Scam Alert: Scammers threaten jail time if you don't pay up

BALTIMORE - We know one thing for sure—scammers love to phish.

And this time they’re threatening you with a stint behind bars to sucker you into giving cash and access to your email account.

ABC2 News’ Joce Sterman explained why they’re just making idle threats.

For most, just the idea of going to jail is enough to keep us on the straight and narrow. So imagine getting an email that threatens an arrest.

Scams.org says that one new scam is appealing to that fear.

Scammers have sent an email that claims to be from authorities. It tells you to open an attachment which asks for $400 and says if you don’t get back to the sender within 24-hours you could be arrested.

Before you start looking for bail money, you should know this is a phishing scam.

Opening the attachment makes you vulnerable to getting other spam, so trash it. And don’t send along any money. If you do, you’re lining a scammer’s pocket.

Remember, if you really have issues with the law, they won’t contact you by email, they’ll get a warrant.