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Phone Hacking Group Is Trading Fake Bomb Threats For Bitcoin (softpedia.com)

Posted by timothy on from the guy-I-knew-in-high-school-would-do-it-for-free dept.

An anonymous reader writes: French police arrested a suspect in connection to a group of hackers that are selling fake bomb threats for Bitcoin. The group has been terrorizing cities in France, UK, USA, and Australia for months. Police suspect they are doing this by using a anonymity XMPP service to hack into VoIP phones and make the fake bomb threats and swatting calls. The group is charging $5 worth of Bitcoin for schools and company headquarters, $10 worth of Bitcoin for courthouses and entire school districts, $20 worth of Bitcoin for sports events and major conventions, and $50 worth of Bitcoin for "major" sports events. Additionally, for an extra $5 worth of Bitcoin, the group would also frame someone else for the incident.

4 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. I think you dropped a decimal by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    >> for an extra $5 worth of Bitcoin

    I think you dropped a decimal. If not, these criminals are dumber than they sound: stealing a pocketful of candy at the neighborhood store is $5 worth and won't land you in prison.

    >> are selling fake bomb threats

    And what's a "fake bomb threat"? (A "bomb threat" is one where someone calls in claiming to have planted a bomb.) Is a "fake bomb threat" where someone just pretends to make a call...?

    1. Re:I think you dropped a decimal by neminem · · Score: 2

      I agree with your first point. $5 is laughably tiny. Bullies at elementary schools routinely steal more than $5 from other elementary schoolers.

      I don't agree with your second point: a "bomb threat" is when someone calls in claiming to have planted a bomb... whether or not they did, in fact, actually plant a bomb; they may well have. A "fake bomb threat" is a bomb threat in which they explicitly didn't actually plant the bomb but claim they did. How is that not clear?

    2. Re:I think you dropped a decimal by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think you dropped a decimal. If not, these criminals are dumber than they sound

      They make up for it in volume.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. You must be young by Bruce66423 · · Score: 2

    The pattern of IRA terrorism in the UK was that almost all bombs were preceded by warnings, complete with passwords to confirm their authenticity, with the result that the number of injuries and deaths were relatively low. Similarly until 911, hijacking always ended in a negotiated exchange or similar, and never the crashing of the plane - which is why the hijackers on that day weren't swarmed over - unless that's what happened to the one in Pennsylvania. Given that the senior counter terrorism officials are used to this model, it remains possible to tweak their tails with false bomb threats. And if you are in charge when such a threat is received, it is... interesting to choose to ignore it.