An unidentified person claiming responsibility for e-mailing death threats from remotely controlled computers last year has sent another message to Tokyo lawyers and media organizations, investigative sources said Tuesday.
The e-mail titled "Happy New Year" was sent to 25 addresses shortly after midnight Monday from the same address from which the previous messages claiming responsibility for the online threats came, the sources said.
The latest message said it is an "invitation to a new game" and a longer message from the sender will become available once a puzzle in an attached file is solved, they said.
The e-mail is linked to a separate message and a photo explaining that recording media containing data on a PC-controlling virus is buried in a hill in a Tokyo suburb, the sources said.
The sender said he or she wants "someone other than police to read the message first," the sources said.
The e-mail also said, "There is no need to report this to police immediately because the new game has no crime element involving dying or killing," according to the sources.
A total of 13 threats — including attacking a kindergarten and engaging in mass murder — were posted online or sent as e-mails using remotely controlled PCs, causing four users of hijacked PCs to be wrongly arrested between June and September.
In October and November, the person claiming to be the culprit sent messages to lawyers and media organizations by e-mail. Those messages contained details that only the sender of the threats could know.