Thousands of Australians have received a "death threat" text, rigorous they pay 5,000 Australian dollars ($5,140, 3,311) or face being murdered.
The scale of the fraud has astounded the military authorities.
At a press discussion in Queensland, Det Supt Brian Hay said: "Do not respond. Delete it right away and do not panic... since that's what they chase upon."
The fraud is believed to be the work of an organized crime gang.
The message, that began to strike people's phones on Monday, reads: "Sum1 paid me to snuff out you. Get spared, 48hrs to pay $5000. If you surprise the military or anybody, demise is promised."
It directs people to a Yahoo email account that military have now disabled.
Mr Hay told reporters that enquiries were continuing as to either the criminals were formed in Australia.
Some people had already depressed is to scam, primarily those with small experience of content messaging, he revealed.
He mentioned that the scale of the fraud was "unprecedented".
"We've never see this anything similar to this before - to have so many people contacted at the same time."
"There is an unusual amount of Australian consumer information that they are exploiting," he added.
He updated that the fraud was expected to be the work of organized criminals rsther than than an individual.
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