Teenager arrested for using Bitcoin to buy anonymous phone call service to make bomb threats

Recently, a check of an IP address allowed Israeli law enforcement officers to arrest a suspect who used Bitcoin to purchase anonymous services to make telephone bomb threats.

Israeli Teenager Uses Bitcoin to Pay for Anonymous Phone Service

According to Israeli local media Daily Beast, the suspect is a 19-year-old Bitcoin user whose name has not been made public. The suspect paid anonymously to SpoofCard through Bitcoin transactions, and SpoofCard then provided him with a caller ID blocking service.

The suspect used the blocking service to make anonymous calls from the United States to Jewish organizations in Australia for six consecutive months.

SpoofCard's investigation revealed that these were telephone bomb threats targeting schools and educational organizations.

The suspect was discovered after he forgot to use an anonymous service during an operation and was subsequently arrested by the police.

Because the suspect holds dual citizenship of Israel and the United States, the United States is currently planning to extradite the suspect back to the country, and his fate remains unknown.

In this case, Bitcoin, as a means of raising funds for criminals, has also attracted the attention of regulators. In recent years, criminals in various countries have liked to use Bitcoin transactions to evade the tracking of law enforcement agencies, which has led to various countries introducing corresponding laws and measures to prevent Bitcoin from facilitating criminal incidents.

In this telephone bomb threat case, the 19-year-old suspect used Bitcoin to pay a certain fee to the service agency before committing the crime. However, the law enforcement agency did not find any clues about the suspect from the payment records, but found his hiding place from his mistake. This fully illustrates how the anonymous transactions of Bitcoin are used by criminals.

Currently, many countries still have a negative impression of Bitcoin because Bitcoin has repeatedly appeared in criminal activities, opening the door to convenience for criminals. Therefore, the popularization of Bitcoin in these countries is still difficult.