A teenage boy believed to be at the centre of an Minecraft gamers squabble has been detained following an explosion that shut down hundreds of colleges and schools across the UK.
Hertfordshire police detained the 19-year old after 24,000 threatening emails sent to schools were sent warning of a bomb attack , and asking for cash.
The emails were spoofed to look as if they had been sent by a gaming platform called VeltPvP. VeltPvP is an Minecraft player-versus-player server which is the kind of server that businesses use to sell products to gamers.
After a mass bomb hoax shut down schools in hundreds across the UK The teenager believed to be at the heart of an Minecraft gamers feud was arrested by Hertfordshire police. Hertfordshire police arrested the 19-year old after 24,000 emails were sent out to schools warning of an impending attack.
These emails were sent to disable VeltPvP and were designed to cause the domain's abuse to be suspended.
The National Crime Agency (NCA), stated that there was no evidence of threat to the emails that were received this week.
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In a statement, they said"We understand teachers and parents concerns, but we want to stress that there was no real threat to the emails schools received.
"However, we take the information seriously. We cannot comment further as this is a live investigation.
MINECRAFT SERVER LIST
The signs were placed outside Cardinal Road School in Feltham following the bomb hoax emails
The dispute was based on the notion that rivals were involved in illegal activities to stop each other from conducting business.
When asked whether he regretted the impact the letters had on school children who were compelled to leave one of the hoaxers replied, "It is terrible, it's not the most pleasant thing."
Placing the blame on VeltPvP the hoaxer claimed VeltPvP was involved in a campaign of Direct Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks - which he alleges were used to attempt to block other rival Minecraft servers.
Parents were asked to pick up their children following the threat to bomb hoax in the email
VeltPvP issued a statement stating that they were being hounded and harassed by cybercriminals.
"We are extremely sorry for anyone who was affected by this, but we want to inform you that this is a fake."
The email was sent to more than 400 schools and colleges across the country. It claimed that a bomb had already been planted and would explode if money was not provided.
Cardinal Road School, Feltham West London was one of the schools that received the fake email
Police forces from London, Bristol, Liverpool, Bedfordshire and the the North East were among those investigating.
Some parents requested to be allowed to pick up their children from school due to concerns about the emails.
Six schools in Hertfordshire were also affected: Abbots Hill, Valley School, Stevenage, The Sele School, Duncombe School, Stanborough School, Watford, St Albans High School and Valley School.