Florida universities receive mass shooting and bombing threats
An anonymous sender threatened violence unless thousands of dollars in untraceable bitcoin were delivered.
Early Tuesday morning, the University of Florida, University of South Florida, Florida Gulf Coast University and Hillsborough Community College received a grim email. The email promised violence and bombings unless the schools paid a ransom of about 1.2 bitcoin, or $18,035.
The sender certainly added a dramatic flair, stating:
"Every night I will roll a single die. If a six comes up, I will instruct my compatriots to follow through on the attack and kill as many people as possible.… It will be public knowledge that you failed to take this threat seriously."
The sender demanded payment by 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, however that date passed without any consequences.
Janine Sikes, the spokeswoman for UF who was copied on the threat emails, said, “We get a lot of these kinds of non-credible threats. This kind seemed a little more organized."
After both the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Joint Terrorism Task Force were alerted, they conferred and announced that it was likely a scam.
Andrea Aprea, public affairs specialist for the FBI Tampa division, said, "We’re just encouraging the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity that could represent a threat to public safety, and we’re deferring any campus security concerns to the campuses."