It was more than a year ago that I wrote in the January 16, 2012 ” scam of the day” about the “hitman scam” and it still is making its way around the country.  This scam, which appears to have originated in Eastern Europe, involves your receiving an email, such as the one copied below in which you are told that someone has hired a hitman to kill you, but that for a price, he will not do the job for which he was hired.  Obviously, this is a distressing email to receive and unwary victims of the scam pay the money which is a big mistake.  It is a scam.  No hitman is contacting you and your best course of action is to ignore the email.

TIPS

Indications that the email is a scam include the fact that is entirely lacking in specific details about you.  It does not use your name or other identifying information.  In the phony email below, as you see it is addressed to “Friend.”  In addition it does not provide any details about who has hired the hitman, where you live or any other details that would take this out of a generic, mass produced scam email.   It also contains much of the poor grammar found in many email scams originating in foreign countries.  If you receive this email and have any concerns that it might be real, report it to the local police.  If you are convinced that it is a scam, report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

Text from hit man email scam:

Good Day Friend.
Am very sorry for you my friend, is a pity that this is how your life  is going to end as soon as you don’t comply. As you can see there is  no need of introducing myself to you because I don’t have any business with you, my duty as I am mailing you now is just to KILL/ASSASINATE  you and I have to do it as I have already been paid for that.
Someone you call a friend wants you Dead by all means, and the person  have spent a lot of money on this, the person also came to us and told  me that he want you dead and he provided us with your name, picture  and other necessary information’s we needed about you. So I sent my  boys to track you down and they have carried out the necessary  investigation needed for the operation on you, and they have done that  but I told them not to kill you that I will like to contact you and  see if your life is Important to you or not since their findings shows  that you are innocent.
I called my client back and ask him of you email address which I  didn’t tell him what I wanted to do with it and he gave it to me and I  am using it to contact you now. As I am writing to you now my men are  monitoring you and they are telling me everything about you.
Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE? As someone has paid us to kill you.  Get back to me now if you are ready to pay some fees to spare your  life, If you are not ready for my help, then I will carry on with my  job straight-up.
WARNING: DO NOT THINK OF CONTACTING THE POLICE OR EVEN TELL ANYONE  BECAUSE I WILL KNOW. REMEMBER, SOMEONE WHO KNOWS YOU VERY WELL WANT  YOU DEAD! I WILL EXTEND IT TO YOUR FAMILY, INCASE I NOTICE SOMETHING  FUNNY.
DO NOT COME OUT ONCE IT IS 7:30PM UNTIL I MAKE OUT TIME TO SEE YOU AND  GIVE YOU THE TAPE OF MY DISCUSSION WITH THE PERSON WHO WANT YOU DEAD  AFTER YOU HAVE COMPLIED WITH MY DEMANDS, THEN YOU CAN USE IT TO TAKE  ANY LEGAL ACTION. GOOD LUCK AS I AWAIT YOUR REPLY
Regards
Don Vanuchi