School Bomb Threats Resulted From Minecraft Feud

A Minecraft rivalry was the impetus behind a massive bomb hoax in the UK, impacting hundreds of schools and forcing some to evacuate. It was all a failed attempt to force a rival server to be shut down for abuse.

Sky News reports that the 24,000 threatening emails were spoofed to appear as if they'd come from a Minecraft server called VeltPvP. Velt operators say their opponents in the rivalry have harassed them with illegal activities, of which this is the latest example. Carson Kallen, Velt's chief executive, said he's been frequently swatted--the dangerous practice of falsely reporting a crime-in-progress to send police to a person's home.

One of the hoaxers anonymously said it was "horrible" that their threats scared school children, and that he understood he could be arrested. He accused VeltPvP of their own chicanery, though, saying they had engaged in DDoS attacks against rival servers. Kallen called this accusation "completely false."

Thankfully no one was hurt, and police have assured the public it does not consider these to be "viable threats." The schools have been given additional security advice as well.