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Hundreds of Schools Evacuated in the UK After Bomb Threat from Minecraft Players

It was just a hoax but someone will definitely pay

Mar 20, 2018 10:35 GMT  ·  By
The letter sent to schools
   The letter sent to schools

A bomb threat in the United Kingdom that resulted in the evacuation of hundreds of schools was generated by a conflict between Minecraft players.

Of all the games that you would suspect of provoking such a response, you would think that Minecraft is at the bottom of that list. It turns out that the Minecraft community is a really competitive one, to say the least. The fact that there are so many players out there only means that statistically we’re bound to find some crazy ones as well.

To be fair, we already know that we live in a world where “swatting” is a real thing and resulted in the death of a few people already. In case you didn’t already know, some people that got upset after losing a match online called the police and reported a violent crime at the address if the winner. In serious cases, the police might shoot first and ask questions later.

Bringing down the Minecraft servers

Someone sent an email that reached more than 400 schools that was very clear about the demands and the bomb threat. The only suspicious item on the list was the address for wiring the money, and that was payments@veltpvpcom.

“This is a message to EVERYONE. We have sent in a student with a bomb. The bomb is set to go off in 3 hours time. If you do not send $5,000 USD to [email protected]. If you do not send the money! We will blow up the device. Our site has all the information needed (veltpvp.com). If you try to call the cops we WILL blow up the device on the SPOT! ANY attempt at defusing it your self will cause it to explode.”

VeltPvP  is a company from the United States that hosts a number of Minecraft servers. According to a report on Sky News, it turns out that they are raided by SWAT so much that they already know the police officers.

Also, Sky News is the one that claimed the existence of the Minecraft feud and they are saying that the managed to talk with one of the participants in the hoax. Evacuating 400 schools following a hoax is a crime, so it remains to be seen if someone will also pay for it.