Interesting email scam

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I got a scam email yesterday which I honestly had never heard of before, though I'm told it's been around for a while. It purported to be from a man who had been hired to kill me, but he was willing to make a deal if I wanted to pay more than his customer to get him to NOT kill me. I contacted the police who said just to delete it, it's a common scam to get you to pay money, and that nobody ever gets killed.

So if you, like me, had not heard of this, now you know, this is a thing.

[Ironclad Alibi]

The Hitman Scam has been around since 2006.

[MoonCat]

OK, there's one I never heard of! If someone sent a letter like that to my neighbors, I'd think it was true!

Wow.

[Tama]

And that is why it's so popular. Take it to 419eaters, they'll have fun with it

[darkroxas45]

Better than junk email from IIRR "Cialis @viagra. com

[AccountingDrone]

I love the whole surveillance bit - unless they like squatting in the snow in the woods behind our farm [[and we have about 4 feet of snow on the ground right now] and trying to sneak closer and dealing with a mini flock of 5 very territorial geese to watch someone who rarely goes out of the house and is fairly heavily armed and makes no secret about it ... it ain't happening. ROFLMAO

I think my response would be go ahead, give it a try ...

[Aragarthiel]

I got an email from Facebook about Viagra the other day. I laughed and deleted it. But this is funnier.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Sure beats the Nigerian Businessman email for funniness. XD

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Sure beats the Nigerian Businessman email for funniness. XD

That or the emails supposedly from the FBI threatening you with arrest if you don't comply with an investigation pertaining to foreign currency.

Here's another one that's going around now by phone: the IRS is looking to enforce legal action against you and if you don't comply immediately you will be arrested and taken in front of a federal magistrate.

Had several of these calls already this year from some dude w/bad foreign accent and claiming to be Steve Martin (yeah, right) - they've been reported to FTC since they are claiming to be from the US Treasury Department (turns out it's a felony to impersonate a federal agency.))

[taxguykarl]

Oh it gets better....one of the targets for the IRS scam turned out to be the IRS Commissioner.
Ill-gotten gains are taxable.

[ZumZum]

My favorite one:
I got an email from an old classmate, we are friends on facebook, but that is all the contact we have.
Seems he was on vacation in England and his (and his family's) hotel room was broken into. They took all their money and their passports.

I needed to wire him money immediately so they could go to the American Embassy to try and get their paperwork started to get home.

Um, no, huge red flags.
Yes, his facebook page was hacked.

[dougall]

Just reply pretending to be suicidal and can he get on with it please.

[Mikkel]

vacation in England and his (and his family's) hotel room was broken into. They took all their money and their passports.

I got the same one from my neighbour who is also a friend. The funny thing was that she were not at home when all her friends got the mail, she was visiting her ill mother in Norway. Her husband is from Scotland, though, so if they were visiting his part of the family it could all have been true.
Luckily none of her friends are so stupid as to send money without verifying, but she had a lot of phone calls that morning .

[Shangri-laschild]

My friend's mom got a call the other day, claiming to be from the government. They said that because she paid her bills and taxes on time, the government wanted to send her some money. She just laughed at them and hung up.