Jackson Free Press

The attorney general's cyber-crime unit is investigating the origin of a threatening e-mail that has been circulated around Jackson in the last week. Verbatim statement:

Jackson, MS--Attorney General Jim Hood and the Mississippi Cyber Crime Fusion Center want to warn the citizens of Mississippi about a scam being circulated via email. The email claims to be a threat by a hired killer to his intended victim. According to the e-mail the victim can stop his own murder by sending a specified amount of money to the writer. "This was first brought to our attention after a few of our own staff received these threatening e-mails," said Attorney General Jim Hood. "The best way people can protect themselves is to ignore the e-mail, and definitely do not send any money." Below is an example of the scam email:

>>> [e-mail missing] 9/24/2007 11:52 AM >>>
Good day,
I want you to read this message very carefully, and keep the secret with you till further notice, You have no need of knowing who i am, where i live or hotel am lodging presently here, till i make out a space for us to see, i have being paid $50, 000.00 in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer,its one i believe you call a friend or a fellow lawyer,i have followed you closely for one week and three days now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusation, Do not contact the police or try to send a copy of this to them, because if you do i will know, and might be pushed to do what i have being paid to do, beside this is the first time i turned out to be a betrayer in my job.

Now listen,i will arrange for us to see face to face but before that i need the amount of $70,000.00, you have nothing to be afraid of. I will be coming to see you in your office or home determine where you wish we meet, do not set any camera to cover us or set up any tape to record our conversation, my employer is in my control now, You will need to pay $20, 000.00 to the account i will provide for you here, before we will set our first meeting, after you have make the first advance payment to the account,i will give you the tape that contains his request for me to terminate you, which will be enough evidence for you to take him to court(if you wish to), then the balance will be paid later.

You don't need my phone contact for now till am assured you are ready to comply good.
Mohammed Dike.

Anyone with a concern about a suspicious e-mail, can contact the Office of the Attorney General, Mississippi Cyber Crime Fusion Center at 601-359-3680.
###

Previous Commentsshow

I, for one, am thrilled to see the AG's office take cyber-threats and intimidation seriously. Many of our readers have gotten disturbing e-mails over the years, not to mention fraudulent ones designed to look like I or someone else sent them. Remember, you can report this kind of thing to the cyber-crime unit. Or, forward them to me (be sure to paste in the source code), and I will pass them along. We've turned several things over already.

DonnaLadd

Sep 27 2007

Donna, I used to get alot of those emails as well. I have a friend in that unit with the AG's office. Every time I get one I forward to him. Something must be working. I have not received one in almost 6 months. That was due to some GREAT!!!!!! work by my friend who works in that unit. I have no idea as to how it works. However I am grateful to him.

JMK

Sep 27 2007

Thanks for the warning. This came to me via snail mail rather than e-mail, but I thought it was worth warning. Last week, I received a letter from a Canadian company stating that I won over $4800 and even sent an authenic-looking check for me to deposit into my bank account. I didn't recall entering any Canadian-based lotteries, so I did some research and it assured me what I had already suspected: that it was a scam. The purpose of the $4800 was supposedly to cover fees in order for me to get an even larger share of money. The catch is, the company somehow gets info on your bank account and will clean you dry.

golden eagle

Sep 27 2007

I just assume everything that comes to my Yahoo email box is spam...

Ironghost

Sep 27 2007