Can some Help me if this is a scam or not?

Hey there,

I've received an email from a US Army captain who is based in Afghanistan and who has a lot of money which he made from oil businesses. He ask to help him get the money out of Afghanistan transferring it to me via red cross air cargo since he is a 100% authorized to move money via diplomatic courier service ( As he said he cannot move the money to the US). He says that the money will arrive via a red cross jet and later he will drop by to pick his money up ( here in Spain). and by the way he wants to invert some quantity in the properties I'm selling. He says he only needs some basic personal data to put everything on tracks. The email seems very coherent and i didn't see any kind strange things like when some expression are used in a wrong place or when people translate stuff without taking in consideration in what manner are these things said in English.The email itself seems alright. He also states that he has proofs that this fund is his.

He asks for this data: Full name, full address, occupation, martial status, country.

My question is if this is a scam or not? What can they gain by this scam? If I'm not asked to send money nor to give crucial personal data like ID number, date of birth, place of birth etc. can I get into any trouble?

Why do scammers gain with these kind of scams of you are don"t send them money??
Thanks a lot for your help.

Yes it's a scam.

Afghanistan does not produce any oil nor does it have any proven oil reserves.

The US army is a volunteer army. No one who makes money from oil would enlist in the army, nor would they have the time or ability to manage an oil business and his superiors would not give him time to do it.

The trick is always the same - lay out an offer you can't refuse and then make you pay what seems a paltry sum to get your hands on the imaginary money they say you'll get. There isn't a 0.0001% chance this is real.

The only truth is that it's a scam - guaranteed.

Thanks for your reply,

The fact is that he doesn't ask for money.... This is why is pretty strange....

He will.

It's the most basic rule of scamming. You only give the good news up front to get the 'mark' hooked. Then, when you mention the cost, it seems silly not to pay it. The fact is that a US captain would have the money to pay it themselves and they have no reason to contact a stranger off the internet to help them. It only makes sense when you realise he's a scammer stealing from you.

Nothing he says is true, and would you risk paying money to a liar ?

It's true,

I'm a real estate agent moving high roller properties on international markets. Properties on the Canary Islands and Tenerife, he first wanted information about the property he was interested in and afterwards he sent me this email in which he started this b.s. probably he got it from this website: http://www.european-property.com/ where I'm a registered property seller! thanks god I'm not a dumb guy and I started checking on the internet is its a scam or not and since I didn't find any info I registered to this website to find out the truth.

Ill post he's email so you guys can check it out.

Hello Christian,

Thanks immensely for the information on your property. I wish to let you know that I am surely buying the property on your prize for my investment purposes and I am hoping as well that we can work together on a better and higher platform. I am a war veteran with the NATO troop in Afghanistan, on war against terrorism. I served in the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad Iraq.

I will need the property for my investment purposes as i will be relocating to Europe because of some security reasons and this is why i contacted you so that we can put head together towards my plan to invest in Europe. As a result of this, it will be important for me to reveal to you that I have in my possession the sum of € 13.2 million. which i got from crude oil deal in Iraq. I have been deployed to Afghanistan but I have the fund in Iraq and as soon as I hear from you of your reassurance to assist me then I will communicate for the delivery with the help of a red cross cargo jet.

I have this money stored somewhere very safe in our camp in Fallujah Iraq waiting for a moment like this to put the money in good use and now that I have been moved to Afghanistan I want the fund moved without delay. I have a very profitable investment plans on hand. I cannot move this money to the United states because I will be in Europe for about 3 years, so I need someone I could trust. If you accept, I will transfer the money to you where you will be the beneficiary because I need to present someone as the beneficiary.. I am an American and an intelligence officer for that so I have a 100% authentic means of transferring the money through diplomatic courier service. I just need your acceptance and all is done.

Please if you are interested in this transaction I will give to you the complete details you need for us to carry out this transaction successfully. I decided to find someone that is real and not imaginary and that is why I went to a secured site where I can be sure that the person is real. I believe I can trust you. Right now i am very careful with the way i communicate so as to reduce any kind of risk until this money is finally in your custody. i shall be communicating to you through email and would also give you a call when it is necessary so as to inform you on any important information. I want you to be brave as i have everything under control. I have every proof of this fund in my possession to show you that everything is authentic.

