A new email scam is doing the rounds; hit man spam:
The e-mail, in less-than-perfect English, claims that the recipient has been stalked by a hired assassin for the past ten days but the hitman is prepared to drop the contract if he is paid a total of $80,000. After a down payment of $20,000 he will provide taped evidence of the contract.
Sigh… and Saddam Hussein was my maiden aunt. It goes on:
The spammer adds: “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.”
Yeah, right. This is always presuming this garbage even gets past my email filters in the first instance. And the fuckwit is just sooo generous, offering to let us off for such a paltry sum. Is anyone out there as stupid as this moronic fuckwit? The answer, most likely and sadly, is “yes”.
Oh, I spoke too soon:
but some recipients had taken it seriously, including a group of professionals in Philiadelphia.
They included several dentists – at least one of whom contacted the FBI – and a car dealer who drove straight to his local police station for protection.
“There are vulnerable people out there who could take it seriously. It could make them frightened,” said Mr Cluley.
That, of course, is what spam filters are for. Just remind me not to go to Philadelphia to get my teeth done.
Sophos, which sells various internet security products, advises recipients not to reply to the death threat e-mail – just to delete it.
Yeah, well, that should be the blindingly obvious… Still, it all makes a mild diversion on a wet Friday evening.
Obviously, people are this stupid!