ITWire

If you’ve received a text message showing the message immediately below this sentence, rest assured it’s a dirty, rotten fake from a bunch of Internet scumbags.

“Sum1 paid me to kill you. get spared, 48hrs to pay $5000. If you inform the police or anybody, death is promised ... E-mail me now: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ."

Stories have flooded in from across Australia, with people calling 000, turning up to police stations or simply quietly freaking out, wondering whether the message was real, and what they’d done to whom to merit some gangsta action.

Given the Batman massacre in the US, Australians and frankly anyone receiving this kind of disgustingly brazen message can rightly feel a bit touchy about anything to do with death, but Australian police and authorities have calmed the Australian population by letting them know it is definitely a sick, fake scam message.

Authorities ask any Australians who have communicated with the scammers by email and have then transferred $5000 across to urgently contact their banks to reverse the transaction.

State and Federal Police are working together to track down whoever is responsible, with reports saying the Australian Federal Police have made contact with the US Federal Bureau of Investigations or FBI for its assistance.

Meanwhile, authorities are asking recipients of the message to simply delete it, and not to call emergency or police numbers, as a large spike in such calls can have an effect on genuine emergencies getting through to the relevant police or other emergency services.

The ACCC, which is often characterised as a "toothless tiger", has failed to update its ScamWatch page today, despite its attempts to train Australians to visit the ScamWatch page for the most up-to-date information on scams. The ACCC might update its page tomorrow, but given the fact the scam has been affected thousands of Australians today, and has been written up on various news sites and on all the news bulletins, one might have imagined the ACCC would have had someone take the time to update its page today, rather than tomorrow, or the next day, or whenever it gets around to it.

So, watch out for tardy ACCC authorities in updating ScamWatch pages, and please do watch out for this heartless “hitman” scam.

Finally, if you’re up to it and need a bit of a 90’s laugh to calm down, AB Logic’s “Watch out for the hitman” is below.