E-Mail Scam: Your Money Or Your Life

N.J. Man Gets Spam From Hit Man "Eddy" Offering To Spare Him For $8,000

(AP)  E-mail scams seek to separate people from their money by promising a share of unclaimed lottery riches, bounty from a dead fugitive, work-at-home schemes and other enticements.

But an Ocean County man recently got an e-mail with a darker twist: Gimme your money, and I'll cancel the contract someone put out to kill you.

Harry E. Whitworth, 72, of the Whiting section of Manchester Township, opened his e-mail Tuesday to find a curious screed supposedly from a man named Eddy.

"I know that this may sound very surprising to you but it's the situation," the e-mail began. "I have been paid some ransom in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer."

The price to call off the hit: $8,000 - half of which is to be paid up front as a sign of good faith. Sort of.

The e-mail also warned him not to tell friends or relatives, since they might be part of the plot to kill, too.

"I kind of knew it was a scam," said Whitworth, a retired accountant who lives with his wife in a senior citizen development. "The prosecutor's office came over to see me and asked if I had been involved in anything in the past that might have caused this to happen."

Whitworth did an Internet research that found someone has been running a similar scam in Arizona, with nearly identical e-mails full of typographical errors and misspellings.

The e-mailer promises to send the recipient a videotape of "his employer" putting out the contract on the recipient's life.

But there were no instructions on how to comply with the demand for cash, and no timetable on when it had to be paid.

Capt. Michael Mohel, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, said the case remains under investigation but declined further comment.

The FBI received 115 complaints of similar e-mails reaching people across the country in less than a month last winter, according to its Web site. The e-mails vary only in the amount of money demanded, ranging as high as $80,000.

Some even incorporate personal information about the recipient that is widely available from online databases, the FBI said.

[three-o-six]

slim1h2o

OK, Just give me you account number and a routing number and I''ll deposit you $1.00

[michellem99-2009]

I don''t open E-MAIL I don''t know or those I have not given my address to. If I don''t know who ,I will ask my room mate did he give it out and to whom. The guy should have delete it and not open it. It might may a scam,viris,etc. They have stories like this every now and again in the local news and tips to help compuer users and others from becoming prey.. There are shady persons that target seniors,handicapped,poor. The homeless beg for change I don''t have.

[eggy1620]

Have you seen the commercial with the disheveled looking guy sitting down on a bus next to a woman and he starts reciting a Nigerian scam verbatum as it would appear in an e-mail? The tag line is %u201CYou wouldn%u2019t fall for this face to face, so don%u2019t fall for it over the internet.%u201D It is a great commercial.

[einsteinian-2009]

Whatever happened to good ole person to person "git your hands up ''n gimme your wallet"! Dang Internet, even in crime it''s gettin'' dangerously impersonal... LOL

[slim1h2o]

Posted by Gliderguy52 at 10:51 AM : Oct 05, 2007

Yup LOL I love sarcasm!

[gliderguy52]

1h2o, can I email you the dollar?

[slim1h2o]

LOL

[yoopermom]

Be careful slim1h2o, that could be taken as Cyber Stalking!! LOL

[slim1h2o]

Everybody send me $1.00, and I''ll make sure seven pesos goes away, and stays away