419ers Diversify Into Assassination Threats?

Richardsonke1 writes "Just when you thought 419ers couldn't get any worse, now they are sending death threats, according to a story at The Register. The emails require you to 'produce a mandatory sum of US$40,000.00 {FOURTHY THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS} only,into our account given below in nigeria within ninety six hours{96},alternatively you will be SNIPPED and GUNNED down during the period of our oncoming anniversary of fifty years.' All joking of 'snipping' aside, for those people who fall for regular 419 emails, this would terrify many gullible web users."

Comments

FBI

[herrvinny]

At least this should bring in the FBI. Death threats crossing state lines has to qualify as an FBI/Justice Department investigation. Perhaps even the State Department if the email was really sent from a Nigerian server.

Maybe they've gone to far...

[venicebeach]

Perhaps now that the scammers have crossed this line they will get the attention of law enforcement. Sending a death threat is illegal, is it not? I realize that scamming people out of money is also illegal, but in this case it seems like the initial email is already crossing the line...

Crossing the Line

[Quirk]

This is a death threat. The State Dept. of the countries involved have a responsibility to protect its citizens. No matter how inept the method might be the threat stands and needs to be addressed.

insanity.

[randyest]

Note : - Your death has been paid for by someone you offended sometime ago and it will be adviceable that you co-operate with us a.s.a.p.

TOWOGBOLA .A.JOHNSON SECRETARY.

Oh please. "Someone" from "sometime" ago. $40k to not kill me. Riight. I guess, as the article mentions, this might be a little scary if it's, say, you're first email ever. But c'mon -- some anonymous hotmail account which has never been linked to me gets such a threat, and I'm supposed to worry enough to send $40k to a stranger? They'd need to include at least some personal info (name, address, car make/model/color, what I'm wearing and doing right now, etc.) to make it scary.

I don't see how this can work as well as the "traditional" greed-exploiting 419 scam.

And, assuming the bank account info is legit, seems like the authorities could put the smack down on this silliness pretty quickly.

So when a mail like this hits Bush's email account

[Anonymous Coward]

So when a mail like this hits Bush's email account (taking in mind Dubya knows how to operate 'that Internet thing') , that would be a threat to him.
Would that finally let some agency take some serious actions against those scammers ?

these people are just dumb

[ErichTheWebGuy]

In the current international climate, why would anyone send out stuff that could be considered terrorism? Now, they actually stand a decent chance of being caught. Before, it was only a minor annoyance to international law enforcement. Now, the senders are far more likely to be caught and punished severely.

Not that there's anything wrong with that from our viewpoint though :)

Account Info

[screwballicus]

The surprising thing is that this individual provided bank account info.

This leaves the scammer far less anonymity than he would normally seek to have.

Especially given that this was a death threat, revealing account info of the sender or an associate of the sender on the first email seems not only out of character for scammers (who are increasingly protective of personal details recently) but downright stupid.

Illegal *where*?

[billstewart]

If these scammers are really in Nigeria, then what matters most legally is whether Nigerian law counts emailing a death threat to some foreigner to be a violation of Nigerian law. What matters most in practice is whether you get caught, which depends on whether some police official there feels motivated to do the work to catch you. Under several recent Nigerian administrations, this is closely related to the probability that you've successfully scammed enough money from suckers to be worth hitting up for a piece of the action.

US law and US Executive Branch practice are hypocritical and schizophrenic. The US doesn't have any jurisdiction outside the US, and the Executive Branch has the policy that US laws don't apply to US government officials outside the US, but they might or might not apply to citizens, and if you do something overseas they don't like, they can kidnap you and haul you in, or confiscate your boat in the "war on drugs" or whatever.

The chances of getting realistic proactive police support from the US Feds are relatively low, but if you did actually lose money, it's possible that they'll help track down the bank, but they'll probably hit a dead end quickly. The more useful support would be something like telling their embassy that we're more pissed off about death threats than the usual scams against greedy people, or freezing US assets of Nigerian banks that don't cooperate in tracking down the miscreants, but I'm not optimistic.

Re:What happens....

[Anonymous Coward]

Making a death threat on ANYBODY is illegal, not just a judge or agent. If you get e-mails like this, print them out, headers and all, and contact your local law enforcement until they get pissed off enough to deal with it.

This is great. This is something the police know how to deal with - death threats. This isn't some dodgy dumb scam now, this is something they can beat someone up over, and they like that.