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Hit Man Email Scammer Back With a Vengeance

Posted by timothy on from the chris-nandor's-the-one-who-should-be-afraid dept.

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."

5 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like dangerous business by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    sending out death threats to all and sundry . . . I hope law enforcement gets to the silly buggers before some real killers do

    1. Re:Sounds like dangerous business by Spamalope · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Thirded. Spammers in general should die horribly, and this idiot or idiots should be the first one up against the wall.

      I have a modest proposal. We create a google 'bounty' ad account, and all place at least one ad for that account on our sites. The bounty is payable to the hitman who kills one of the top ten ROKSO spammers. Like a lottery, the bounty increases until claimed.

      Perhaps we could convince spammers that being one of the top ten is a bad idea!

  2. Re:Is that a threat? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I read that in Japan someone sent out a spam that said "I know you're having an affair! Pay me $CASH_SUM or I'll tell your wife". He got lucky with some small percentage of the recipients who sent him money. But he got unlucky with a much smaller percentage who reported him to the police.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  3. Micropayments by RyoShin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Perfect scenario for micropayments! You could send 2000 e-mails and hope one person will pony up $1000 to avoid any downfall, or you can send 2000 e-mails and offer to take them off your hitlist for a mere dollar. At a low 50% return rate, you've made the original $1000, and the potential for more is much higher!

    Seriously, criminals these days.

  4. Re:Hey! That's my idea... by BronsCon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Spammer sends out billions of spam, watches the pot grow, offs himself and knows that his wife and kids are set for life.

    What we really need to do is make it "school districts only, one claim per district" and watch as the number of underfunded school districts drops asa drastically as the number of spammers.

    Can't beat a double-positive.

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.