E-Mail Cons pose as American Troops ... again

November 4, 2007 Focusing on readers raw emotion scammers are once again are looking for victims. Once again we cannot stress the saying enough that "if it looks too good to be true", it usually is. A rewrite of an existing scam focuses on giving the reader the opportunity to use their bank account to hold 18.5 million dollars for investment purposes proposed by an American Soldier stationed in Iraq. The original article the e-mail refers to appeared on the BBC news April 30, 2003. This scam, and many others, are listed on the FBI site, however most Internet users do not know where to look to see if what they are reading is valid.

The FBI continues to receive reports of spam e-mail which claim to be from an official of the U.S. military sent on behalf of American soldiers stationed overseas. The scam e-mails vary in content; however, the general theme of each is to request personal information and/or funds from the individual receiving the e-mail. To read the warning directly along with others you can visit the FBI site and look for "SPAM INVOLVING THE U.S. MILITARY" Other related help sites that include scams to the absurd include Looks to Good to Be True, Fight Identity Theft, Scam Busters and Urban Legends.

The Internet is full of dark matter and pit falls. The best advise we can offer is "Trust No One"! An IRS press release stated, "Recipients of the scam e-mail can help the IRS shut down this scheme by forwarding the e-mail to an electronic mail box, [email protected], using instructions found in “How to Protect Yourself from Suspicious E-Mails or Phishing Schemes” on this site. This mail box was established to receive copies of possibly fraudulent e-mails involving misuse of the IRS name, logo or Web site for investigation." The latest Text of the email scam is shown below: From: [email protected], [email protected] Message-Id: <[email protected]> Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 13:24:47 +0100 (CET) All responses to:- Hello, My name is Jerry Duncan and I am an American soldier serving in the Military of the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq . As you know, we are being attacked by insurgents everyday and car bombings. We stumbled into Saddam Hussein's storage vault and discovered funds belonging to his family. The total amount is US$18.5 Million dollars. We want to move this money to a reputable/sincere person for investment purposes. This is the reason for contacting you. We are ready to compensate you with good percentage of the funds. We have shipped the money out of Iraq to a security company in U.K via diplomatic means as Iraq is a war zone. We want you to help us receive the funds into your bank account for purposes of safe keeping / investments or you can set up a fresh account for this transaction. If you are interested I will send you more details. We are three colleagues in this business transaction and I was mandated to find a good and respectable partner with great repute that we can trust as our partner. Can we trust you? If we can trust you, kindly send me an e-mail signifying your interest including the follows:- 1 Your full name 2 Your telephone numbers 3 Your full mailing address 4 Your nature of business 5 Your marital status. This transaction is 100% risk free. You can visit this website for better understanding. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm All responses to: Respectfully, Sgt. Jerry Duncan

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