The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reportedly is looking into what appears to be a coordinated series of scams in which a person or people call in a bomb threat to a store or bank and threaten to set it off unless the business wires significant sums to an offshore account.
As many as 15 reported such scenarios have played out in places like Providence, Phoenix, Detroit, Salt Lake City and Philadelphia, with retailers involved such as Wal-Mart, Bigg’s, Vons and Safeway. Employees are led to believe that the people making the threats have gained access to the stores’ closed-circuit television systems.
The Washington Post reports that “at a Dillons grocery store in Hutchinson, Kansas, the caller ordered customers and workers to take off their clothes and threatened to force them to cut off a manager's fingers.”
In each case, no bomb has been found and the calls appear to have come from overseas.
While there is no concrete evidence that the situations are connected, they apparently are similar enough that they have given investigators a working theory.
As many as 15 reported such scenarios have played out in places like Providence, Phoenix, Detroit, Salt Lake City and Philadelphia, with retailers involved such as Wal-Mart, Bigg’s, Vons and Safeway. Employees are led to believe that the people making the threats have gained access to the stores’ closed-circuit television systems.
The Washington Post reports that “at a Dillons grocery store in Hutchinson, Kansas, the caller ordered customers and workers to take off their clothes and threatened to force them to cut off a manager's fingers.”
In each case, no bomb has been found and the calls appear to have come from overseas.
While there is no concrete evidence that the situations are connected, they apparently are similar enough that they have given investigators a working theory.
- KC's View:
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If this weren’t so unfunny, it would sound like a bad Bruce Willis movie.
But there’s nothing funny about this.
