Contract killing scam - haven't heard of this one before

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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 6:54 pm

The Miller Press, Miller, South Dakota
www.themillerpress.com

Friday, August 17, 2007

Sheriff urges public to beware of savvy scammers

Friday, August 17, 2007

Ruth A. Moller

According to Hand County Sheriff, Doug DeBoer, the sheriff's office has received more than a dozen notifications recently regarding scams of various kinds, including e-mail scams.

"While we encourage people to always be on the look out for scams, some 'self help' information will streamline the effect and allow residents to make a decision at the time they receive the email, whether to delete or open the email," DeBoer said.

The sheriff said several of these e-mails told the recipient that a "hit" or "contract" had been placed against them for several hundreds of thousands of dollars and the "killer" would revoke on the contract if the victim would pay him instead. "It's a very frightening e-mail to say the least, but many brought them to us," DeBoer explained. "I called the DCI and they assured me it was a scam to get money from people. I checked with the Feds at their website, http://www.ic3.gov/, and found the same e-mail had been sent to hundreds of thousands of e-mail customers across the nation."

In trying to reach as many people as possible, DeBoer set out to find a quick answer, which he decided really wasn't so "quick."

He found a link that contains some basic information that might help people understand the e-mail version of these scams. Resolution might be as simple as hitting "DELETE" on your keyboard. For the information, go to http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/phishing/identify.mspx.

"I encourage people to delete e-mails from people they do not recognize.� Do not open it and then delete--simply delete it. Never reply to an e-mail because it only tells the sender that the e-mail address (yours) is valid," DeBoer cautioned.

He added, "We continue to received reports of mail scams where some person claims to represent a dead person with huge assets in another country and this person needs someone here to receive the funds and return all but a portion of it to the 'person,' thus laundering the money."

This scam may have two purposes: 1) You provide your bank account information so they can send you money, which they might do by way of counterfeit check, or they will not send you money but request money out of your account; or, 2) You receive a check (bogus, normally) and you send them the refund in real money (yours) and then you are left holding the bag for the balance.

"In short, don't do it!!," DeBoer said. "If this were a valid situation, no one would go through e-mails or the mail to recruit you."

DeBoer warns the public to never give personal or financial information to anyone you don't already have a business relationship with. Know which one of your contacts will communicate with you by phone and which will only contact you by mail.

"For instance, the South Dakota Sheriff's Association offers Honorary Memberships.� The association will only send information by mail so residents can decide at their discretion whether to join or whether to throw it in the garbage.�Some have questioned the Rapid City return address on the envelope, which is good!� I received many calls and explained that our director receives the mail in Rapid City."

He added that some other police organizations use telephone solicitations and many complaints were received at the sheriff's office.�"I can only say that I don't send them money because the people doing the calling have no clue about our local law enforcement needs and I have yet to receive any funds to support our anti-drug program."

DeBoer says his goal is to enlighten people, and to urge them to disregard "junk mail" and "junk e-mail," as well as telephone solicitations by any group that is unfamiliar.

Protect yourself. If in doubt, contact the Hand County Sheriff's Office, 853-2408; the Miller Police Department, 853-2400; or the Consumer Protection Division at 1-800-300-1986, or by e-mail at [email protected].

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

There are some example of the hitman scam in the main scambaiting forum right now, also if you do a forum search for assassin or hitman, you will get numerous results.

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 12:05 am

Yeah, I hear those Jitman guys are really dangerous Laughing

I hear they arrive just in time.

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 8:01 am

@Reaper Very sexy Packers motiff!

I got one of those hitman mails a couple of weeks ago when I started baiting. After I deleted it (after checking the IP which came back to Germany), I realized I missed a golden opportunity. I should have mailed him back saying that I was a member of the Hells Angels. and we knew a hacker. We have his address and are going to send a team of "real" killers to destroy him. Unless, of course he gave me the informations of who hired him Twisted Evil

.

419Eater is my life Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 264

@Favre4ever

Yeah, those hitmen are a lot of fun to bait. I usually play a Mafia crime boss, Nun21o B4dass1, who tries to hire them away from their original employer.

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