How would you react if you received an email saying that you are going to die? You would laugh for sure but what would you say if you received an email from someone that says he is a hitman and that one of your friends put a contract on your head? Peter McGlothin is a regular individual that received such an email stating:

“It is a pity that this is how your life is going to end”

The email offered a chance though. If Peter would pay $30,000 the contract would be canceled and he would be left alone. Contacting the police was also a “do not do”. Mr. McGlothin respected the indication and did not go to the police. He did even better! Peter immediately went to see the FBI and was surprised to find out that more than 100 people were in the same situation as he was. This “hitman scam” was sent to a lot of individuals across USA and the cyber assassin asked for amounts varying from $30,000 to $80,000 for the “contract” to be cancelled.

James Burrell, FBI special agent, said that there have been cases in which people fell for this scam and sent a lot of money to the scammers. FBI claims it has leads on the case but no details are being released. Tracking such suspects is very difficult and a highly probable theory is that the entire scam comes from outside the US.

Unfortunately such scams are constantly appearing. The Internet Crime Complaint Center said that since May 2000 when it was formed there have been $647 million lost to online scams. These are only the ones that were reported to them and it is believed the amount is much higher. Identity theft is very common and everybody should pay attention whenever personal information is requested or strange emails are received.