Online Extortion Scam
E-Mail scam
includes hit-man threat
The Mobile office of the FBI wants to advise the public of an
online extortion scam in which the e-mail recipients are threatened with death
by a hit-man. This scam began last December,
however, local residents are now receiving these e-mails.
As recently as July 5, 2007, a Mobile
resident received an e-mail message which stated that the sender had been hired
to "terminate" the recipient, however for $8000 the individual will
not carry through on the termination. The e-mail also indicates that they
have been following or watching the victim. They are also provided
instructions not to notify law enforcement or family members, because the
employer of the hit-man may be a family member of friend of the victim.
To date over
500 complaints have been filed with the FBI's International Crime Complaint
Center (IC3) since this scam emerged. The FBI advises this is a scam and
recipients should not respond to these e-mails. Replying sends a signal
to the sender that they have reached a live account, and it can also escalate
the intimidation. The underlying message in these scams is to pay the
sender or risk the alternative.
And there is
a twist to this scam, other e-mails are being sent
which state that an individual was recently arrested for the murders of several
United States and United Kingdom
citizens in relation to this matter. That e-mail goes on to state the
recipient's information was found on the subject identifying the recipient as
the next victim, and the recipient is asked to reply in order to assist in the
investigation.
The message
from the FBI is that recipients of these e-mails should delete them, do NOT
respond, and to file a complaint through the www.IC3.gov website. Due to the
threat of violence in these extortion e-mails, if an individual receives an
e-mail that contains personal information that might differentiate their e-mail
from the general e-mail spam campaign, the recipient should contact the FBI
immediately at 251-438-3674.
