My Days Are Numbered – Someone Wants Me Dead!

I sometimes wonder if it isn’t a prerequisite that Nigerian scammer wannabes are required to graduate “comedy school”, before they get their scammers license, and are set free to practice their newfound skills on the marginally intelligent.

In an updated twist on an old theme (the infamous 419 scam), Nigerian scammers have upped the ante in a variant of their usual email scam nonsense – the hitman, “I’m gonna kill you” email. These fear-provoking emails (at least they’re intended to be scary), contain a threat that the recipient will be murdered.

Hitman emails are not a new threat – they’ve  been circulating on the Internet since at least early in 2007. They come; they go, and come and go again.

There are many variations of this email, here’s one example received here yesterday. In this particular email, the scammer has bcc’d (blind carbon copied) any number of upcoming murder victims. Seems as if the murder/assassination business is a growth industry.  

You have been betrayed!!! It’s a pity that this how your life is going to come to an end as your death had already been paid for by someone who is very close to you from all investigations.

I have ordered 3 (three) of my men to monitor every move of you and make sure you are not out of sight till the date of your assassination. According to the report I gets, you seem to be innocent about what you have been accuse but I have no business with that, so that’s why am contacting you to know if truly you are innocent and how much you value your life.

Get back to me if you sure want to live on, ignore this mail only if you feel it’s a joke or just a threat. Don’t forget your days on earth are numbered, so you have the chance to live if only you will comply with me.

WARNING: Tell no one about this mail to you because he or she might just be the person who wants you dead, and if that happens, I will be aware and am going to make sure you DIE instantly.

I will give you every detail of where to be and how to take any actions be it legal or illegal, that’s only when I read from you. You need to stay calm and act unaware of this situation and follow instructions because any move you make that is suspicious; you will DIE as your days are numbered.

On a more serious note:

This scam illustrates the lengths to which these crooks will go to entrap the unwary and gullible. Unfortunately, the description “unwary and gullible”, is easily applied to substantial numbers of Internet users.

As an experienced and cautious Internet user, it’s safe to say that you will not be deceived by this type of clumsy attempt to defraud but, you might be surprised how often reasonably intelligent people are.

So, be kind to your friends, relatives, and associates, particularly those who are new Internet users, and let them know that there is an epidemic of 419 scams on the Internet. In doing so, you help raise the level of protection for all of us.

Don Gunshot – The Hitman With A Heart e-Blackmail

I sometimes wonder if it isn’t a prerequisite that Nigerian scammer wannabes are required to graduate “comedy school”, before they get their scammers license and are set free to practice their newfound skills on the marginally intelligent.

In a new twist on an old theme (the infamous 419 scam), Nigerian scammers have upped the ante in a variant of their usual email scam nonsense – the hitman, “I’m gonna kill you” email. These fear-provoking emails (at least they’re intended to be scary), contain a threat that the recipient will be murdered by – are you ready for this – “Don Gunshot”.

But, Don is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill “I’m gonna blast ya out of your shoes” hitman. No, Don it seems, has a big heart. For a measly $5000, Don will take you off the list of his current projects. Just in case you might think that Don is no gentleman, he’s gone the extra mile and politely signed off on the email, with a kindly – Regard(s). Too funny!

Hitman emails are not a new threat – they’ve  been circulating on the Internet since at least early in 2007. They come; they go, and come and go again.

So it’s hardly surprising to see that Symantec has just identified a new wave of hitman emails currently making the rounds. Although there are many variations of this email, here’s one example:

Click graphic to expand to original size.

Graphic courtesy of Symantec.

On a more serious note:

Don’t act fast as Don suggests. Don’t send $5000. Do contact the Police – this an attempt at extortion.

This scam illustrates the lengths to which these crooks will go to entrap the unwary and gullible. Unfortunately, the description “unwary and gullible”, is easily applied to substantial numbers of Internet users.

