive devices in any of the reported cases. The bombs are simply a scare tactic, just like the nonexistent compromising videos used in previous scams.

It is unclear whether the perpetrators of this extortion campaign expected such an intense reaction, but over the past few days, many users in the US and Canada have reported these threats to law enforcement. The emails have been sent to schools, universities, media companies, courts, and private businesses, and authorities are now investigating these incidents, including at the federal level.

Moreover, official social media accounts belonging to police departments in various US cities have already been forced to publish messages urging people to ignore this spam campaign and remain calm.