Stefan Mileschin

Spam took an ugly turn Down Under with one text actually threatening to kill victims if they do not pay $5,000.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Aussie coppers are saying that they don't think the text is real. It was sent to "a large number of people" this morning, but they are worried that someone is daft enough to take it seriously.

South Australian Police said the hoax text read: "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: killerking247@yahoo.com."

Coppers are saying that people should delete the message, not pay up and there was no need to be alarmed.

Such communications are distributed en masse and are not specifically targeting an individual, a police spokesperson said.

The spam does not come from a hack and the information contained in it could come from a variety of sources such as completing questionnaires online.

It is not clear if any one has actually paid up, although if you have a spare $5,000 to give out just because someone asks you, you probably have given a lot of your cash away for Nigerian spams which are marginally more credible.

http://news.techeye.net/security/sms...eatens-to-kill