A new, and disturbing form of scam email has been appearing during 2018. The email is a death threat, and attempts to extort thousands of pounds worth of bitcoins from its victim.
Death threat email
The sick email is supposedly sent by a hit-man, who has been hired by a business competitor. Apparently this kindly executioner has decided to give his intended victim a chance to “save his life”. In his generosity, he offers not to carry out the killing, IF the intended victim (the receipient of the email) pays thousands of pounds worth of bitcoins within 3 days.
Disturbing content
A member of staff here at datamills received one of these emails whilst on holiday this summer. Even when you know that it is a scam, and should be ignored, it is difficult not to be un-nerved a little by the content of the email. It refers to itself as “possibly the last message in your life”, lets you know that your rival has paid for “your severed hands”, and also mentions that the lives of your relatives are at risk. It also says that even if the sender doesn’t “do the job”, someone else will, meaning that you “only postpone your judgement day” and will be “afraid of every rustle”. Oh, and the killer has already booked plane tickets for a few day’s time…
Report it and protect yourself
Needless to say, it is a serious criminal offence to make a death threat. The email, as harmless as it is if you ignore it, should be reported to the Police, just as any other death threat would be. You can call the local Police, or use the national ActionFraud website to make a report there.
It is difficult to protect yourself from receiving this sort of email, because, apart from the wording, there is nothing that would appear malicious to an email-checking system. This means that they can easily get through to you. And they are doing just that. Of course, if there is any link in the email, don’t click on it, but otherwise the best thing you can do is to report it to the Police, report it to your email/IT provider, and ignore it.
Email safety advice
For more information about any aspect of email safety, or to ask any questions you may have, don’t hesitate to have a look at the datamills website, or call the datamills office on 0114 220 7530.
