Cybercriminals Send Bomb Threats to US Retail Stores, Demand Bitcoin Payments: Report

The last weekend of June turned out to be quite eventful for US law enforcement agencies after a series of bomb threats were made via calls at different businesses in the country. Demanding payments in Bitcoin along with a bunch of gift cards, these notorious actors reportedly said they were going to denotate bombs at major American retail stores like Walmart, Whole Foods, Kroger, and Meijer. While Police authorities as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are investigating the incident, the callers have not been identified yet.

A call that was made to the Chicago-based Whole Foods demanded the receiver to wire $5,000 (roughly Rs. 409,775) in the form of Bitcoin. As per Bitcoin’s current price of $30,449 (roughly Rs, 24.9 lakh), the caller could have managed to get BTC 0.17 making up for the substantial amount. If the demand was not met, the caller said, a pipe bomb would blow up the store, which did not happen.

Another terrorising call was dialled to a Meijer grocery store in Wisconsin, demanded Apple gift cards worth $5,000 (Roughly Rs. 409,775), a report by The Wall Street Journal claimed.

The calls that were made were reportedly initiated with a layer of ‘block number’ setting that conceals the identities of the callers.

No bomb explosions at any of these sites were reported over the weekend, giving reasons to the police to believe that these calls were hoax. The FBI is working with local police officials at said locations to find out if there is any substance to these calls and if they are part of an organised criminal effort.

This is not the first time that anti-social elements have demanded Bitcoin while making threats. Back in 2022, for instance, cyber criminals breached the systems of Oil India Limited (OIL) and demanded $7,500,000 (roughly Rs. 61,51,31,250) in the form of Bitcoin as ransom.

In November last year, hackers who gained control over patients’ data at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), had demanded Rs. 200 crore in the form of Bitcoin.

Usually, criminals who demand crypto payments in ransoms, aim to flee with the funds anonymously.

More often than not, they put their loot in crypto privacy mixers like Tornado Cash and convert their tokens into some other cryptocurrency from a common fund pool before sending them to the destination wallet addresses. This breaks any chain of traceability that the investigating officers could unearth.

Crypto ransoms can also be wired to international locations instantly, again, with a layer of anonymity.

Since cryptocurrencies are not centralised or controlled by any financial institution, its exploitation by criminals is a topic of grave concern for governments around the world.

Unlawful use of cryptocurrencies hit a record $20.1 billion (roughly Rs. 1,64,895 crore) last year, a recent report by Reuters had claimed earlier this year.

Several nations are now working on making rules to govern the crypto sector, so that through taxes and KYC paperwork among other solutions, a trail of transactions could be maintained with more privacy than what is offered by traditional banks.