Officials: Scam threatens to kill

Randy Mitchell Staff Writer

http://www.adaeveningnews.com/local/local_story_071133511.html

Ada — Ada police and the FBI are warning residents of an e-mail scam in which the scammers are warning of an impending “hit” on the victim’s life unless the intended victim pays them off.

Ada Police Detective Tracy Jackson said an Ada resident recently received just such an e-mail. The e-mail showed it was from “All Eyes On You” and in the subject line read “Death Await You” (sic).

In it, the sender claims to be a hit-man and speaks of someone who knows the addressee wants him or her dead.

The “hit-man” claims to have already been paid for the job and will kill the addressee unless he is paid a large sum of money.

A bulletin from the FBI warns the extortion e-mails are a hoax and people should not respond to them.

“Replying to these e-mails just sends a signal to senders that they’ve reached a live account. It also escalates the intimidation,” said John Hambrick, who heads the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.

In one case, a recipient responded he wanted to be left alone and threatened to call authorities.

The scammer, who was demanding an advanced payment of $20,000, e-mailed back and repeated the threat, this time with some personal information—his work address, marital status and his daughter’s full name. Then offered an ultimatum:

“Tell me now are you ready to do what I said or do you want me to proceed with my job? Answer yes/no and don’t ask any questions!!!”

Bill Shore, an FBI special agent, said recipients should not be overly spooked when scammers include their intended victims’ personal details in their schemes.

“Personal information is widely available,” he said. “Even if a person does not use the Internet or own a computer, they could still be the victim of a computer crime such as identity theft.”

According to the bulletin, the new extortion e-mails vary in style and content and generally contain misspellings and some broken English. The underlying message appears to be the same: pay the sender or risk the alternative. One e-mail in December 2007 said: “I have followed you closely for one week and three days now...Do not contact the police or F.B.I. or try to send a copy of this to them, because if you do I will know, and might be pushed to do what I have being (sic) paid to do.”

The scams, Shore said, “are an opportunity to raise awareness about Internet fraud.”

Authorities warn the best defense is to protect personal information as best they can and to delete—unopened—unsolicited SPAM e-mail.

Authorities have said these e-mails appear to be sent by someone whom English is a second language, also these letters are random and not directed toward to any specific persons and maybe Nigerian based.

Jackson said anyone receiving such an e-mail should file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center. People can log-on at www.ic3.gov.