Slashdot Mirror
Hit Man Email Scammer Back With a Vengeance
coondoggie writes "The online Hitman scammer, who threatens to kill recipients if they do not pay thousands of dollars to the sender, is still sending out thousands of emails and the FBI is again today warning users to ignore the spam and report any incidents to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. Two new versions of the scheme began appearing in July 2008, the FBI said. One instructed the recipient to contact a telephone number contained in the e-mail and the other claimed the recipient or a 'loved one' was going to be kidnapped unless a ransom was paid."
I thought it was standard procedure to first kidnap and then request a ransom. Why would people pay a ransom -provided they feel really threatened by the email - if noone is kidnapped yet? They can always pay ransom when the kidnapping is actually done?
Don't worry, he will. Something like this is going to happen:
Man went to jail last night for a bar fight. He paid his hundred dollars bail and gets out. He's pissed at whoever he got in a fight with, he's pissed at whoever called the cops, he's pissed at the cops, he's pissed at the bar. He comes home and finds an email threatening his life.
Whatever dimwit is sending these likely won'y be alive this time next year.
He's probaby posting at slashdot, probably somebody on my "freaks" list. I hope it's the AC who keeps posting the goatse trolls, they're getting tiresome.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Why are people calling this guy a 'scammer'? He sounds more like a simple extortionist.
Or is it simply that he is lying about murdering and kidnapping people, so tricking the victims into paying money when they get nothing in return? Maybe it would be more honest of him to really carry out the murders: then at least it wouldn't be a scam.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
This spammer isn't just stealing advertising and committing millions of instances of petty theft. A death threat is a felony in itself, and this clown is racking up enough separate crimes for his sentence to run to thousands of lifetimes.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Slashdot needs to add a spam mod.
You really think they would send these themselves? Very likely they go through at least one proxy, either electronic or meatspace. The wrong person - maybe not wholly innocent however - would likely take the bullet. We need to be fair in our hatred.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
There is always a risk that this will kick back on people like this. Death threats are something that will pop up on the radar of several agencies in several countries.
The ordinary Nigeria scams are just stupid and foolish.
"Dear fool I want to give you money but you will have to pay me first..."
is just so simple compared to
"Dear fool, provide me with some more information so I can kill you or some close relative unless you pay me"
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
...the FBI is again today warning users to ignore the spam and report any incidents...
Which is it? Ignore or report?
The educational requirements to become an FBI agent are supposed to be pretty high. Wouldn't know it from their press releases. I remember during the hunt for the Unabomber they mentioned that a parcel's return address was "factitious."
Unfortunately spammers being the scum of the earth that they are would exploit this by faking their own murder and claiming the bounty.