Hitman Scam

Basic Information

The hitman scam is a confidence game involving a pretended contract killer, with three variations:

• In the most common, the scammer reaches out to the mark claiming that a contract has been taken out on them, but that they can buy off the hit. Essentially, straightforward extortion plus a few lies.
• The scammer reaches out to the mark claiming to be a hitman's target as in the above case, unable to make their payment and begging for enough money to save their life. This variation may have elements of romance fraud as well.
• The scammer poses as a hitman, and tricks the mark into sending them money to carry out a hit; the mark cannot go to the police or the courts without admitting to a murder-for-hire plot.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wink News: ‘Hitman scam’ leaves victims terrified with fake threats to kill your family

2. Lowering the Bar: Again I Must Remind You That Dealing With a Hit Man Is Fraught With Peril

Game and Story Use

• The PCs have an aquaintance begging them for money, claiming that they need to buy off someone after them. A victim of variation 1, or a perpetrator of 2?
  • If the PCs are hardcore enough, variation 2 might not be about money, but rather bilking them for protection against other threats — possibly even getting them to preemptively kill off the "hitman".
• In some games, the PCs are professional killers of one stripe or another, and have the potential to get involved in these scams one way or another.
  • The party scoundrel might use the first variation, either claiming that the party have been hired to rub someone out, or offering their services as bodyguards against a nonexistent hit.
  • The third variation has great potential to annoy actual hitmen, always a dangerous game in itself.
    • The contract killing business dries up, as clients are skeptical of anyone offering hits.
    • The scammer was counting on the tendency of the courts to, at worst, smack them criminally for making the offer and otherwise leave the parties as-is (a usual policy for handling blatantly illegal contracts); but their client instead goes to authorities in the habit of demanding specific performance.