E-mail Scam Threatening to kill Circulates in Central Oregon

Bend police is giving a warning to residents of Central Oregon to be wary of an e-mail scam that threatens to kill people, following the e-mail's arrival in the inboxes of a large number of Central Oregon inhabitants on August 1, 2008. The scam e-mail, which has been circulating around the world for many years, demands money as it admonishes and its subject title reads, "Somebody you called your friend wants you dead".

According to Lt. Ken Stenkamp, Officer of Bend police, the e-mail said that a certain individual has been hired to kill the recipient, however, if the "hit man" is paid handsomely, the order to kill would not be carried out, as reported by KTVZ on August 2, 2008.

Meanwhile, the police reported of receiving many complaints regarding the scam message, which seems to come from a overseas and contains the signature "YAIRI THALIB". Redmond police also took an action when an e-mail scam threatening of death appeared on August 1, 2008 at a certain address on Odem Medo Road.

Moreover, a similar set of "death threatening" messages have been circulating recently in Amarillo, Texas and New York. The scam started in late 2006, apparently emerging from Russia. Since then, the e-mail has passed through many ISPs but doesn't seem to target any specific e-mail providers or individuals.

However, the Bend police security officials are suggesting to people, who might have received such e-mails, that they should not respond to them nor reveal any information nor provide any money solicited in such a manner. In fact, they should delete the messages right away.

Further, police explained that the scam e-mails were the fraudsters' latest efforts to extract money from innocent people. According to the police, they are quite similar to those that falsely say the recipients had inherited large sums of money or were winners of a lottery, which they could get by simply sending the processing fees. Meanwhile, the FBI said that a huge number of the scam messages have been dispatched, however, the prosecution of the crime is difficult as the fraudsters usually are based in other countries.

Related article: E-Crime Reporting Format To Be Launched in July

» SPAMfighter News - 8/8/2008