A death threat letter being posted through people’s doors in De Beauvoir demanding money is a hoax, police have said.

At least nine homes have been targeted with the menacing letters requesting payment to prevent various threats including “burning down your home, abduction or serious injury” being carried out.

The letter, which has been seen by the Gazette, is written entirely in capital letters but police say it’s clear the sender has nobody’s personal details and it is a scam.

It states: “Warning – it is vitally important that you read this entire message in order that you understand the full implications.

“You and your family have been targeted by our organisation for immediate action. This means that unless you pay a fee immediately one of our UK operations teams will be unleashed to take action against you. The exact nature of action is on a case by case basis, and is determined at the discretion of the operations team.”

If payment is not made immediately, the price demanded by the “negotiator” could rise tenfold, it warns. It goes on to say “action could be escalated” to the person being killed should no payment arrive.

“It is critical to your wellbeing that you do not ignore this or underestimate our abilities or our commitment,” it states.

Police are “no barrier” to the operation and anyone contacting police is warned they will “lose any goodwill” from the sender, and “any chance to negotiate a lower fee”.

Each letter has a different code word written on the back, and the recipient is asked to text the password to one of two mobile phone numbers to facilitate a payment.

According to police the letters are identical in appearance and content and are photocopies of a hand written original, sent via Royal Mail to several addresses.

The De Beauvoir safer neighbourhood team issued their own letter reassuring people the letters were part of a scam and there was “no cause for concern in relation to the personal safety of any recipients”.

They continued: “The letters have the appearance of being hand written and are sent through the mail system as a way of trying to appear genuine and personal to the recipient, however identical letters have been sent to a number of households and it is clear that the senders are not in possession of anybody’s personal details, hence the lack of a named addressee and the request to text with a code word.”

Anyone in receipt of one of the letters is asked to call police on 101 quoting crime reference 46000351/18.