Teenager Provides Bomb Hoax Services on Dark Web, Earns Close to Million in Bitcoin

By Swati Kishore

American-Israeli teenager Michael Kadar, who made as much as 2,000 bomb hoaxes from 2015 to 2017, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a court in Tel Aviv. Kadar made a small fortune in Bitcoin by selling his bomb services on the dark web. The bomb threats earned him the pseudonym of ‘JCC Bomb Hoaxer’.

As per the prosecutors, the 19-year-old bomb hoaxer focused on Jewish Community Centers for making such threats. The New York Times has reported that the culprit also focused on police stations, airports, commercial airlines, schools, hospitals, etc., for bomb hoaxes.

The young Bitcoin investor made a living from bomb hoaxes. Allegedly, he charged USD 500 for making a bomb hoax call to commercial jets, while for private homes he earned about USD 40, and school USD 80. His autistic condition led Kadar to be homeschooled.

As per documents filed by the prosecutors, Kadar provided the bomb hoax services on the dark web. He earned the payment in Bitcoin, and so far he has accumulated as much as 184 BTC which equal USD 0.8 million at the current trading prices.

Interestingly, media reports have noted that Kadar was paid by students to make bomb threats at their schools to get exams postponed. As a result of the bomb hoaxes made by the teenager, police and emergency services would evacuate the premises. Kadar’s threats to commercial airlines resulted in fighter jets accompanying the planes to land safely.

The teen made the threats from his home in Ashkelon where he resided with his parents. Ashkelon is a coastal city in southern Israel. He used a specialized software to modify his voice and hide his geographical location.

The verdict by Judge Zvi Gurfinkel read as follows:

“One can easily imagine the terror, the fear and the horror that gripped the airplane passengers who were forced to make an emergency landing, some of whom were injured while evacuating the plane and the terrified panic caused when there was a need to evacuate pupils from schools because of fake bomb threats.”