Spam at gunpoint: beware of threats sent to your email
From smut to drugs to sweepstakes, spam just keeps evolving. First there was innocent solicitation, then sexual junk and drugs. Then phishing (posing as the person’s bank or other legitimate financial institution the person is/may be affiliated with) began to take hold. Now, we have spam at gunpoint.
If you have trouble reading this, basically it says that the author has been given an advance payment to kill you, but will not do so if you provide an account where the money can be hidden.
The FBI has a page dedicated to this type of scam. So far, about 1,000 people have been contacted with this message, and one person who responded to the spammer received a reply reiterating the threat, but including personal information (which is easier than you think to get).
The Internet is full of scammers, I know. You’ve got to keep an eye out. But when people start sending stuff like this to your email, it changes the rules a bit. Go to the Internet Crime Complaint Center to learn more about what scams are out there and how to guard against becoming a scam victim.
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