Scam using a fake bomb threat
The threat of a bomb is one of the worst things that can happen to a store or a company. No one wishes their employees, customers, or selves to be killed in an explosion so this usually means evacuating the store. Bomb scammers prey on this fear.
Businesses, malls, and other businesses are as a rule, the target of bomb scams. Due to the amount of traffic in these establishments, bombing threats are always taken very seriously. Sometimes there are instructions not to call the police but, in many cases, these instructions are ignored. Unfortunately, over the years, some of these bomb threats have been carried out. This has resulted in the death or injury of many people. Scammers have relied on this to be sure that people will do almost anything to avoid such a tragedy.
There are many types of these scams. One, among many, is that the bomb has been planted and the caller has a triggering device to set it off. If a certain amount of money is not produced in a certain way and within a certain amount of time the bomb will go off. However, this rarely actually happens even when nothing is paid.
Many of these bomb scams are just that. There is no bomb, but the idea is to instill fear in the group receiving the threat. Scam artists have discovered that fear is a powerful incentive and when dealing with an unknown many will succumb rather than take the chance.
When the scammer is having a sum of money wired, it is possible to use telephone look up services such as http://tele-search.com/Florida to verify who he or she is. When picking up a wire a person must show personal identification and, while it can be forged, some are dumb enough to use real identification papers.
Bomb scams become a personal issue when an employee, in a bank for instance, is contacted and told that a family member is captive and there is a bomb set to go off if the demands are not met. Unfortunately, this has occurred in the past, and although many times the family is fine, there have been a few instances where disastrous results occurred.
Police records of previous bomb scams have shown that most of these threats have been made by someone in another country or state. This means that they probably have never been in the establishment targeted, but that it has been picked at random. In some cases such thieves have even broken into the companyâs computer system to get names and other personal information.
There is also a new bomb scam known as the logic bomb where a threat is made to destroy the entire data bank in an individual’s computer if money is not paid. This may target a company where entire business records history would be destroyed or a home computer where what is saved rarely have backup. Weighing the possibility against the amount of money involved, it is usually paid as it is felt the potential loss is not worth the risk. Unfortunately, the police can do little to track this sort of crime down although many government agencies are actively pursuing solutions.
