‘Hitman Scam’ Targets People of Ontario

According to Cobourg Police Service (Ontario, Canada), phishing e-mails threatening to kill people are currently being circulated on the Internet in the Cobourg locality.

One woman named 'Teresa Squier Squim' recently got an upsetting e-mail on June 10, 2009. The message, however, would redirect the recipient towards phishing.

The e-mail stated that the person sending it represented the Islamic killer community and he was a suicide aid who was supposed to assassinate Teresa together with the remaining members of her (Teresa's) family.

The e-mail's writer also claimed that he belonged to the 'ISHMAEL GHOST ISLAMIC GROUP' and he was given the task of killing Teresa because she had annoyed an Ishmael Ghost Islamic Group member.

Its sender would begin his job within 72 hours of Teresa's receiving the message and he was maintaining a sharp watch on her, said the e-mail. To fully scare her, the e-mail also says that the killings would begin with the assassination of Teresa's family and then Teresa herself.

Nevertheless, if Teresa wants to save herself and her family, then she must send an $800 sum by Western Union, states the e-mail.

In the meantime, frightened Teresa gathered courage and told everything to Cobourg Police, which after thorough analysis of the e-mail said that it was simply another phishing e-mail scam worrying innocent netizens to extract money from them.

Cobourg Police publicized the episode among the local people as well as assured them that the intimidations were baseless and purely a hoax. Police also said that such criminals often targeted the vulnerable sections of the society, especially the older people.

However, it is worth noting that sending of such phishing e-mails to netizens that threaten to take life is not new. The scam, which is widely known as 'Hitman scam', made its first appearance during 2006. At that time, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) comforted the country's citizens with the assurance that such e-mails were purely scam e-mails and if anyone received one, they should not take it seriously or become tensed.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 6/20/2009