A SOFTWARE engineer has been told a $200,000 contract has been taken out on his life and a Yemeni assassin is now gunning for him.

Charles Anderson, of Haxby, received a scam email, allegedly from a Yemeni man calling himself Gladlord Mohammed, who said he was hired along with his team of killers to “terminate” Mr Anderson.

The $200,000 price of the contract was supposedly being paid by someone whom Mr Anderson thought was a friend.

But after claiming to have followed Mr Anderson for a week and a half, the gun-for-hire emailed Mr Anderson again to tell him he was innocent of the undisclosed charges.

Mr Mohammed then offered the 51-year-old married man the chance to avoid assassination by paying $50,000 into the supposed assassin’s bank account.

After a downpayment, the Middle Eastern hitman said he would provide details of the “friend” who took the contract out on Mr Anderson so he could be prosecuted.

But Mr Mohammed warned Mr Anderson: “Do not contact the police or FBI or try to send a copy of this to them, because if you do I will know, and might be pushed to do what I have being paid to do, beside, this is the first time I turned out to be a betrayer in my job. I have your picture with me and other vital information. I was hired with my team from Yemen Arab Republic down here. So you don’t need to ask any question. Deal/no deal?”

Mr Anderson, who immediately recognised the email as a scam, initially reported the demand for cash to technology news website The Register.

He said if the alleged hitman had indeed been shadowing him then he would have also have followed him on a recent trip to Wales.

Mr Anderson wrote on his blog: “I hope he enjoyed Caernarfon Castle, and had better luck at finding a restaurant in Bangor than we did.”

But he told The Press that although he realised it was a joke he thought he should publicise the scam in case other people received it and believed it.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said people should be wary of emails which include requests for personal financial details.

She said anyone with concerns about emails they receive should phone Consumer Direct on 085 4040506.