A man was threatened near Evergreen and Miner Saturday night by another man who said he was going to kill him. The offender was reported to have left the area southbound on Evergreen in a dark sedan.
Three other threats recently with no known connection to the street threat allege that three residents received threatening e-mails from unidentified sources telling them to pay up or they would be killed. The e-mails sent to the residents demanded $15,000 or $20,000 and claimed the residents were being watched.
Nationwide, the FBI was aware (with about 115 complaints nationwide) of this type of scam last year — reporting, “The scam e-mail, which first appeared in December, threatens to kill recipients if they do not pay thousands of dollars to the sender, who purports to be a hired assassin.”
Typically, the recipients then receive e-mails, supposedly from “FBI agents” in London, who claim they have arrested the person sending the threats and ask the recipients to reply to the agents’ e-mails for further instructions. The subsequent e-mails are requesting information, such as social security numbers, to commit identity theft crimes.
Police remind the public not to provide personal or banking info over the phone or Internet. If individuals have divulged personal account information, they should check their bank and credit card accounts for unauthorized transactions, change accounts and follow the guidelines provided by the Federal Trade Commission.
FTC Video: A 10-minute educational video that provides an overview of identity theft and outlines the steps consumers can take …
FTC IDENTITY THEFT SITE — ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/
See also, identitytheft.gov