Have You Been Threatened By A Scammer? Don’t Worry!
What To Do When You Are Receiving Harmful Threats From Scammers By Phone Or Email Or Message!
Types of Threats:
- Assassination/Murder Threats – They Are Going To Kill You!
- You Broke The Law Threat – You Are Involved – Complicity
- Extortion Threats
Threats from scammers have become commonplace online and in email. It is a common ploy at the end of a scam when the victim cannot pay more!
Their threats can range from a warning that if you do not send them more money they will report you to the police, to threats on your life or the lives of your children or family.
The threats can be terrifying in their intensity and must be successful or the scammers wouldn’t keep doing it to extort money from their victims.
But don’t worry scammers do just one thing: THEY LIE!
Assassination Threats
Don’t worry, no one has been hired to kill you regardless of what the scammer says.
This common threat is a simple attempt at extortion and it often works.
Extortion or threats of violence are on the increase from African, Asian, Latin American, and Eastern European Scammers everywhere from Ghana to Malaysia. The threats are written for scammers mostly using pre-defined scripts that they use on thousands of people around the world.
The FBI has this to say: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2007/january/threatscam_111507
If you have received an assassination threat, ignore it – nothing is going to happen – but do report it to your local police. It is just a desperate scammer trying to steal more of your money!
You Broke The Law Threat – You Are Involved – Complicity
This is a case where they threaten to turn you in for your participation in laundering money or their scam.
They threaten to report you to a government law enforcement authority, but again, don’t worry, while you may have done something unwise, you did not benefit from it.
But it is important that you report both the threat and any money or merchandise you may have received to your local police. This is because you do not want them to discover it and come knocking on your door.
Just remember, the scammers only win if you believe them. No law enforcement agency is going to listen to a scammer anyway if they complained about you. A criminal complaint cannot be opened without there being evidence of a crime, and the only evidence the scammer can supply is that of his own criminal activities. Don’t worry about it. But do report it!
Extortion Threats
Scammers do make threats to send very personal information, photos, and videos to your social media friends, family, employers, and others.
This is a threat that you should take seriously because they can do it without risk to themselves. Sextortion is a good example of this – however, don’t be afraid there are ways of dealing with this.
The obvious answer is never to share compromising things with a scammer, jet people are manipulated and do it.
But there is a way to limit the damage:
- Remove them as a friend or contact from all of your social media immediately
- Set up a call blocker, such as the free HIYA app. for your phone
- Always report all threats to your local police & the FTC at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/?orgcode=SCARS
Sextortion Resources:
- Introduction To Sextortion Scams
- Surviving Sextortion / Sexual Photo Blackmail
- Sexting And Romance Scams – A Path To Sextortion & Blackmail
- SCARS™ Insight: Avoid Teen Sextortion
- What Is Sextortion? Official FBI Video
- OFFICIAL U.S. Government Document: Joint Services Sextortion Brochure
Just Chill
Almost all threats that you will receive from a scammer are meaningless because the fact is they don’t have enough time to really go after you – this is a business for them. They are also half a world away.
In every case, when you receive a threat, be sure you report it to your local police – it is a crime, and they need to have it on file regardless. Without reporting such threats, your authorities have no way to assess the magnitude of them.
- If the threats come by email, mark them as spam.
- If the threats come from Facebook, Instagram or WHATSUP – block them.
- If on your phone, most phone companies offer a Call Block Service – you can use this or the free HIYA app to block callers.
Scammers know how to get under your skin and scare you, just as they knew how to convince you they were sincere upfront. Not all are very smart, but they are organized and can be very persistent.
- Actually, your greatest risk is that they will use your identity to scam other people under your name and using your photos – so be watchful. (see above)
- If you call the FBI, they will refer you to your local law enforcement but call them anyway.
- You can record the phone calls and make a copy or print out the emails and send the recording or printed emails down to your local law enforcement officials to get the threats on record.
- When you go to the police, tell them you want to file a “General Report” or “Informational Report” unless they suggest a different type of report. Don’t expect your local police to do anything, they just don’t have the resources for it.
- Local law enforcement knows that the likelihood of Nigerian or other transnational threats being carried out is very, very slim.
- If the threats escalate in any way, such as letters or FedEx packages, go to your local police immediately. Otherwise, relax, you are just part of an attempt are more manipulation after the scam.
More Information:
- The Relationship Scam End Game: The Confession Scam and Other Strategies
- The Scam Is Over But You Are Still Being Manipulated
- Identify and Stop Scam/Spam Text Messages
- Doxing – A Kind of Terrorism or Cyberbullying?
Never Confront A Scammer
One of the ways that increase the likelihood that a scammer will threaten you is if you confront them that you know, or start calling them names. Scammers will react like anyone when confronted, they will respond, but you do not want that – the best-case scenario if for you to cut them off without them even knowing that you know.
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