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FBI Warns of Email Death Threats Demanding Bitcoin (abc7.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the crimes-for-cryptocurrency dept.

An anonymous reader writes: "I will be short. I've got an order to kill you," the note said, demanding $2,800 in U.S. dollars or Bitcoin. "I switched from being upset about it to, 'I need to get the word out'," one of its targets told a local newscaster. They filed a report through the FBI's web site.

"If only 1% of people send money -- there's no overhead for them; that's money in the bank," one FBI agent tells the news team. A quick Google search finds recent reports of two nearly identical threats using the same text.

"I have been thinking for a long time whether it is worth sending this notice, and decided that you still have the right to know... I've got an order to kill you, because some of your activity causes trouble to several people... I decided to break some rules, as this will be my final order... As soon as I receive the funds, I will forward you the name of the man [this] order came from, and all other information I have."

13 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Excellent Investment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think investing in the currency of extortionists and criminals is a prudent move.

    I'll take one bitcoin for $20,000 please, and please store my investment on a web server controlled by the Yakuza.

  2. Serving hits since 2006 apparently by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    "The scam e-mail, which first appeared in December 2006, purports to be a hired assassin, but is in reality a mass spamming looking to grab your personal information. Replying to the e-mails just sends a signal to senders that they’ve reached a live account. It also escalates the intimidation, the FBI said in a report last year."

    https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2007/january/threatscam_111507

    1. Re:Serving hits since 2006 apparently by sheramil · · Score: 3, Funny

      "The scam e-mail, which first appeared in December 2006, purports to be a hired assassin, but is in reality a mass spamming looking to grab your personal information.

      Right. Because if someone emails you, saying "By the way, I've been hired to kill you," the very first thing you do is give them your personal information.

    2. Re:Serving hits since 2006 apparently by dgatwood · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah. As soon as they ask for that, a sane person should probably ask, "If you don't know who I am, I guess you can't kill me, then," and ignore all further emails.

      WARNING: SARCASM AHEAD. DO NOT ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING SUGGESTED BELOW.

      That said, if you want a response that would be far more entertaining (for anyone observing from a sufficiently safe distance), one could always up the ante. For example:

      Scammer: For $2,800, I'll give you the information about the person who hired me to kill you.
      Victim: I'll give you [some significantly larger amount], under one condition: First you have to bring me the severed head of the person who hired you to kill me.

      This is likely to provoke one of two reactions: A. They're the FBI. You spend a few months in a jail while your lawyers smack them around for entrapment, and if you're really unlucky, you spend the rest of your life with a cellmate named Bubba. B. They think you're the FBI. They flee to another country that lacks an extradition treaty with the United States and never contact you again.

      However, there is always the risk that you might come home one day to find a head-sized box on your porch. So one should probably have a passport ready before contemplating such a response, along with a plane ticket to a country that lacks an extradition treaty with the United States. :-D

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    3. Re:Serving hits since 2006 apparently by meglon · · Score: 2
      You have new mail!

      "I have been thinking for a long time whether it is worth sending this notice, and decided that you still have the right to know... I've got an order to kill you, because some of your activity causes trouble to several people... I decided to break some rules, as this will be my final order... As soon as I receive the funds, I will forward you the name of the man [this] order came from, and all other information I have."

      Hit REPLY to respond.

      Dear Sir,

      I appreciate you coming forward to inform me of this unpleasant business, however I am already aware of whom it was who hired you, and as of 43 minutes ago, they are deceased. Also of note, our security services are already tracking your whereabouts thanks to information gleaned from your message. To show my appreciation, I will give you a full 24 hours to say goodbye to you family and friends, and to make peace with whatever God you choose to believe in. If there is a particular place you wish to be at the time of your death, please be there, otherwise security services will carry out the task at hand in the wrong place. Please remember, do not wear the suit you wish to be buried in as it will most likely be damaged beyond repair.

      Again, thank you, and have a nice day.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  3. Re:Legalize lynching again by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

    Add ID theft and some other crimes as well to that.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  4. Wrong 1% by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Man if they're only asking for $2800, they're definitely targeting the wrong 1%.

  5. Re:FBI should pay the $2,800 by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2

    In my world, "justice" includes things like a trial in which the prosecution must prove charges beyond a reasonable doubt, conviction, and sentencing in a court of law.

    Not too sure about yours.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  6. Fools by mentil · · Score: 3, Interesting

    People watch too many movies. Hired killers aren't Leon the Professional. They're Joe-Bob the alcoholic that your wife met at the bar and slipped $500 to whack you with a crowbar. That's why they get caught all the time, in the rare case that it's not just a sting to catch people trying to hire a contract killer.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  7. Only $2800? by hawguy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd like to think that the guy hired to kill me would need a lot more than $2800 to double-cross the guy that hired him to kill me. How little did I piss someone off for it to only be worth $2800 to call off the killing?

  8. Re:Legalize lynching again by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Bring back lynching. It would do a tremendous about of good for society.

    Yes, it's much more fun to string up those uppity Negroes or even set them on fire than be bothered with the niceties of a trial.

    (And do not even try to tell this good ol' Southern boy that lynching means anything else other than "those people aren't real people like us, so we can kill them whenever we feel like it".)

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  9. If it only costs $2800, then.... by mark-t · · Score: 2

    ... the person is *NOT* any kind of professional hitman, as the letter would suggest, unless he's somehow gotten displaced in time by about a hundred years or more.

    Honestly, the letter would sound a whole lot more convincing if there were a few more zeroes in the figure... at least 2 more, and more likely 3.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  10. Much threat by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Funny

    So death

    Please send $2800 in DogeCoin to stop

    Wow

    --
    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;