Hackers threaten mass murder

Three Britons are facing arrest and extradition to America for their alleged role in a sustained wave of hoax calls threatening mass murder at US institutions.

The threats are said to have been made by a trans-Atlantic group of computer hackers and gamers who have named themselves after Isis terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

The eight-month campaign is thought to have cost American authorities more than US$1 million as emergency response teams, including armed Swat units and bomb disposal squads, have been dispatched to incidents and neighbourhoods placed in lockdown.

The FBI has been told that at least one of the alleged perpetrators – who uses the online aliases ‘‘Verified’’ and ‘‘Spiky’’ – lives in Scotland.

Further inquiries by The Sunday Times indicate that a second suspect may also be Scottish and a third British suspect could be as young as 16.

If arrested and charged, they could face a lengthy extradition battle and potential jail terms of 15 years in America.

It is unclear, however, whether the hoax calls were made by Islamist extremists or by pranksters exploiting the Isis name to cause maximum panic and to besmirch law-abiding Muslims.

Isis (also known as Islamic State) is known to be recruiting experts in cyberwarfare, including people from Britain. Among them is Junaid Hussain, a former hacker from Birmingham.

Hussain was the teenage leader of a group called Team Poison which sabotaged an anti-terrorism hotline in 2012 by bombarding it with more than 100 prank calls.

He posed under the alias West’’.

Hussain, now 20, also stole personal information from Tony Blair, the former prime minister, and posted it on the internet.

The FBI investigation is focusing on a group of individuals who know each other from playing on Microsoft’s Xbox.

Before adopting the name ‘‘ISISGang’’ in August they called themselves ‘‘Team Crucifix or Die’’ or TCoD – a reference to the Call of Duty computer game cited by some British jihadists in Syria.

‘‘Robert

The trail led investigators to Britain after the arrest this month of an American, Matthew Tollis, 21, who is being prosecuted by the United States attorney for the district of Connecticut for his alleged involvement in the hoax calls.

An affidavit from an FBI agent filed by the prosecution states: ‘‘It is believed that three members of the TCoD group reside in the United Kingdom and that they have participated in making the hoax threats from the UK.

‘‘The three individuals are known as ‘Verified’, ‘Jordie’ and ‘Declaws’.

‘‘The FBI agent is actively working with the authorities in the UK to identify the targets and request their support in prosecuting the additional targets.’’

The affidavit adds: ‘‘Law enforcement has observed that the leaders of this group are now calling themselves ‘ISISGang’.’’

Tollis has given the FBI the possible identities of ‘‘Verified’’ and ‘‘Jordie’’, claiming the former lives in Scotland.

The threatening calls, made via Skype, began in January and continued until last month, US court papers reveal.