Morbid spam hits Law School

A University of Minnesota Law School professor filed a report to University police last week after receiving an e-mail that claimed to be from an assassin threatening to kill her if she did not pay $30,000.
University police Sgt. Erik Stenemann said the e-mail was part of a mass phishing scam that does not target recipients for any specific reasons.
“There is no reason as to who gets [the e-mails],” he said. “The ‘hit-man’ routine is two or three years old.”
The source of the e-mail was traced back to Lagos, Nigeria , Stenemann said.
Police do not often arrest the creators of the e-mails, Stenemann said, because “we don’t have jurisdiction in Lagos, Nigeria.”
The only thing police can do is “throw a lure” to try to engage in e-mail conversation with the original sender in order to find more information on how the scam works.
University police deal with about one of these cases every month, Stenemann said. He said people should not be worried if they receive a similar e-mail and the best thing to do is delete it.