Another nasty E-Mail

[SeaCat]

I think someone needs to be shipped overseas to serve a while. Maybe as a human mine sweeper?

AFGHANISTAN...NEED YOUR ASSISTANCEFriday, December 24, 2010 5:32 PMFrom: "Sgt. Charles Moore" <fgfggsg@volker-abels.de>Add sender to ContactsTo: undisclosed-recipientsDear Friend,

Good day and compliments, I know this letter will definitely come to you as a huge surprise, but I implore you to take the time to go through it carefully as the decision you make will go off a long way to determine my future and continued existence.Please allow me to introduce myself.I am Sgt. Charles Moore, a US Marine Sgt.serving in the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment that Patrols the helmand province, Afghanistan. I am desperately in need of assistance and I have summoned up courage to contact you.

I am presently in Afghanistan and I found your contact particulars in an address journal. I am seeking your assistance to evacuate the sum of $14.5m (Fourteen Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) to you,as far as I can be assured that it will be safe in your care until I complete my service here. This is no stolen money and there are no dangers involved.

SOURCE OF MONEY:
Some money in US DOLLARS was discovered and concealed in barrels at a location in helman province when we conducted a foot patrol and it was agreed by all party present that the money be shared amongst us.This might appear as an illegal thing to do but I tell you what? No compensation can make up for the risks we have taken with our lives in this hellhole.The above figure was given to me as my share and to conceal this kind of money became a problem for me, so with the help of a Canadian contact working with the UN here (his office enjoys some immunity) I was able to get the package out to a safe location entirely out of trouble spot. He does not know the real contents of the package as he believes that it belongs to an American who died in an air raid, who before giving up trusted me to hand over the package to his close relative.

I have now found a secured way of getting the package out of Afghanistan for you to pick up. I do not know for how long I will remain here, as I have been lucky to survive 2 suicide bomb attacks by Pure Divine intervention. This and other reasons put into consideration have prompted me to reach out for help. If it might be of interest to you then Endeavor to contact me immediately and we would work out the necessary formalities but I pray that you are discreet about this mutually benefiting relationship.

Respectfully,
Sgt. Charles Moore,
United States Marine Corps. Afghanistan


Cat

 

[Stella_Omega]

its bizarre. I've gotten Nigerian scam letters with all kinds of despicable scenarios where, if the money actually existed, should be going to the nation it was putatively found in. Maybe they figure that someone who doesn't care about piracy would be easier to scam?

 

[nicknavy]

i get those all the time. they are a constant source of amusement for me and my coworkers!

 

[TE999]

I'm guessin' Sgt. Chuck just needs your bank account number to transfer the money or a few bucks to sustain him until he can get the stash to you.

This crap must work on some people or the Nigerians or whoever wouldn't continue trying it.

 

[Crescent_Kit]

Some hella nice comedy website did real email exchanges between someone and one of those people, leading the idiot on.

 

[Boxlicker101]

its bizarre. I've gotten Nigerian scam letters with all kinds of despicable scenarios where, if the money actually existed, should be going to the nation it was putatively found in. Maybe they figure that someone who doesn't care about piracy would be easier to scam?

People who fall for one of those scams end up between a rock and a hard place. If they try to take action to get their money back, they have to admit they were trying to cheat somebody, which would turn the courts or any other legal channel against them.

There is another scam that is a lot slicker. A person answers an internet ad calling for "mystery shoppers" to investigate businesses to make sure they are doing their jobs right. There really are people who do this kind of thing professionally, so it seems fairly respectable. My wife answered one of these solititatiions and they told her she was to investigate Western Union. They sent her a bank draft for about $5,200 dollars and told her to cash it at her bank and wire about $5,000 to them and keep $200 as a fee.

I googled the bank on which the draft was written and called them to ask about it. I was told the draft with that serial number had been cashed years ago. In other words, the oneweI had was a counterfiet or forgery. I reported it to the FBI and faxed them the bank draft and all other detail, including the address where the money was supposed to be wired, but we never heard anything about it after that.

I say it was slicker because the money involved was a normal amount and because the marks weren't asked to do anything dishonest. I hope the FBI nailed the scammers, but I doubt if they even bothered.

 

[Tyro999]

For info, if this is really new to you Seacat, check out these Snopes and Wiki entries:

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/advancefee/nigeria.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

Now known as the Nigerian 419 Scam (from the Nigerian criminal code article # that applies), it has been going on since snail mails in the 1980s, but it's antecedents date back to the 1920s and earlier. We used to get these snail mails at our office back then. They were just as obviously a scam as the one you got in email.

The TV show "60 Minutes" did a piece on this a decade or so ago, showing one of many actual setups actually in Nigeria. Two dozen Nigerian men, busily clicking away on their laptops, spamming this stuff in its various forms, to email address lists they bought from email addy harvesters at five cents per 1000 names or somesuch.

My yahoo.com spam trap addy gets from three to a dozen of these things every day. They're easily recognizable by the awkard english in the subject lines, invariably caught by yahoo's own spam filters and separated for me (along with all the "verify your account" ID thief email scams) to look at and/or delete as I choose.

 

[sadangel]

For info, if this is really new to you Seacat, check out these Snopes and Wiki entries:

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/advancefee/nigeria.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

Now known as the Nigerian 419 Scam (from the Nigerian criminal code article # that applies), it has been going on since snail mails in the 1980s, but it's antecedents date back to the 1920s and earlier. We used to get these snail mails at our office back then. They were just as obviously a scam as the one you got in email.

The TV show "60 Minutes" did a piece on this a decade or so ago, showing one of many actual setups actually in Nigeria. Two dozen Nigerian men, busily clicking away on their laptops, spamming this stuff in its various forms, to email address lists they bought from email addy harvesters at five cents per 1000 names or somesuch.

