There are a lot of internet scams out there, but this one may be the worst.
The Kingman Police Department has seen a substantial increase in reports of "e-mail death threat extortion."
In these scams, the sender of the e-mail says they have been hired to kill the recipient, and they offer to divulge the identity of who hired them in exchange for money.
The fee requested is usually in the thousands of dollars.Some of the more recent e-mails have been sent by "Al-Quaeda Networks" at [email protected].
The aim of the entire e-mail is to create fear in the recipient and have money wired to the sender, usually via Money Grams or Western Union.
A search of the Internet has revealed thousands of these scams being perpetrated across the country.
The Kingman Police Department would like to assure the community that these are scams and should not be considered valid. Anyone who receives these threats and any other scam should delete the e-mail and block the sender.
Information on this and other scams, rumors and urban legends also can be found at www.snopes.com.
Here's an example from StL today.
A woman who works downtown was told in an e-mail Wednesday night that the sender had been paid by someone to kill her but would renege for a price.
It said, in part, "Am very sorry for you my friend, is a pity that this is how your life is going to end as soon as you don't comply. … I don't have any business with you, my duty as I am mailing you now is just to KILL/ASSASINATE you and I have to do it as I have already been paid for that."
There have also been reports in Boise, ID, Colorado, Indiana, etc...
