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."

Comments

Is that a threat?

[xandos]

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?

Re:Is that a threat?

[Yvanhoe]

In this case, people might actually believe (as much as you and I can't see how) that someone they know might be in real peril of getting kidnapped. Yup, it's naive, but we know people believe all sorts of things.

Note as well that a small percentage of these will fall in mailbox of people in a situation where these threats may be more plausible. I mean, if my mother received such a mail just the day after my company sent my in a middle-east country, it may take a more worrying tone.

Also, if you tell "I kidnapped your child" to 20,000 people, you have a good chance to have 2 or 3 people in the list who really don't know where their children are and worried about it.

Death threats are a felony.

[jcr]

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