As an experienced and cautious Internet user, it’s safe to say that you will not be deceived by this type of clumsy attempt to defraud but, you might be surprised how often reasonably intelligent people are.

So, be kind to your friends, relatives, and associates, particularly those who are new Internet users, and let them know that there is an epidemic of 419 scams on the Internet. In doing so, you help raise the level of protection for all of us.

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Threats in Your Email – Hitman Online Extortion

It’s not uncommon for spam to include false warnings in order to trick the recipient into falling for a scam, a phishing attack or installing malware.

A previous spam campaign that was active towards the end of 2007 came in the form of an e-mail allegedly from a private investigator hired to investigate the recipient. This is a private investigator with a heart, it seems, since the email recipient is advised that their telephone is being monitored and that it will be revealed who planned this surveillance in a follow-up e-mail.

As a sign of good faith by the private investigator, a password-protected compressed file was attached to the message that supposedly contained a recording of the victim’s telephone conversations. In reality however, this password-protected compressed file was designed to defeat anti-malware applications running on the victim’s computer.

The file actually contained malware in the form of a Trojan horse, identified by Symantec Corporation as Trojan.Peacomm.D, which most of us know as the “Storm” Trojan. This malware is designed to gather system information and email addresses from a compromised computer. As well, this Trojan can infect legitimate system drivers, and variants can insert components into legitimate processes such as Explorer.exe and Services.exe.

Now we’re faced with a variant of this email scam, the Hitman email. These fear-provoking emails contain a threat that the recipient will be murdered by a hired Hitman. Fortunately, there is a way out of this predicament however; if the recipient will agree to pay a substantial sum of money to the Hitman the contract will be cancelled.

These Hitman emails are not a new occurrence since they were circulating on the Internet early in 2007. These frightening emails have resurfaced again in the past few months, and they seem to be aimed primarily at a select group of professional high earners, such as doctors, lawyers, and business owners, who are more likely to be in a position to pay the large sums of money demanded in the email.

Although there are many variations of this email, here is one example:

Good Day,

I want you to read this message very crefully, and keep the secret with you till further notice, You have no need of knowing who i am, where am from,till i make out a space for us to see, i have being paid $50,000.00 in adbance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer,its one i believe you call a friend,i have followed you closely for one week and three days now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusation,

Do not contact the police or F.B.I or try to send a copy of this to them, because if you do i will know, and might be pushed to do what i have being paid to do,beside this is the first time i turned out to be a betrayer in my job.

Now listen,i will arrange for us to see face to face but before that i need the amount of $80,000.00 and you will have nothing to be afraid of.I will be coming to see you in your office or home dtermine where you wish we meet,do not set any camera to cover us or set up any tape to record our conversation,my employer is in my control now,

You will need to pay $20,000.00 to the account i will provide for you, before we will set our first meeting,after you have make the first advance payment to the account,i will give you the tape that contains his request for me to terminate you, which will be enough evidence for you to take him to court(if you wish to), then the balance will be paid later.

You don’t need my phone contact for now till am assured you are ready to comply good.

Lucky You.

Like all email scams these emails, which contain many grammatical and spelling errors, are generally sent to a large number of people within the targeted group in the expectation, (usually justified), that some will respond. Compounding the issue further, the cyber criminals may try to collect personal information from the victim in an attempt at identity theft.

Keeping in mind that email scams are sent out in bulk it’s reasonable to assume, if you should receive such an email, you are not in any danger of being murdered by a hired killer. Obviously the attempt at extortion is genuine, but the threat against your life is not.

Internet security experts always advise; if you receive unsolicited email messages, you should not reply or respond in any way, but instead simply delete the message from your inbox. In the case of this particular email scam law enforcement officials repeat that advice; that you not respond.

However, in the event you receive a threatening email that includes significant personal information that is specific to you, to ensure your safety, it would be prudent to report this to your local police department.

From Scambusters.org

Don’t Get Scammed!

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