Reuters reports law enforcement officials across North America were left scrambling Thursday as a rash of bomb threats were sent via email to dozens of businesses, public offices and schools demanding payment in cryptocurrency, but none of the threats appeared credible, law enforcement officials said.
In one case, the report said, the sheriff’s office in Lincoln County, Mo., which includes the city of St. Louis, said it traced an emailed bomb threat received by a school to an internet protocol address in Moscow.
But law enforcement officials speaking on background to Reuters dismissed the findings as inconclusive, Reuters reported, as federal investigators expressed doubt the Russians or Russian government were involved.
Officials, the wire service reported, cautioned just because the IP address said Russia doesn’t mean the user didn’t set a false trail to prevent finding the true origin.
The threats began around 2 p.m. EST as police departments in major U.S. cities on both coasts began reporting on Twitter numerous local businesses had received the menacing emails – awkwardly worded threats to unleash a bomb unless a $20,000 bitcoin payment received, Reuters reported.
Three hours later, the report said, no actual explosives were found, authorities said. But the bomb threats resulted in brief evacuations of a Toronto subway station and a newspaper office in Raleigh, N.C. Some public schools and businesses also were evacuated as a precaution.
In the Lincoln County incident, the Reuters report said, sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Andy Binder said authorities bused the students from a middle school receiving a threats to another campus as a precaution, but the school was later determined to be safe and classes will resume there Friday.
Other cities where bomb threats were reported by authorities included New York, Washington, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Denver, Ottawa and Calgary, Alberta.
Police at the University of Wisconsin in Madison tweeted an image taken of one email threat found to be circulating saying: “Good day. There is an explosive device (lead azide) in the building where your company is conducted. It is assembled according to my guide. It is compact and it is covered up very carefully. It can not damage the structure of the building, but in case of its explosion you will get many wounded people,” the report said.
The FBI is currently looking into the threats but the authenticity of the latest batch was not immediately confirmed, a law enforcement official told Reuters.
“We are aware of threats being made in cities across the country,” Rukelt Dalberis, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles, told Reuters separately. “We remain in touch with our law enforcement partners. We encourage the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activities that could represent a threat.”
– WN.com, Jack Durschlag
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