{"id":59966,"date":"2018-12-17T14:46:53","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T20:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=59966"},"modified":"2018-12-17T14:46:53","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T20:46:53","slug":"hackers-threaten-bomb-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/hackers-threaten-bomb-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Hackers Threaten to Detonate Bombs if Victims Don&#8217;t Pay Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Pay Bitcoin Demands Or Else&#8230;<\/h3>\n<p>Hackers have taken malicious scams to an entirely new level by sending a wave of threatening emails to businesses, schools, and public municipalities\u00a0in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.\u00a0 The hacker&#8217;s ransom note demands a payment of $20,000 in bitcoin by the end of the day.\u00a0 They also claim, if\u00a0the payment isn&#8217;t made, or\u00a0if the victims call the\u00a0authorities, the &#8216;bomb&#8221; will be detonated. Fortunately, there\u2019s no evidence of any actual explosives.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s causing numerous evacuations and law enforcement investigations across these three major countries.<\/p>\n<p>Although authorities haven&#8217;t disclosed where these emails are coming from, there is speculation it is from the same hackers who have been sending <a href=\"https:\/\/techtalk.pcpitstop.com\/2018\/10\/15\/sextortion-scam\/\">sextortion<\/a>\u00a0scam emails.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to reiterate, these are both scams.\u00a0 If a business or school find themselves the recipient of one of these ransom notes, it is recommended they call the authorities immediately.<\/p>\n<h4>Recent Victims<\/h4>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2018\/12\/13\/18139724\/bitcoin-bomb-threat-scam-email-us-police-department-investigation-evacuations\">The Verge<\/a>, several of these victims include area businesses and municipalities in Oklahoma City, Suffolk, Manitoba, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and the state of Massachusetts.\u00a0 Local authorities have been notified of the threats in these areas, and have dealt with the false threats appropriately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pay Bitcoin Demands Or Else&#8230; Hackers have taken malicious scams to an entirely new level by sending a wave of threatening emails to businesses, schools, and public municipalities\u00a0in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.\u00a0 The hacker&#8217;s ransom note demands a payment of $20,000 in bitcoin by the end of the day.\u00a0 They also claim, if\u00a0the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":55107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,183],"tags":[5011,133],"class_list":["post-59966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","category-tips","tag-bitcoin","tag-scam"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hackers Threaten to Detonate Bombs if Victims Don&#039;t Pay Up<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hackers have taken things to an entirely new level by threatening various businesses and municpalities across the U.S., U.K., and Canada...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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