The Scam

Threatening spam email is being distributed to people on Vancouver Island. The Oak Bay Police Department actually received a copy of the threatening email and the Saanich Police Department on Southern Vancouver Island is reporting this scam on their website as the "Idris Hassan" scam.

In the email scam people receive a threatening letter from a person who claims to be an assassin from Iraq. In the email Idris Hassan is introduced as an assassin that has been hired to kill you. He is willing to forego your assassination if you can come up with the equivalent funds to what he has already been offered. For $25,000 your life will be spared.  Victims of the email are given 5 days to respond to the threatening email.

How to protect yourself:

Be informed. This email scam is essentially just a new twist on the Nigerian Letter scam. Con artists are trying to scare you into sending them money.

Call the police. While email is threatening in nature the police are not aware of any actual threat. If you receive such a threatening email and are concerned you should contact your local police department to report the matter.

Delete it. Never respond to unsolicited email and don't forward copies of unsolicited emails onto to friends or family.

Improve security. Look into beefing you your email security settings. Many Internet and email providers have systems in place to reduce or eliminate email spam from being received at your account.

Report it. Be sure to report any email scams such as this to PhoneBusters (http://www.phonebusters.com/) and to your internet/email providers.

For more information and live weekly updates on frauds affecting Vancouver Island visit the News Centre at vi.bbb.org; fraudcast.ca; twitter.com/VIBBB; facebook.com; linkedin.com