Police: Bomb threat that cleared Garfield High School was Bitcoin extortion hoax

(Image: Seattle Public Schools)

The Seattle Police Department says last Friday’s bomb threat that cleared the Garfield High School campus was a Bitcoin extortion attempt and part of a resurgence of coordinated, often mass-scale hoax threats targeting schools and other public institutions.

Students spent Friday afternoon cleared from buildings at the 1,600 student, Central District public high school after what officials said was an email bomb threat targeting the 23rd Ave campus. CHS reported on the threat here.

SPD says the threat was an extortion attempt after the school received an email that “demanded that Bitcoin be sent through a link.”

“The school was searched by officers with school security assisting,” SPD reports. “Nothing suspicious was identified and the school return to normal operations.”

There have been similar, larger scale threats across the country in recent months. These threats often involve emails claiming that explosive devices have been planted on campus, with the sender demanding payment in Bitcoin to prevent detonation.

In October, the FBI and Homeland Security investigated after more than 40 school districts across 47 Florida counties received nearly identical emails. The messages claimed bombs were on campuses and demanded Bitcoin payments. Law enforcement determined these were part of a mass-hoax campaign.

On January 1st, a coordinated campaign targeted synagogues and community centers across the U.S., including Hawaii, Florida, and Ohio. The emails used violent language and included specific Bitcoin wallet addresses for payment.

In February, schools in Alabama were placed on lockdown following emailed threats.  Some of these were determined to be pranks.

Security researchers say the emails are often traced to compromised servers or Russian domain registrars an many of the same IP addresses used for school bomb threats were previously used in “sextortion” email scams targeting individuals.

Demands typically range from $5,000 to $20,000. Most are not successful. Researchers have noted that of dozens of Bitcoin addresses used, almost none received payments.

The FBI advises schools and organizations that receive a threat to not pay and immediately report the email to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Authorities emphasize that while these threats are almost always hoaxes, the act of sending them is a federal crime.

SPD says its Criminal Intelligence unit was part of the Garfield investigation. It’s not clear if any other Seattle campuses have been targeted.

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