‘Call Of Duty’ Studio Evacuated Over Bomb Threat Related To Bitcoin Theft Scheme
On Thursday morning, a number of high profile sites in both the United States and Canada were hit with bomb threats, all of which turned out to be fake. As the Inquisitr reported, the ploy was part of a scheme to steal Bitcoin.
One of the sites that was hit was the Los Angeles-based Infinity Ward studios, one of the main developers behind Call of Duty, according to Business Insider. The studio is responsible for various games in the series, including Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
Local police quickly responded to the scene and evacuated the studio, and determined that the threat was likely related to the string of other reported bomb threats around the country.
Infinity Ward’s parent company, Activision, has not yet confirmed that the studio was targeted during the plot, and no representatives for the company have commented as yet. Someone who was in the building, however, confirmed that all employees in the studio at the time were safely evacuated during the scare.
It is also as yet unclear if an explosive device of any kind was actually recovered from the scene by police during the evacuation. Infinity Ward is one of a number of studios used to create Call of Duty games for the company, along with Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games, which are also owned by Activision.
Call of Duty studio Infinity Ward reportedly evacuated over bomb threat https://t.co/lRUpG9mm3J pic.twitter.com/p1AceWvKW4
— GamesRadar+ (@GamesRadar) December 13, 2018
The latest installment of the Call of Duty games, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, was developed by Treyarch. There is a rotation system between the three studios for the annualized Call of Duty series, with Infinity Ward expected to be in charge of 2019’s edition of the game.
The bomb threat was shared via email to many of the points of interest that were targeted, demanding payments of up to $20,000 in Bitcoin. Threats were identified in the cities of San Francisco, Cincinnati, Tampa, Detroit, Oklahoma City, Denver, and Boise, along with Ottawa and Calgary in Canada. Targets even included schools, with 24 schools in the state of Colorado going on lockdown as a result of the threat.
NYPD requested that people remain calm as the investigation continued and panic in the Big Apple heightened as more and more companies reported receiving the threatening emails.
“We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city. These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide and are not considered credible at this time,” NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau said in a statement, according to Comic Book.
