It’s entirely unlikely that al Qaeda operatives are going to assassinate you or your family if you don’t convert to Islam or pay an $8,000 fine. Also, you didn’t win $2.5 million and a new Mercedes just for paying your bills.

A couple new scams have hit Bismarck, though both play off popular past scams.

Several people in the Bismarck area have received an e-mail from “Abdullah Azzam,” whose position is listed on the e-mail as “Militia Publicist” at an al Qaeda Base Operation in the Philippines. In the e-mail, “Abdullah” warns that his team of assassins has been paid to kill the recipient and his or her entire family. However, he is willing to give the recipient two options, in lieu of death by assassin: “convert to a Muslim” or “pay a logistics/fine of $8,000 to be made available not later than five working days from this day you get my e-mail.”

Liz Brocker, a spokesperson for the state attorney general’s office, said the scam seemed to be a variation of the “hit man” scam, in which an e-mail recipient is ordered to pay a hit man to avoid being killed.

In another scam, someone called a Bismarck home, claiming to be associated with the Better Business Bureau. The caller told the person who answered the phone, a minor, that because he was someone who paid his bills on time, he had won $2.5 million and a new Mercedes, Dan Hendrickson, communications coordinator for the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota, said.

To claim the prize, the boy would have to pay a $350 fee, which he was to wire to Jamaica via Western Union. When the boy informed the caller he was a student, the caller agreed to reduce the fee to $280.

The boy hung up and called the Better Business Bureau, which informed him the offer was not legitimate, Hendrickson said. During a subsequent phone call, the unidentified caller told the boy he was calling from the “Becker Business Bureau,” not the Better Business Bureau.

BBB employees were able to convince the boy, who told them he has no bills to pay, that the call was a scam.

Hendrickson said the calls appear to be coming from Jamaica. He said people often seem to hope that such calls and e-mails, offering a lot of money at a small price, are for real.

“There’s a wish that it could be true,” he said.

The BBB warns people not to give out personal or financial information to someone you don’t know, not to wire money to receive sweepstakes, lottery or contest prizes, and not to deposit a check from an unfamiliar source who wants money back.

Report scams to the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office at 328-2210 or to law enforcement agencies.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)