Return of the Hit Man E-mail Scam
The Internet Crime Compliant Center (IC3) has received thousands of reports concerning the hit man e-mail scam. This scam, which originally surfaced in 2006, contained a message claiming that the sender has been hired to kill the recipient.
In two new versions, which began appearing in July, the recipient was either told to contact a telephone number contained in the e-mail, or informed that a ‘loved one’ was going to be kidnapped unless a ransom was paid.
Recipients of the kidnapping threat were told to respond via e-mail within 48 hours. The sender was to provide the location of a wire transfer paying the ransom five minutes before the deadline – and threatened bodily harm if the ransom was not received within 30 minutes of the timeframe given. The recipients’ personally identifiable information (PII) was included in the e-mail to reinforce the impression that the sender actually knew the recipient and their location.