I can brief you on further inquiry when I am in a secured place . I am writing from a fresh email account so if you are not interested do not reply to this email and please delete this message, if no response after 3 days I will then search for someone else. I am doing this on trust,so i would want you to put aside any act of greed or the thought of cheating as we have a lot to gain in this business relationship. € 13.2 million is a lot of money which is the dream of anyone. I am in Afghanistan right now and need to secure this money and send it to you if we reach a proper agreement.

I wait for your contact details so we can go on. In less than 5 days the fund should have been delivered to you and I will come over for my money. I will give to you 10% of the sum and 90% is for me. I hope I am been fair on this deal.

Regards,
Captain Ben

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I wrote him a good reply as well :

Hello Ben,


Please read each part of my e-mail carefully, there is a lot of businesses that we could do together!

Listen there is a little chance that what you are saying is the truth.
First off: Afghanistan does not produce any oil and doesn't have any oil reserves.
Second: Te Us Army is a volunteer army and no one who makes money from oil would enlist in the US Army. Nor would you have time and the ability to manage such business since a captains timetable is very strict and your superior would not give you such time.
Third: Even if you can manage to run some businesses in Afghanistan the chance that you can get 12 million € without anyone's attention ( and as you say: storing it in the camp) is very unlikely since its a big quantity of money specially in cash.

Although I give a very small percentage that your story is true!

If I get the money here and I'll actually pick it up I am willing to sign a contract of authorization in which I'll state that I'm keeping your money till you arrive to pick it up. Of course if I pick the money up I'll give my ID card, social security number and all data even my passport to identify myself and if you want I"ll get a police certificate that I'm a real guy for you to be safe that I'm not a fake person.
And for sure I'm not willing to pay not even a cent in advance. ( Usually here's the trick, suddenly at the last step of the operation some weird thing happens and If have to pay some money in order to retrieve the large dream amount of money.)

If you state that your story is true call me on my cellphone and we can talk about the details.
And if your fine with the procedure which I proposed we can do this without any problem.
I'm a real estate agent running high class properties worth from 500.000€ to 3 million € so obviously I'm not a dumb guy.
Now its the time for you to be brave and put everything on tracks if you really are who you say you are.
If you don't reply you prove that all this was only a scam. (Which at the moment is very probable)

PS: In case you really are who you say you are I have many ideas of investment which could grant you a lot of money for lifetime.
Like hotels and buildings on the Canary Islands and Tenerife which are one of the best places to start some business. properties which now are available for half the price they worth a few years ago. By the end of the crisis these properties will double or triple their price. Imagine.... out of each million euros you invest you'll get 3 millions.

Don't get offended, its only business.


Best regards Captain.

Even if you recognize the scam for what it is, it is usually *not* recommended to reply to the scammers telling him what he did wrong or which part of his story is not true. This can lead to the scammer changing his script to something else, and so next potential victim may not know it's a scam.

For the future I recommend that you just quietly disappear into the shadows, leaving the scammer confused on what he did wrong.

Also, if you'd like to know, here's how this scam works - upon the scammer confirming that he sent the package (which if of course nonexistant), he'd eventually send a mail notifying you of unexpected fees, like Seal of Approval from XYZ bank, providing an imaginary document that the money is not sourced from illegal activities, or some such sh**.

Una de sus palabras me dijo que aprendió el español ante del inglés. Así mismo, hay errores característicos que nos dicen que el primer idioma de los estafadores no es el inglés sino el igbo o el yorubá. No son tan obvios en los pre-escritos que cuando los estafadores mismos los escriben, pero a nosotros quienes comuniquen diariamente con los estafadores es obvio que esta carta fue escrita por un africano. (Confieso que mi primer idioma es el inglés y segundo es francés.)

Painful Truth is correct and you are 'coaching' him so that the next victim he contacts will get an improved story with his errors corrected.

Thankfully he still has many facts wrong and the style of English he is using is very clearly that of a scammer of African origin. Sending him e-mails is a waste of your time and intelligence.

Basically it's the Lotto scam but with a more stupid story instead of a lottery.

