Hit-Man Scam: Your Money or Your Life

A virtual stick-up rattles recipients

By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 27, 2008

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Here's a scam that's guaranteed to get your attention: an e-mail from a hit man who says he's been hired to kill you.

Police in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Fairfax County, Va., say the scammer is primarily interested in getting bank account numbers. So far, no one has been shot for refusing to comply, at least as far as we know.

Here's how it works, according to police and The Washington Post: The scam artist sends an email that says, "I've been hired to kill you ... I don't believe you did what they said and I'm going to give you a chance to pay me, and I won't kill you."

Forward the supposed hit man your checking account number and he'll go away, is the gist of it.

One of the recipients is employed at a Northern Virginia bank but police said there was no indication the scam artist was targeting specific types of targets.

While the hit-man scam has not been widely reported, officials at the Internet Crime Complaint Center say it's nothing new.

The center says that scammers have become much more creative in the past year and now routinely impersonate the Social Security Administration, State Department, FBI, IRS and other government agencies.

Consumers who receive such emails should not respond to them. Instead, they should report them at www.ic3.gov, operated by a consortium of law enforcement agencies.

On the other hand, if you receive a threatening email from someone who seems to have a lot of information about you, you should contact your local police department.

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