NORFOLK, Va. — Over the weekend Sen. Angelia Williams Graves, who represents the 21st District in Norfolk, told News 3 that she received a threat that raised a concern for the safety of her family.
"It feels kinda eerie if you will when you get something like that," Williams Graves said
Graves said on Sunday she was made aware by her staff of an email letting her know she was being monitored and so was her family.
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It goes on to say that an assassination request had been put on her and that she would need to send $5,000 in Bitcoin to receive the information.
"14 years in public service you have people who are disgruntled, not happy, unhappy with a vote, unhappy with a budget but never anyone who has gone to those lengths to threaten me and my family," Williams Graves said.
Williams Graves said she received another email from the same address showing weapons.
"Within 20 minutes or 30 minutes there were pictures as well," Williams Graves said.
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She said she notified Capitol Police as well as Norfolk Police.
She said she was told the email was believed to have originated in Nigeria.
While it may be a scam she didn't want to risk anything.
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"When you start talking about a threat to life, I'm in a position where I can't take any threat lightly because that will be the one that is legitimate," Williams Graves said.
Len Gonzales, with Ally Cyber Investigations, LLC, said he believes the email appears to be a scam due to the photos of those weapons already on the internet.
"When I reverse image those two particular photos, I see they are visible online," Gonzales said. "I saw them on YouTube, I saw them on Pinterest, I saw them on SoundC3loud."
Gonzales said another giveaway was the way the message was written and unclear.
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He said if you ever receive a message like this you should contact the police and that way they can alert the public.
"Sometimes there's absolutely nothing that law enforcement can do other than to keep the public at large informed on what's going on or to these sorts of things so they create advisories," Gonzales said.
Gonzales said once you've notified police the best thing to do is ignore, delete, and block the activity.
He says to never respond to those emails.
