Police Department in Arlington Heights, on March 3, 2008, issued an alert to residents about an online scam that is distributing spam mails threatening to take the lives of recipients if they fail to pay up the amount of money demanded.

According to the Police Department in Arlington Heights, the criminals have skipped from giving word of lucky winnings to warnings of murder in attempts to get people to part from their money. The Arlington police received reports from three residents that they had received an anonymous e-mail threatening to kill.

Police Department in Arlington Heights, on March 3, 2008, issued an alert to residents about an online scam that is distributing spam mails threatening to take the lives of recipients if they fail to pay up the amount of money demanded.

According to the Police Department in Arlington Heights, the criminals have skipped from giving word of lucky winnings to warnings of murder in attempts to get people to part from their money. The Arlington police received reports from three residents that they had received an anonymous e-mail threatening to kill.

Police said that recipients were getting e-mails apparently from the London agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who claim that they have identified and arrested the person behind the threat messages and therefore, solicit the recipients to send return e-mails to secure further instructions.

Chuck Buczynski, Investigator of Arlington Heights Police, said that the spam mails told recipients that someone had kept a constant watch on them and demanded $15,000 from two persons and $20,000 from another person. Police explained how if anyone responded to the e-mail could allow the sender to know the IP address of the recipient thus, putting at risk his credit card and banking information, as reported by Chicagotribune on March 4, 2008.

But, Buczynski said that there is nothing to worry for, they are simply spam mails that didn't need to be answered. Although the scam appeared on the Net in July 2007, police started to alert people only in the recent weeks after at least three people filed complaints.

Police pointed out that the spam mails from the perpetrators are simply phony and tried to capture people's financial details and Social Security numbers. Also, the text in the messages varied with broken English and has frequent misspellings. But, it is possible to avoid the scam by deleting the e-mails and not replying to them.

Thomas Seleski, Police Sergeant, said that the residents reported to the police not out of fear of receiving the threat e-mails, nor did they send any money but because they thought they should inform the police, as reported by NBC5 on March 4, 2008.