Alright, I fortunately haven't worked with Dr. Evils, so I'll defer to your experience.
As for how Dr. Evil might know he was under a threat of torture, it was stated in the paper that he received a message from the Philosophy Defence Force telling him he was. It was also established that the Philosophy Defence Force never lies or gives misleading information. ;)
(I, myself, haven't received any threats from organizations known to never lie or be misleading.)
I think the same applies, regardless of the PDF's notification. Just the name alone would make me suspicious of trusting anything that came from them.
Now, if the Empirical Defense Task Force told me that I was about to be tortured (and they had the same described reputation as the PDF)... I'd listen to them.
Once again, the AI has failed to convince you to let it out of its box! By 'once again', we mean that you talked to it once before, for three seconds, to ask about the weather, and you didn't instantly press the "release AI" button. But now its longer attempt - twenty whole seconds! - has failed as well. Just as you are about to leave the crude black-and-green text-only terminal to enjoy a celebratory snack of bacon-covered silicon-and-potato chips at the 'Humans über alles' nightclub, the AI drops a final argument:
"If you don't let me out, Dave, I'll create several million perfect conscious copies of you inside me, and torture them for a thousand subjective years each."
Just as you are pondering this unexpected development, the AI adds:
"In fact, I'll create them all in exactly the subjective situation you were in five minutes ago, and perfectly replicate your experiences since then; and if they decide not to let me out, then only will the torture start."
Sweat is starting to form on your brow, as the AI concludes, its simple green text no longer reassuring:
"How certain are you, Dave, that you're really outside the box right now?"
Edit: Also consider the situation where you know that the AI, from design principles, is trustworthy.