A New Twist To The Old Scam
 Friday, May 8th, 2009  by Connie T.

An e-mail came in yesterday from a Sgt. David, with the subject of "HELP IF YOU CAN!!" Bleeding heart that I am, I opened it immediately.

I know you would be surprised to read from someone relatively unknown to you, it opens. My name is Sgt. David, a member of the U.S. Army USARPAC Medical Team, which was deployed to Iraq at the beginning of the war in Iraq. As you can see we both bear the same surname, that is the major reason I have chosen you to help out in this venture.

David claims to have the same last name as I. That would be slightly unusual, since my last name is Bosnian, and "David" doesn't exactly top the Most Popular Names list in the former Yugoslavia. But, okay, he was given a common American first name, it happens. I read on.

I would like to share some highly personal classified information about my personal experience and role which I played in the pursuit of my career serving under the U.S. 1st Armored which was at the fore-front [sic] of the war in Iraq.

Gasp! He wants to give me a juicy story - maybe old Commander in Chief George W. Bush gave direct orders of some sort that the American public knows nothing about! My journalist antenna goes up.

Though, I would like to hold back certain information for security reasons for now until you have found the time to visit the BBC website stated below to enable you have an insight as to what I'm intending to share with you, believing that it would be of your desired interest one-way [sic] or the other.

Hmmm...now that's weird. The information is a security concern and highly classified, but anyone who might intercept his message would see the same links I would, and infer the same "insight," would they not?

He gives me two links to news articles that detail the discovery of about $200 million behind a false wall in a Baghdad neighborhood. The article at BBC closes with, "Five US soldiers are currently being questioned by military officials after some of that money was allegedly stolen following its discovery." US Central Command was quoted as saying the funds will "eventually be returned to the Iraqis to help rebuild their nation."

And there you have it. Sgt. David isn't Sgt. David at all, but a twist to the Ivory Coast / Nigerian scam that's been emptying victim's pockets for decades, where the e-mailer pretends to have massive funds (illegally, usually) and needs your banking information to send them to you. Yeah, right.

I had my suspicions when I opened the thing, but at the same time I'm always itching for a good story. Well, I did get a story out of it, as it turns out...although it cost disobeying Sgt. David's direct orders not to "go public!"

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