DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – The Macon County State’s Attorney is wanting to make the public aware of a recent threatening scam that targeted a local resident. Jay Scott, warns the scam starts in the way of multiple text messages claiming to be from a Mexican Drug Cartel member and threatens to kill the recipients family if the call is not made.
WAND News spoke with the person who was targeted by the scammers and says in the early morning hours text messages started going to their phone.
The person targeted showed WAND screenshots of the text messages. In the texts the scammer claims to be with the cartel and warns, “do not try to lock or turn off the phone because I have your address and that of your family too.”
The second text sent the name of the person they were texting and then went on to say, “we have all the data and locations of your family members.”
From there the scammer sent five graphic photos of beheaded, dismembered and mutilated corpses. After the series of photos, the scammer sent the persons name, address and names of family member and said “Pay your fine so you don’t involve your family in your problems pay the fine and nobody will get hurt.” States Attorney, Jay Scott, says all of this personal information including address and names of family can be accessed on public websites, similar to white pages online.
The intended victim told WAND News, the scammer after sending the texts called their number multiple times but they never left a voicemail.
Scott wants the public to know this is a scam, and if you are contacted to ignore the messages.
