A spam message wishing a Russian woman happy new year may very well have killed her, and saved hundreds of intended targets, according to an account by The Telegraph's Moscow correspondent, Andrew Osborn.

The woman, dubbed "The Black Widow," who Russian authorities suspect was part of the same militant group that killed 35 people at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday, was at a house preparing for the attack, which would have occurred on New Year's Eve at Red Square. Instead, the woman's mobile phone, which served as the device's detonator, was activated hours early by a spam message wishing her a happy new year. She was killed, while a man and woman suspected of being accomplices escaped from the house.

Russian security forces told The Telegraph that phones are usually kept off until the last minute for detonation, but in this case, "the terrorists were careless."