Save your life, click this link now!
What would you do if you got an e-mail that said one of your friends paid someone to kill you, but that you have a chance to stop your own murder? All you have to do is click a link and pay a ransom.
Would you click the link? Would you wonder who hates you enough to hire a hit man to kill you? Would you wonder which of your friends you wronged?
According to this WPost story, about a dozen residents in Fairfax and Stafford counties received e-mails telling them that they are about to be killed.
"The sender tells the receiver, 'I've been hired to kill you, it's one of your friends, I'm watching you. However . . . 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,' " Fairfax police spokeswoman Camille Neville told the Post.
Before you get paranoid and shut yourself off from friends, or worse, pay the hit man, police say this is just a scam!
The only hit the e-mailer wants is a chance at hitting your bank account or other personal data to siphon off all your hard-earned money, police said.
The scams are not new, just a version of other phishing scams from on-line crooks who want to trick you into handing over bank accounts, credit card numbers and other personal information. The Post story said that in recent months, the center has issued several alerts about the growing creativity in online scams such as crooks posing as FBI agents who have demanded bribes or made threats; State Department officials who discovered recipients' inheritances abroad; and even U.S. soldiers in need of help, usually involving banking information.
Don't fall for it. If you're not sure or you're worried (either about a possible scam or a lurking killer), call the police.
I will admit, though, that I've had to read some of the bogus e-mails I've received twice (like the IRS scams that say I'm owed a small refund) because some of them are starting to look awfully legit. Unlike those Nigerian or lottery scams where you highly doubt someone's just going to plunk a sizable chunk of money in your lap, the smarter e-mails play on your hopes that you've got a more realistic sum of money coming your way or plays on your irrational fears.
Anyone get any e-mail scams lately that made you read it over twice? Would you fall for this hit man e-mail? Would you start wondering about the people close to you?!
(yea yea. I'm supposed to be out this week, but you guys are waaaaaay too important to me to not warn you about this crafty little caper.)
(photo courtesy of stock.xchng)
