Criminals demand $30,000 BTC from school in bomb attack

Three international schools in Indonesia received a bomb threat from an unknown sender demanding they send $30,000 worth of BTC as ransom to the same crypto address.

Three international schools in Indonesia have been targeted by criminals who claim to have planted bombs inside the schools. An unknown number sent a broadcast message to all three schools, requesting that a ransom be sent via a Bitcoin (BTC) address.

Local media reports said the message was sent by the bomber via WhatsApp from a phone number believed to originate from Nigeria with the code +234. The message, written in English, threatened school officials to pay the bomber $30,000 in BTC or they would detonate a bomb it claimed was planted inside the school.

“Message to everyone: A bomb has been planted in your school. Unless you agree to pay $30,000 to our Bitcoin address, the bomb will detonate within 45 minutes,” the bomber wrote in a WhatsApp message shared with the media.

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The same message was sent to three schools, one located in North Jakarta and the other two within the South Tangerang area on the outskirts of the city. Identical messages contained the same BTC address.

“If you don’t send money! I’ll blow up the device right away,” the attacker wrote.

Additionally, the unknown sender warned school officials not to report the bomb to the police, as he claimed that he would detonate the bomb immediately if he found out that authorities were involved. Despite these threats, the school requested that local police respond to the bomb threat.

Missing BTC address and police bomb search

Police officers were dispatched to three schools after receiving reports of bomb threats. After a thorough search and rescue operation that included the participation of the police station’s bomb disposal team (Jibum), authorities confirmed that no explosives or bombs were found at any of the three schools.

“We conducted a sweep and secured the area, but thankfully we did not find any explosives, bombs or anything similar,” South Tangerang Police Chief AKBP Victor Inkiliwan told reporters.

Kelapa Gading police chief Seto Handko said his team conducted a similar search at the North Jakarta International Culture School, but no bomb was found at the scene.

“The results of the sterilization were safe and there were no bombs,” Seto said separately.

Regarding the attached Bitcoin address, the authorities worked with the National Cryptocurrency Association and tasked them with tracing the criminal’s wallet address. On-chain tracking revealed that the BTC wallet address attached to the message was invalid and could not be found on an Indonesian cryptocurrency exchange.

As of this writing, police have yet to reveal the sender’s true identity and the motive behind the bomb threat. The investigation is still ongoing, but so far no new threats have emerged among other Indonesian schools.

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