Threatening emails in circulation

Automatically saved draft

Gerald Sakoparnig is head of the fraud department at the Provincial Criminal Police Office.

(Bild: Horst Einöder/Flashpictures)

Criminal groups are once again sending threatening emails. The sender of the electronic mail is allegedly the provincial police directorate. At first glance, the letters seem amusing, but they are actually intended to intimidate. 

An e-mail from the Provincial Police Directorate with the subject: Complaint. Of course you open the e-mail, the interest could not be greater. The text is both disturbing and terrifying. At least for many people who have never dealt with the actions of criminal groups before. And do not know how to deal with them.

The threatening emails even mention arrest.

(Bild: Vera Lischka)

Do not open the attachment and delete the email immediately
"Delete immediately. We have received emails like this several times in recent months, sometimes in English. However, I am not aware of any cases where anyone has already paid anything and thus come to any harm. The whole thing serves to intimidate. In principle, you are accused of having been on porn sites. The perpetrators hope that their e-mail will reach someone who has a guilty conscience, someone with feelings of guilt. If the mail sender is clever, they use IT facilities abroad or anonymization services, so if they are well prepared, it is often impossible to trace who the sender is."

The whole thing is designed to intimidate. To be able to take action against it, we need a complaint. Otherwise there is no legal basis.

Gerald Sakoparnig, Leiter Betrugsdezernat Landeskriminalamt Linz

Notification must be available
"But in order for me to investigate, I need a report of attempted fraud. Otherwise there is no legal basis," says Gerald Sakoparnig, head of the fraud department at the Linz State Criminal Police Office. It is a fact that such messages are now part of everyday life. "Unfortunately, the internet also has many dark sides," says Sakoparnig.