Morning Guys and Gals,

I received a very suspicious email from a supposed soldier asking for my information so that they could send me a specific amount of Saddam's furtune. There are specific details in this email as to the Division that he is in as well as the amount and how they would send it to me.

My question is, do I report this and if so, who the heck do I send it to?

You can ignore it, or you can take it to your bank. Ask them if the have a fraud unit...if they do they can track the bad guy's down!

Would I take it to the bank or since it involves a "soldier" with a specific Army Division named, should I take it to the FBI or something?

There's an Internet Crime Complaint Center which is a partnership between the FBI, Bureau of Justice Administration, and the Federal Trade Commission. I bet they receive a thousand complaints a day on these scams. There's other agencies listed on the front page of Craigslist with CraigsList's own warnings about scams.

I wouldn't both notifying anybody. We live in an internet world and there's not much going to be done with crooks in Nigeria. These scams originate out of poverty-stricken countries and already years old. Another complaint won't accomplish anything. Just delete it and ignore them.

I'm surprised at your answers. What if this is someone impersonating a soldier?

Somebody is impersonating a soldier. E-mails in an internet world are similar to the annoying phone calls that we've become accustomed to. The authorities have been dealing with these e-mails for a decade. Government agencies are not sending detectives to Nigeria looking for computer frauds. It's only a "property crime" and is to costly for police budgets.

The best offense is a good defense. If it's to good to be true, delete it. Report it if you want, but my agency does little or nothing with these frauds.

I'm not trying to be indifferent, but I'm a husband, a father, veteran, and police supervisor. I was responding to you as if I was talking to a close friend or neighbor. Don't let me discourage you from extending all the efforts you wish on this. I wouldn't bother though.

No, I totally respect your opinion and thank you for giving me your honest one.

I don't know, I guess it's just disappointing that more isn't done about these. But the sheer volume that they get is probably ridiculous.

quote:

Originally posted by armywifefigueroa:
Would I take it to the bank or since it involves a "soldier" with a specific Army Division named, should I take it to the FBI or something?

Yes,take it to the bank, as I said,my bank has a fraud unit.They work with police agencies to track these guy's down.

BTW,the ploy you got has been going around for years!

Just last week I was talking to the chief investigator of the District Attorney's White Collar Crime Unit. I asked him what he does with the crime reports of grand larcenies committed by these frauds. He responded he mails everyone of them to the Postal Inspectors. After that we lose touch on what happens with them. we doubt they do anymore than we do.

We don't live in a perfect world. Unscrupulous persons will impersonate soldiers to gain sympathy and then try to rip you off. Undoubtedly greed on our end is a contributory factor.

I get dozens of these every week. They been going around to one form or another for several years. I just mark then as SPAM. It depends on you email account how SPAM is handled. My Yahoo account once flagged as SPAM they are deleted before reaching my mailbox. My Gmail account allows to then to come to the account but dumps them in the SPAM mail.

99.999999999999999% of all unsolicited email is false. I never open anything from someone that I don't. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER x10,000 open an attachment from someone that you don't know.

Here's my favorite Internet Soap Box.

http://info.org.il/irrelevant/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf

OAL

A listening ear, a caring heart, an open mind and an extended hand may be all I can offer, but it is yours without charge or Judgment.

quote:

How to report a suspicious email?

"Hello, Police? There is a suspicious-looking email lurking in my computer window!!"

That will probably get some attention - -

If you still have it in your email, simply click to forward it and send it to scams@fraudwatchinternational.com.

Then delete it!

quote:

Originally posted by scpd3045:
Just last week I was talking to the chief investigator of the District Attorney's White Collar Crime Unit. I asked him what he does with the crime reports of grand larcenies committed by these frauds. He responded he mails everyone of them to the Postal Inspectors. After that we lose touch on what happens with them. we doubt they do anymore than we do.

We don't live in a perfect world. Unscrupulous persons will impersonate soldiers to gain sympathy and then try to rip you off. Undoubtedly greed on our end is a contributory factor.

I kinda wondered that. Seems like the volume would be overwhelming. May seem pretty callous, but you got to consider ever email and post begging for hand-outs to be a charity of one, and delete the thing - - or be the next sucker . . .

quote:

Originally posted by greywolfghost:

quote:

How to report a suspicious email?

"Hello, Police? There is a suspicious-looking email lurking in my computer window!!"

That will probably get some attention - -

This would be classified as a suspicious incident and closed out without a rudimentary attempt of investigation.

Why is it that when you buy a computer in Nigeria the first thing you do is start e-mail scams??

What we really need, is a way to delete the friggin' sender!!!

Maybe flip them into an alternate universe or something!!

quote:

What we really need, is a way to delete the friggin' sender!!!

If the email contains a link to a website for you to enter your details (more often with the bank phishing scams than this one), then that website is often being run on the back of a genuine, innocent website.

If you hover the cursor over the link, you will usually be able to see where the link really goes - for example "http://www.harvard.edu/studentname/scam.aspx (note - not a real url)

If this happens, log on to the main site (www.harvard.edu) and look for a 'contact us' link. Forward the email to them. At least, an employee or student may be dismissed, even if no further legal action is taken.

quote:

Originally posted by tawodi:
Why is it that when you buy a computer in Nigeria the first thing you do is start e-mail scams??

What we really need, is a way to delete the friggin' sender!!!

Maybe flip them into an alternate universe or something!!

Computer crimes probably results most of Nigeria's G.N.P. I suspect their few law enforcement officials are wrapped up into this concept and protect the offenders.