Latest e-mail scam: KGB agent offers JFK secrets

Antivirus firm Sophos is warning of a new e-mail scam where the sender pretends to be a terminally ill KGB agent who has secret documents that reveal the truth behind JFK's death.

According to Sophos, this is yet another variation of the Nigerian 419 scam, where the victim is lured into making contact with the fraudster who then attempts to manipulate the victim into transferring personal information or hard cash.

"There is a conspiracy at work here, but it's not about whether someone was lurking on a grassy knoll in Dallas on 22 November 1963," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, in a statement.

"Internet criminals are conspiring to steal sensitive information and raid the bank accounts of unsuspecting Internet users," he said.

In the e-mail the author claims he has "access to declassified CIA documents, files from the former KGB, and interviews with key people that have never before been made public".

Sophos, which has published a copy of the e-mail on its Web site, said people should ignore the message.

"If everyone showed the same scepticism to unsolicited e-mails as some do to the official investigations into the Kennedy assassination, then maybe less people would end up the victims of a scam," he added.