Subject: Security Alert - Threatening Spam E-mails

Security Alert
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Recently a new scam has appeared in state government e-mail boxes that uses fear rather than greed or sympathy to prey on recipients. The scam e-mail threatens to kill recipients if they do not pay thousands of dollars to the sender, who claims to be a hired assassin. The style and content of these e-mails varies and they are not targeting specific individuals. There have been no reports where the threats were carried out and no reports of money loss. Responding to the e-mail will result in verifying that your e-mail address is active and the sender may then escalate threats or send related spam e-mails.

These spam e-mails may or may not be marked as spam through your spam filter. Users are always advised to delete spam, ideally without opening it.

For more information on this scam, see the FBI report at http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan07/threat_scam011507.htm.