Another scam

In the early days of the internet there were the lottery winnings scams and scams involving "lost" relatives. Those seem to have evolved into the "Nigerian bank" scams, the various e-mails phishing for your private information and the recent scam aimed at our U S Military families.

Now the FBI is reporting a much more ominous online scam, the "hitman" e-mail. Not only does this e-mail suggest that the recipient will die because of a contract their "friend" put out on them, it continues on stating that they are monitoring your movements. The scam resides in the "blackmail" part of the e-mail. The recipient is informed that they will be left alone if they send the "hitman" anywhere from $30,000 to $80,000. According to the FBI, they have received more than 100 complaints involving this scam since it came to light in December of 2006.

"They can basically commit these offenses from anywhere in the world," FBI special agent James Burrell said.

The FBI has said that they have some leads and wouldn't provide specific details, although they believe that it originates overseas. Only a few people seem to have fallen for the scam, mailing thousands of dollars to "escape" the contract. Most realize that it is a scam since the e-mail contains generic information and nothing specific to the individual. It would seem that the internet scammers have stepped beyond simply tricks to gain you money and may have entered a new realm of "personal" threats.