WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Death Threat Hoax Found Online
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This week, we told you about an email scam involving a death threat that turned out to be an old internet hoax.
We had never heard of the death threat scam before, but there are places you can check online to find out for yourself if an email you've received is a hoax.
"Basically, I got this e-mail and thought it was just another scam," Erina tandy told WTOC Monday.
As we found out, Erina's scam was anything but ordinary. Someone was claiming to be a hit man hired to kill her, he had a change of heart and was going to save her life if she paid him $70,000 in the next 72 hours.
"It was Friday, so my 72 hours are up," Erina said. "I'm not worried."
"It's one of those things that has been floating around," Ross Howard said. Ross is president of the Better Business Bureau. He showed me how easy it is to find the death threat scam online and prove it was bogus.
Using keywords from the scam email, like "hitman" in this case, we found the scam on http://www.snopes.com and on http://www.scambusters.org. The hoax originated in Russia in 2006 and has several variations.
Ross says if you can't find your suspected scam, don't panic. "Don't be stupid. Are you going to give a perfect stranger $50,000 because they say they are going to kill you? You have to be practical," Ross said.
Erina says even if the email sounded legit, she just knew it was a fake. "That's what most of my friends said, 'wow, this looks like it is real,'" Erina said. "We all know it wasn't."
For more information on scams, hoaxes, urban legends and more, check out any of the following links:
http://www.snopes.com
http://www.scambusters.org
http://www.consumeraffairs.com
http://www.bbbmoneynow.com
Reported by: Don Logana, dlogana@wtoc.com
