At least one local business was affected by the Bitcoin bomb threat email scam that was sent to businesses throughout North America.
The Estevan Police Service (EPS) reported during its Thursday day shift that they responded to a bomb threat made via email, with the perpetrators looking for Bitcoin. According to the scam, if the business doesn’t pay, the bomb would be detonated.
Police went to the scene and didn’t find anything suspicious.
The identity of the business was not disclosed, but police Chief Paul Ladouceur said it was an independent local business. Ladouceur said the business is concerned they might receive more threats if the name is revealed.
“It’s just another ingenious idea by fraudsters to try to bilk people out of their money, and this time it was with the auspice of a threat that if they didn’t pay through Bitcoin, then there could be an explosive device detonated,” said Ladouceur.
It’s somewhat similar to what the EPS has seen in the past, with demands for cash or iTunes gift cards, and threats that their computers would be infected with malware.
“The concern with this one is now you’re making threats to people, and you can imagine this is a draw on resources,” said Ladouceur. “I’ve always said when you see threats of this kind and this magnitude, chances are the investigation will lead to a successful conclusion to determine where these originated.”
It was a more serious situation this time because there was a threat to cause physical harm to people.
“Any time we get a bomb threat, we respond accordingly, and we take the necessary precautions. Obviously there’s some concern there. We were able to quickly discern that this was a fraud, and this was not a legitimate bomb threat.”
Ladouceur anticipates that the EPS won’t see an abundance of these calls in the future, thanks to the publicity this scam received.
“It probably was not as lucrative as people hoped it would be. People picked up pretty quickly on the fact of what was going on, and were able to discern very quickly that it was illegitimate, and it was simply fraudsters looking for another way to scam people.”
Also, payment with Bitcoin is still fairly rare, he said.
When fraudsters go to this magnitude to try to scam people, they receive a lot of attention from the public and the police.
“There’s no doubt this will be a hefty investigation, which we’ll try to narrow down where this came from,” said Ladouceur.
If somebody does receive one of these emails, Ladouceur asks that they call the EPS right away, and treat it as legitimate until it’s proven otherwise. They should also get as much information as possible if it’s through computer or email.
“Try not to utilize that computer so that we can secure the necessary evidence when we arrive. If it’s by telephone, certainly try to discern as much as you can from the calls, so try to identify if there’s an accent to the caller’s voice.”
He also asks people to take note of the gender of the caller, and to try to estimate the caller’s age.
As for the RCMP, they said Thursday they didn’t receive any reports of this scam from the jurisdictions they serve in Saskatchewan.
