The Nigerian email scam takes a really ugly turn...

[MindPilot]

This just landed in my mailbox:
:puke:



Dear Friend,

Good day to you My name is Sgt. Christopher Shelton I am an American soldier, serving in the military with the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq. I and my superior moved funds belonging to Saddam Hussein, totaling (Seventy Five million US dollars) this money is being kept safe in a security company. Click on this link to read about events that took place here;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm

Basically since we are working for the government we cannot keep these funds, we have decided to look for someone to help us, this is why I have contacted you so you can keep it for us in a safe account or an offshore account. If you can help us, We plan to divide the total funds as follows, since we are three Soldiers involved in this,you will take 30%, of the total sum and 70% will be shared between the three of us. This business is confidential, and it should not be discussed with anyone. There is no risk involved whatsoever. If you are interested i will send you full information on it. My job is to find a good partner that we can trust and that will assist us. Can i trust you? When you receive this letter, kindly send me an e-mail signifying your interest including your confidential telephone/fax numbers to enable further communication.

I await your urgent response.

Respectfully submitted

Sgt. Christopher Shelton
Email: [e-mail]
Tel: [phone]

[Mz Pip]

1. Sucker born every minute

I guess.

Perhaps the 75 million could be used to by some body armor for the troops. :sarcasm:

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Hav]

2. .

Yes, despicable.
On the other side, I cannot understand how anyone could believe something like this. But apparently, these scammers make much money.

[burythehatchet]

4. The most vulnerable victime are the elderly

When their critical thinking skills deteriorate they are prone to fall for these scams. Its one of the most dispicable things that seniors have to deal with.

[Irreverend IX]

18. I can see the retirees now...

"Oh Herbert, look at this, a brave young American soldier wants to send us 75 million dollars! We can finally take that trip to the Bahamas!"

[silverweb]

3. A movie fan, no doubt.

Maybe got the idea from the movie, _Three Kings_ to put a U.S. military twist on the old scam.

[MissB]

11. That horrible Clooney film is exactly what came to mind when reading this.

:rofl:

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

5. Today's Doonesbury touches on the Nigeria scam

clicky

[regnaD kciN]

6. Why is this any uglier than the usual...

...which generally presents the sender as the widow or orphan of a murdered African government official?

:shrug:

[MindPilot]

10. Well , there's something about the from an American soldier part

that makes it land a little closer to home. Therefore it will sucker in more people...at least in the USA.

Since I'm American, a veteran, and vigorously opposed to this war, using the image of an American soldier in Iraq to steal is just a wee bit more disturbing than using a widowed African. Sorry if that makes me a bad liberal.

[Trajan]

7. I have NEVER received one of these ....

Why ? .... Because I NEVER open email from anyone I dont know ....

click : delete : gone ....

[MindPilot]

12. Not everyone has the luxury of knowing the source of their emails.

[Trajan]

19. Understood ....

I dont have to weed through spam to find legit emails ..... Im sorry if I offended you, but I was only relating my own facts: Iam sure that most people DONT have to open every email .....

[Chimichurri]

17. Your picture is great! Although it does make my blood pressure rise

[judaspriestess]

8. I recieved one from Malaysia

not too long ago. I responded and told them they were full of shit and I was reporting them. Don't know if it did any good but I thought I would give it a shot.

[InvisibleTouch]

13. What you probably did, sad to say....

...was confirmed that you have an active e-mail address, and they'll now sell that address to other scammers, and you'll get lots more of the same.

That's why you should never click on the link that says "reply to be removed from our mailing list," if it's a list you didn't specifically join and know is legit. Because otherwise you just confirm that yours is a "live" address.

[judaspriestess]

15. I haven't seen any since then

I'm sure more will follow. I received an email from global capital resources LLC about a job as an "exchange manager" transfering money to people in Europe after they had seen my resume on Monster. I exchanged a few emails with them and I finally told them I was forwarding all the emails to the proper authorities since I knew it was fraud. These emails came around the same time.

I don't think simply not answering them is going to make these people go away. I delete 99.9% of all spam emails.

Thanks for the headsup.

[MindPilot]

14. You should never respond...or click that opt-out link

All that does is validate your address and probably gets you on another 50,000 lists.

[LoZoccolo]

9. Check out this one.

Not exactly a Nigerian 419, but whoah:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196900571

[hootinholler]

16. Not many will notice army.com

They will think it more legit sending to an 'army' site. All US military has a .mil domain.

Hopefully the FBI can get a lead or two on these guys.

-Hoot