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BLOOMINGTON — An IU student e-mail account, apparently hijacked by a scammer posing as a hit man asking for money to refuse the job, was shut down by university officials, IU police said today.

“I have been paid some ransom in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer.It’s someone I believe you call a friend,” the message reads. “... I took pity on you, that is why I have made up my mind to help you if you are ready to co-operate.”

The message goes on to ask for $8,000 and warn against contacting the police.

The e-mail, with an indiana.edu extension, has been sent to numerous recipients by someone outside the United States, IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said. Minger said the university’s IT Security Office determined that the student’s e-mail account was compromised and used to send the messages. The account has been disabled.

The e-mail scam is different than the so-called Nigerian scam where the sender is asking for help getting money out of an account. This sender alleges that he or she has been hired to “terminate” the recipient. The sender asks for $8,000 to provide pictures and taped conversations to prove it.

“Do not contact the police or try to send a copy of this to them, because if you do, I will know, and I might be pushed to do what I have been paid to do,” the message reads. It goes on to warn the recipient about staying indoors after 7:30 p.m.

“It is unusual,” Minger said. “But this one, it’s a threatening e-mail.”

He said he wasn’t aware of anyone taking the threat itself seriously, “but they took it seriously that it was some kind of scam.”

It appeared by 2 p.m. Wednesday at about 2,000 messages had been sent out over the hijacked account, Minger said. Most, if not all, to accounts outside the IU computer system.

IUPD has received copies of the e-mail from recipients and other individuals have forwarded the bogus threat to a variety of university officials.

Minger said his office is letting the Secret Service know of the case, but because the message originated outside the United States, it may be very difficult to trace.

Anyone who receives the e-mail is asked to disregard it.

Recipients can also report the e-mail to The U.S. Federal Trade Commission who will add their e-mails to a database and use the information to track down scammers. The e-mail can be sent to spam@uce.gov.