LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Several states — including Nevada — have been targets of hoax bomb threats over the past couple of weeks.
The Las Vegas FBI said Wednesday it's aware of the threatening messages sent to hospitals, schools, and government buildings.
"FBI Las Vegas is aware of several hoax bomb threats sent to private and public facilities in Nevada," the FBI said in a statement.
"The FBI takes hoax threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk. While we have no information to indicate a specific and credible threat, we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to gather, share, and act upon threat information as it comes to our attention. We urge the public to remain vigilant, and report any and all suspicious activity and/or individuals to law enforcement immediately.”
The Nevada Hospital Association said for a third week in a row, area hospitals have been receiving emailed bomb threats — including one on Tuesday, Jan. 9.
The details were revealed during a weekly hospital report shared by the association on Wednesday. That most recent email read:
“I placed explosives inside your Hospital, but also inside of every Hospital form Nevada. The explosives will go off in a few hours. You will all die.”
On Jan. 3, the association shared another weekly report where it again identified the threatening emails being sent to hospitals across the state. That report stated the following:
"This week, hospitals in Nevada and Kansas are reporting multiple bomb threats. All hospitals involved this week appear to be small critical access hospitals who received the bomb threat via email. To date the bomb threats of last week and this week occurring throughout the nation have all been hoaxes."
Retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Det. Phillip Ramos said investigators approach these threats with some skepticism.
"Don't panic when you receive these," Ramos said. "Don't take any extreme measures at this particular point until the intelligence has been gathered."
James Turgal, vice president of global advisory and board relations at Optiv Security, says there's been an uptick in hoax bomb threat emails, with the intent of causing fear.
"They are designed to create chaos. They are designed to create a sense of fear," Turgal said.
Turgal is also the former assistant director for the FBI's information and technology branch.
He said these calls could be coming from "Torswatting" groups, which use computer-generated voices to call in coordinated swatting campaigns — for a price.
"It is probably not one single person," said Turgal. "There are Torswatting groups out there. So swatting is a service, it's an absolute thing that you can buy on the dark web. You can actually pay money to have these swatting groups, these swatting as a service groups, you give them the name, you give them the address and they will go out — this organization on the dark web will do it . The probable is that they were counting it off of these Tor networks that enhance the anonymity of it."
Reached for comment on the threats, University Medical Center CEO Mason Van Houweling sent this statement:
"UMC collaborated closely with our neighbors from the Valley Health System in our shared response to the threat we received via email. To ensure the safety of our patients, staff and visitors, UMC’s expertly trained Public Safety Department works alongside the multi-agency Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center to share information regarding any threats of terrorism."
Sunrise Health Hospitals had this to say about the threats:
"Sunrise Health Hospitals did not directly receive a threat. In the event we did, we would take the threat seriously by following our emergency management protocol and notifying METRO police department to ensure the safety of our patients, colleagues and visitors."
If the suspects behind the bomb threats are caught, they could face federal and/or state charges, which include terrorism.
