“Hitman Spam” Blackmails Readers with Death Threat
These men will not be visiting your house.
An e-mailed phishing scam that appeared in late December takes an extreme new approach to defrauding its recipients. Pay up, threatens the message, or you’ll be killed.
The “hitman spam” is part of a highly targeted con directed mainly at well-paid professionals in the United States — doctors and lawyers, for example.* It seems sure to gain traction and spread to other markets, however, so stay on your toes. Do not respond in any way to this message, as the threats are utterly baseless. The goal is for you to fork over bank account information, allowing the scammers to clean you out.
SophosLabs — a virus, spyware, and spam analysis company — was the first to report on the hitman phishers. Graham Cluley, a Sophos consultant, says the message is “surely one of the sickest phishes yet seen.” The online edition of The Times of London has more, including news about the scam’s impact so far.
Personally, I think the emergence of such extreme phishing tactics is a good sign; it shows that the criminals are getting desperate. As the general population becomes increasingly savvy about the dangers of phishing, the old methods aren’t working anymore. We’re winning, and the only way to keep winning is to continue deleting their messages without response. Keep up the good work, folks.
(Props: Windows X’s Shrine)
* Such targeted scams are a fairly recent innovation, and are known as “spear phishing.” Cute.
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