Criminals demand $30k in BTC from schools in bomb scare

Three Indonesian international schools received bomb threats from an unknown sender, who demanded a ransom of $30,000 worth of BTC sent to the same crypto address.

Three international schools in Indonesia were targeted by criminals claiming to have planted a bomb within school grounds. The unknown number sent a broadcasted message to all three schools, demanding ransom money to be sent to them via a Bitcoin (BTC) address.

According to reports from local media, the message was sent by the bomber through WhatsApp from a telephone number which appears to have originated from Nigeria as it bears the code +234. Written in English, the message threatened school staff to pay the bomber $30,000 in BTC or they would set off bombs that they claimed were planted within the school.

“A message for EVERYONE. We have bombs in your school. The bombs are set to go off in 45 minutes if you do not agree to pay us $30,000 to our Bitcoin address,” wrote the bomber in a WhatsApp message shared to the media.

The same message was sent to three schools, one located in North Jakarta while the other two are situated around the outskirts of the city, within the South Tangerang area. The identical messages contained the same BTC address.

“If you do not send the money! We will blow up the device immediately,” wrote the attacker.

Moreover, the unknown sender also warned school officials against calling the police, as they claim that they will set off the bombs immediately if they discover authorities have gotten involved. Despite these threats, the schools called local law enforcement to take care of the bomb threat.

A missing BTC address and a police bomb search

Police officers were dispatched to the three school locations upon receiving reports of a bomb threat. After a thorough search and rescue operation, which involved the police department’s Bomb Disposal Team or Jibom, authorities confirmed that there were no explosives or bombs found anywhere within the three schools.

“We conducted a sweep and secured the area, thank God, but no explosives or bombs or anything similar were found,” said South Tangerang Police Chief AKBP Victor Inkiriwang to reporters.

Kelapa Gading Police Chief, Commissioner Seto Handoko, stated that his team had conducted similar investigations at the North Jakarta Intercultural School, which uncovered no bombs on-site.

“The sterilization results are safe, there are no bombs,” Seto said separately.

As for the attached Bitcoin address, authorities collaborated with a national crypto association and tasked them with tracking down the criminal’s wallet address. On-chain tracking results revealed that the BTC wallet address attached to the messages is invalid and could not be found on any Indonesian crypto exchanges.

At the time of writing, the police have yet to uncover the true identity of the sender and the motive behind the bomb threats. Investigations are still on-going, however no new threats have arisen among other Indonesian schools thus far.