A bomb threat in the UK that resulted in the evacuation of hundreds of schools was sparked by a fight between players of the game Minecraft.
Of all the games you might suspect would cause such a stir, Minecraft is at the bottom of the list. It turns out that the Minecraft community is really competitive, to say the least. The fact that there are so many players out there means that statistically there must be a lot of crazy people out there.
To be fair, we already know that we live in a world where “swatting” is a reality and has resulted in the death of some people. In case you didn’t already know, there have been cases where players upset by their defeat have called the police to report a violent crime at the winner’s address. In serious cases, the police shoot first and ask questions later.
Someone sent an email to over 400 schools claiming to be bomb victims. The only suspicious element was the address for sending the money (payments@veltpvpcom).
“This message is for everyone. We have sent a student with a bomb. The bomb is set to explode in 3 hours unless you send $5,000 USD to payments@veltpvp.com. Our website has all the necessary information (veltpvp.com). If you try to call the cops, we will blow up the device! ANY attempt to deactivate the bomb will cause it to explode.”
Note that VeltPvP is a company from the United States that hosts several Minecraft servers
The evacuation of 400 schools is a bad joke that could cause serious problems, so it remains to be seen whether anyone will be punished for this incident.
