Bizarre email scam involves horse, lard and sex toy death

A bizarre assassination threat titled "Your Life is in Danger", involving a horse, lard, and a sex toy is the latest email scam in Ireland. The spammer writes: "As I sit here sipping a martini it is my regretful duty to inform you that you have been selected for assassination." He also claims to be a professional assassin and encloses his certificate of assassination as proof.

"SMERSH have contacted me to assassinate you and have specifically paid extra for a particularly nasty death which makes it look like you died in a particularly bizarre sex game gone wrong," the email continues. However, the so-called international assassin, called Dai Teatime, who signs off with the words "toodle pip", informs the recipient that he has found out that the sender is innocent of the supposed charge.



"Get back to me if you value your life with all due speed or else I regret I will have to carry out my original contract to assassinate you and, although he is quite charming for a horse, I don’t think Henry is the most sensitive of lovers." Urban Schrott, IT security and cybercrime analyst with internet security company ESET Ireland has warned that while the spam caused amusement to himself and his colleagues, it had the potential to cause a lot of harm.

He said spams were sent out at random so spammers don’t know who will get them. "But if they get a response from anyone, then they do know this person exists, offers feedback, and is a potential victim of a targeted attack they can prepare just for them," he said. "Best thing to do in such cases is just to delete all such emails and not reply to them at all," he said. Mr Schrott said anyone feeling genuinely threatened by an email should report it to the Gardaí.