FBI warns Philadelphia colleges over unspecific threat of violence on Monday with chilling echoes of Oregon attack
- Anonymous message on 4chan warns of attack at 2pm Eastern Time
- A similar message appeared on the forum before the Oregon attack
- The FBI said it issued alert to Philadelphia out of 'abundance of caution'
- Security teams have been ramped up in the area as FBI investigates
The FBI has warned of a threat to attack Philadelphia colleges on Monday afternoon.
In a warning sign that chillingly echoes the Oregon shootings, an anonymous message appeared on 4chan warning students and residents to avoid universities at 2pm Eastern Time.
'If you are in that area, you are encouraged to stay home and watch the news as the chaos unfolds,' the message said.
Hours before Chris Harper-Mercer opened fire on Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, last week, this message appeared on 4chan: 'Some of you guys are all right. Don't go to school tomorrow if you are in the northwest.'
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Temple University is one of the many Philadelphia colleges to ramp up security on Monday for fear of an attack
Extra security has been stationed outside the University of Delaware, Temple University, Villanova University and Drexel University for fear of an attack, according to WTXF.
Those universities, as well as La Salle University, also issued alerts to students notifying them of the FBI warning.
Federal agents said the warning was made 'out of an abundance of caution' .
The full message posted on 4chan's ROBOT9001 board last week said: 'The first of our kind has struck fear into the hearts of America.
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'A fellow robot will take up arms against a university near Philadelphia.
'His cries will be heard, his victims will cower in fear, and the strength of the Union will decay a little more.'
An FBI spokesman said: 'We encourage students, faculty, and employees at area colleges and universities to follow the guidance of their campus security officials.'
DailyMail.com has been unable to verify the authenticity of the message that has been tied to Harper-Mercer's murderous rampage, although police are said to be treating it seriously because 4chan has been used my school shooters in the past.
Did he send a warning? Police are now investigating if Chris Harper-Mercer, 26, said he was going to attack a school hours before he did it
A sinister warning message purportedly from the shooter who opened fire at an Oregon college allegedly appeared on an internet forum last night. Dailymail.com can not verify the authenticity of the message and has contacted 4chan for a response
History: In 2013, 18-year-old student Neil Allan Macinnis (pictured) shot dead two women at a Virginia college - before the killing he posted on 4chan asking users to 'wish him luck'
In 2013, 18-year-old student Neil Allan Macinnis shot dead two women at a Virginia college - before the killing he posted on 4chan asking users to 'wish him luck.'
The Oregon message, which is time stamped 19:19 p.m, continued: 'happening thread will be posted tomorrow morning. so long space robots.'
'Will post again in am, 10 min countdown. Won't say more to much to prepare.'
The alleged post is no longer visible on the website - the cached version was first posted on Reddit.
Under the disturbing message, many users encouraged the person to go ahead with their threat and even advised the poster on the best ways to kill people.
One user wrote: 'I suggest you enter a classroom and tell people that you will take them as hostages. Make everyone get in one corner and then open fire.
The mass shooting at the Oregon college has left dozens injured and at least nine dead
'Make sure that there is no way that someone can disarm you as it it possible. I suggest you carry a knife on your belt as last resort if someone is holding your gun.'
While another user wrote: 'You might want to target a girls school which is safer because there are no beta males throwing themselves for their rescue.
'Do not use a shotgun. I would suggest a powerful assault rifle and a pistol or 2x pistols. Possibly the type of pistols who have 15+ ammo.'
'If you are suicidal and hate people then do it. If not then stay away from what will ruin your life,' another user wrote.
'THE NINTH CIRCLE OF HELL': WHAT IS THE WEB FORUM 4CHAN?
The site is used principally by young men, and its guarantee of anonymity (users don’t have to register before posting messages) has seen it described as ‘the ninth circle of Hell’.
4chan recently hit the headlines when someone calling himself ‘OriginalGuy’ posted explicit pictures of Jennifer Lawrence and other stars on the notoriously sordid but influential internet ‘image board’.
Yet it was set up by a sweet-faced 15-year-old schoolboy, Christopher Poole, in his New York bedroom in 2003. He wanted to offer a forum for people to put whatever they wanted online with no rules and no fear of prosecution.
In 2009, Poole was voted the world’s most influential person by Time magazine although 4chan users reportedly rigged the poll.
The original aim for 4chan — as a slightly risque forum for teenagers — soon turned into an internet cesspool as users exploited it to spread the most vile material.
In so-called ‘shock posts’, they try to outdo each other in offensiveness. For example, pictures of dead people and car accidents are popular, as is extreme pornography and virulent racism.
The biggest difference between 4chan and other forums is that it allows commentators and contributors to post anonymously
Despite being the only type of material that is meant to be banned from the site, child porn is regularly posted. ‘Pranks’ have included taunting the family of a suicide victim, starting bomb and school shooting scares, encouraging young fans of the singer Justin Bieber to harm themselves and triggering a false rumor that Apple founder Steve Jobs had died of a heart attack.
Anyone who offends the 4chan community or other cheerleaders for the out-of-control internet can expect revenge attacks. Ater the credit card companies Visa and Mastercard stopped handling donations to the whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks, they were targeted by on-line vigilantes who managed to crash their websites.
Indeed, many members of the sinister mask-wearing international vigilante hacking group Anonymous started out as 4chan members.
Most of 4chan’s most offensive content is posted on its digital message board, called /b/, where members call themselves ‘/b/tards’ and live up to the title with displays of vicious misogyny.
Countless pages are devoted to ‘revenge porn’ — once the unpleasant practice of posting publicly compromising photos of an ex-lover, this is now a catch-all term for any compromising photos of women published online without their consent.
An even more revolting trend is for so-called ‘creepshots’, in which men try to photograph the bodies of women or girls — often under-age — whom they have seen out in public.
Once again, marks are awarded for the most compromising shots. If challenged over why they are allowing pictures that have been taken up a teenager’s skirt, websites like 4chan say it was legal as it occurred in a public place.
Most sickeningly, some 4chan users felt the site wasn’t sufficiently pornographic and formed a break-away message board, AnonIB, where hackers calling themselves ‘iCloud rippers’ advertise their services to break into the online account of any woman and download her private photos.
The site’s so-called ‘obtained pictures’ section lists the email and iCloud addresses of dozens of women. When a hacker successfully breaks into their account, they notch up ‘win’ and post any embarrassing pictures they find.
Experts believe this latest celebrity stalking began in what is known as the Dark Web (or Deep Web or Underweb) a noxious matrix of encrypted websites that allows users to surf beneath the everyday internet with complete anonymity.
It has existed for more than a decade and has been used by criminals to deal in drugs, sell weapons and view horrific child pornography. Much of the trade is done with bitcoins, the controversial digital currency which is increasingly used by cyber-criminals to cloak their activities.
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