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New Version of Email Scam Claims to be from American Soldier in Afghanistan
Friday, May 24, 2002
The Associated Press

Washington
An old scam has a new angle -- playing off the war in Afghanistan.

Officials say con artists are sending out e-mails claiming to be from a U-S soldier who has found 36 (m) million dollars of Taliban drug money.

The target of the scam is asked to help move a suitcase of cash out of Afghanistan in exchange for a promised percentage of the loot.

The victim is then coaxed into fronting cash to the con-man.

Secret Service officials say this is the latest incarnation of a swindle targeting hundreds of people a day.

One official says such letters "are always a fraud attempt to steal your money."

An F-B-I report says about 26-hundred Americans said they were victims of the scams in 2001 -- including two people who lost over 70-thousand dollars each.
(More: WorldNow & WKBN News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Odd writing style. Were they all victims?



I turned in such an Email last month to the FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center, but I stipulated I was a target, not a victim.

Dan