Law enforcement officials are warning residents of Washington, Virginia and Maryland of spam e-mails that attempt to extort money by threatening to kill the recipient.
The e-mail, sent from [email protected], says that the sender is a hitman who has been hired to kill the recipient unless the individual pays tens of thousands of dollars.
The e-mail sender claims to have been following the victim because he was hired to kill the victim by a friend of the victim. The subject threatens to carry out the killing if the victim goes to the police, and tells the victim to respond quickly and provide their telephone number.
The sender says that if the recipientagrees to pay $150,000, the hitman will terminate the contract and provide a tape recording of the person who hired him, said FBI spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan.
The e-mails appear to be a variation on similar Internet schemes, now with a threat of violence, she said. The e-mails appear to originate from outside the United States, and it’s doubtful that the sender has been following the recipient or knows where the individual lives.
“We don’t want people to panic,” Milhoan said.
FBI officials asked that anyone who received such an e-mail immediately notify police or file a complaint at www.ic3.gov.
