A wave of hoax bomb threats swept through the United States on Thursday in what reports are calling a "variant on a relatively new cyber extortion scheme."
A previous cyber extortion scheme threatened releasing personal videos of sexual nature.
The motivation is unclear as well as who was behind the campaign because of the difficulty behind tracing such emails.
The bomb threats hit universities, businesses, schools and news outlets across the country.
The emails were all variants on a theme that the sender had hired a "recruited mercenary" to place an explosive device in the targeted building that would be detonated unless $20,000 in difficult-to-trace cybercurrency was paid.
No actual explosive devices were reported to be discovered, but the threats alone cost thousands of dollars as buildings were emptied and police officers scrambled to monitor and investigate.
The emails that appeared Thursday were similar to extortion campaigns sent to people in Europe that have threatened the release of compromising sex videos.
Read more at USA Today.
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