My yahoo.com spam trap addy gets from three to a dozen of these things every day. They're easily recognizable by the awkard english in the subject lines, invariably caught by yahoo's own spam filters and separated for me (along with all the "verify your account" ID thief email scams) to look at and/or delete as I choose.

The Nigerian ones have been around a long time and I'm sure SeaCat knows that. In fact, I think he referenced it in his OP...it is the one that is from a so called person in the USMC stationed in Afghanistan that is new. I'm only just now finding posts at different places about it.

 

[Boxlicker101]

For info, if this is really new to you Seacat, check out these Snopes and Wiki entries:

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/advancefee/nigeria.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

Now known as the Nigerian 419 Scam (from the Nigerian criminal code article # that applies), it has been going on since snail mails in the 1980s, but it's antecedents date back to the 1920s and earlier. We used to get these snail mails at our office back then. They were just as obviously a scam as the one you got in email.

The TV show "60 Minutes" did a piece on this a decade or so ago, showing one of many actual setups actually in Nigeria. Two dozen Nigerian men, busily clicking away on their laptops, spamming this stuff in its various forms, to email address lists they bought from email addy harvesters at five cents per 1000 names or somesuch.

My yahoo.com spam trap addy gets from three to a dozen of these things every day. They're easily recognizable by the awkard english in the subject lines, invariably caught by yahoo's own spam filters and separated for me (along with all the "verify your account" ID thief email scams) to look at and/or delete as I choose.

I find it hard to believe anybody with much experience in sending and receiving emails hasn't heard of these scams. One way to tell is that they are addressed to "Undisclosed Recipient" or some such, as if to show they want to keep it confidential.

 

[Tyro999]

The location has nothing to do with it - it is a Nigerian 419 in spirit, if not in location. You get xxx million for laundering money for someone - all they need is your "earnest money" payment, and your bank account details so that they can send the whole amount to you, for you to send their portion back after its been laundered. Read the Snopes/Wiki articles, or google on "Nigerian Scam".

 

[Zobor]

Well thats a new one. Seen all kinds of these scams. How cna these people live with themselves

 

[SeaCat]

For info, if this is really new to you Seacat, check out these Snopes and Wiki entries:

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/advancefee/nigeria.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

Now known as the Nigerian 419 Scam (from the Nigerian criminal code article # that applies), it has been going on since snail mails in the 1980s, but it's antecedents date back to the 1920s and earlier. We used to get these snail mails at our office back then. They were just as obviously a scam as the one you got in email.

The TV show "60 Minutes" did a piece on this a decade or so ago, showing one of many actual setups actually in Nigeria. Two dozen Nigerian men, busily clicking away on their laptops, spamming this stuff in its various forms, to email address lists they bought from email addy harvesters at five cents per 1000 names or somesuch.

My yahoo.com spam trap addy gets from three to a dozen of these things every day. They're easily recognizable by the awkard english in the subject lines, invariably caught by yahoo's own spam filters and separated for me (along with all the "verify your account" ID thief email scams) to look at and/or delete as I choose.

Oh I know about the 419's. I have received a lot of them.

This one is a bit different in that it was purported to be from a U.S. Marine.

I occasionaly post the ones I receive either because they are different, (As in this one) or because they are truly funny to me.

Cat

 

[Zeb_Carter]

People who fall for one of those scams end up between a rock and a hard place. If they try to take action to get their money back, they have to admit they were trying to cheat somebody, which would turn the courts or any other legal channel against them.

There is another scam that is a lot slicker. A person answers an internet ad calling for "mystery shoppers" to investigate businesses to make sure they are doing their jobs right. There really are people who do this kind of thing professionally, so it seems fairly respectable. My wife answered one of these solititatiions and they told her she was to investigate Western Union. They sent her a bank draft for about $5,200 dollars and told her to cash it at her bank and wire about $5,000 to them and keep $200 as a fee.

I googled the bank on which the draft was written and called them to ask about it. I was told the draft with that serial number had been cashed years ago. In other words, the oneweI had was a counterfiet or forgery. I reported it to the FBI and faxed them the bank draft and all other detail, including the address where the money was supposed to be wired, but we never heard anything about it after that.

I say it was slicker because the money involved was a normal amount and because the marks weren't asked to do anything dishonest. I hope the FBI nailed the scammers, but I doubt if they even bothered.

My daughter in law answered and ad on some page on the internet about being a model...they said they paid for everything and fedex four Money Gram checks, each for 5k. Told her to go to her bank and cash them then wire half back to them. I told her before she did anything to call Money Gram to see if the checks were valid.

They weren't. Scam. She tore them into little shreds and sent them back postage due.

 

[Tyro999]

Heh. I received the first ones like this one, purporting to be from US Marines or US Army Soldiers in Iraq within a couple weeks of the end of the March on Baghdad. Even this isn't a recent twist, but is the better part of a decade old.

Trust an old Jarhead on this, the latino cooks in most of the restaurants in this area (DC) speak English as a second language better that that purported Marine used in the email.

 

[R. Richard]

A million dollars in $100 bills weighs about 22 pounds. For 14.5 million dollars we're talking about 320 pounds.

The same million dollars in $100 bills requires about a cubic foot to store, if neatly stacked. A typical smallish 40 liter dufflebag would do for a million dollars in $100 bills, assuming that you just stuffed then in. Thus, you would need about 15 smallish dufflebags for $14.4 million.

A package of $14.5, million would then weigh 320 pounds and would be of about 15 cubic feet capacity (say one by three by five feet.) The average person could not lift such a package and the package would need to be very sturdy indeed to survive handling. Not likely.

 

[rgraham666]

My first clue would have been the question that popped into my mind: "Why would a U.S. Marine be using a German e-mail address?"