Mason City man receives death threat from internet scammer

MASON CITY – A Mason City man received a terrifying email in which the sender claimed to have been paid thousands of dollars to “terminate” him and asked for money to call off the crime.

The emails were forwarded to NIT from a Mason City man, who explained that the message inside them was “frightening”. He did call police right away, and he says police declared the emails a scam attempt but he should still be vigilant. NIT is keeping the citizen’s name private.

Law enforcement, almost daily, warns against internet scamming and phishing attempts. Many times, the sender creates a scenario where the receiver is motivated in some way to send money or even merchandise/gift cards that can’t be easily returned. This can involve threats, or sometimes emotions. Examples are romance scams and grandchild scams where the elderly are duped by someone posing as a relative who might be jailed in a foreign country. Police typically warn never to send money or release financial information without sure verification.

These are the email messages the Mason City man received, on the morning of August 1, 2016:

Hi XXXXX,

For your own good kindly keep the secret with you till further notice, You have no need of knowing who i am, where am from, till i make out a space for us to see, i have being paid $60,000.00 in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer, it’s one i believe you call a friend, i have followed you closely for one week and three days now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusation, kindly get back to me as soon as possible so that i can tell you what to do next in order for you to know the person am talking about. Look forward to see your reply soon.

Regards
Ibra

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Later that day:

Hi XXXXX,

Do not contact any police or F.B.I or try to send a copy of this email to them, because if you do i will know, and might be pushed to do what i have being paid to do, beside this is the first time i turned out to be a betrayer in my job.

Now listen, i will arrange for us to see face to face but before that i need the amount of $1,000.00 and you will have nothing to be afraid of. I will be coming to see you in your place or home determine where you wish we meet, do not set any camera to cover us or set up any tape to record our conversation, my employer is in my control now,

You will need to pay $1,000.00 to the account i will provide for you, before we will set our first meeting, after you have make the first advance payment to the account, i will give you the tape that contains his request for me to terminate you, which will be enough evidence for you to take him to court (if you wish to), then the balance will be paid later. Kindly reply me to make the deal success.

Ibra