Una de sus palabras me dijo que aprendió el español ante del inglés. Así mismo, hay errores característicos que nos dicen que el primer idioma de los estafadores no es el inglés sino el igbo o el yorubá. No son tan obvios en los pre-escritos que cuando los estafadores mismos los escriben, pero a nosotros quienes comuniquen diariamente con los estafadores es obvio que esta carta fue escrita por un africano. (Confieso que mi primer idioma es el inglés y segundo es francés.)

Gracias la verdad es que llevo 2 años en España y cuando llegue aquí no hablaba nada de Español.

Spanish is my third, and for the past several years I've been attending a Hispanic church and sometimes I use a word they don't know. My mother was a well-educated Salvadoran; a lot of them are Mexican construction workers.

Back to scams: the connection between the Red Cross jet and diplomatic courier service with delivering a huge sum of money to some random person off the Internet is pure fiction. As Painful Truth pointed out, please don't point out scammers' errors to scammers. In fact baiters (a lot of us also bait scammers) sometimes deliberately point out fake errors to diseducate scammers so that their next scripts will be worse.

Hi there!

A few days ago, I recieved an email from a man who speaks English, he was interested in buying my grandfather's house (that I put online on a website).
I responded to him very friendly, he replied back, so did I again and ... about an hour ago I got the following email:

Hello Dear ,


How are you and your family today, I pray you are all safe and good. I wanna thank you so much for the urgent response on your property and I wish to let you know that I am sincerely interested in your property and I am surely buying this property on your prize and I am hoping as well that we can work together on a better and higher platform considering my relocation to your Country, I sincerely want to trust you. I am a war veteran with the NATO troop in Afghanistan, on war against terrorism. I served in the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad Iraq and now serving in Afghanistan.


I will need this property for my private purposes as i will be relocating to your Country I have been deployed to come and serve as an Advisor in one of the US Military Base in your country and this is why i contacted you so that we can put head together towards my plan to invest in your Country. As a result of this,it will be important for me to reveal to you that I have in my possession the sum of €10.2 million. which i got during our raid on terrorism in Kabul Afghanistan. and as soon as I hear from you of your reassurance to assist me then I will communicate for the delivery with the help of a red cross cargo jet.


I have this money stored somewhere very safe in our camp in Kabul Afghanistan waiting for a moment like this to put the money in good use and now I want the box moved without delay. I have a very profitable investment plans on hand. I cannot move this money to the United states because I will be in your Country for about 5 years, so I need someone I could trust. If you accept, I will transfer the money to your Country where you will be the beneficiary because I am currently settling some scores with the pentagon so I cannot be parading such an amount so I need to present someone as the beneficiary.. I am an American and an intelligence officer for that so I have a 100% authentic means of transferring the money through diplomatic courier service. I just need your acceptance and all is done.


Please if you are interested in this transaction I will give to you the complete details you need for us to carry out this transaction successfully. I decided to find someone that is real and not imaginary and that is why I went to a secured site where I can be sure that the person is real. I believe I can trust you. Right now i am very careful with the way i communicate so as to reduce any kind of risk until this money is finally in your custody. i shall be communicating to you through email and would also give you a call when it is necessary so as to inform you on any important information. I want you to be brave as i have everything under control. I have every proof of this fund in my possession to show you that everything is authentic.


If you are not interested do not reply to this email and please delete this message, if no response after 3days I will then search for someone else. I am doing this on trust,so i would want you to put aside any act of greed or the thought of cheating as we have a lot to gain in this business relationship. €10.2 million is a lot of money which is the dream of anyone. I am in Afghanistan right now and need to secure this money and send it to you if we reach a proper agreement. I am writing you from a fresh private email address, please delete this message if you are not interested in working with me.


I wait for your contact details so we can go on. In less than 5 days the fund should have been delivered to you and I will come over for my money. I will give to you 20% of the sum and 80% is for me. I hope I am been fair on this deal.

Regards,
Captain... (I left the name out)

I'm not stupid, in fact a little (or a lot) sceptic, so I took a look on the net and came across this website...

It seems that this person, or this organisation, is still sending these emails..

I played dumb and asked him what I had to do.. Now I'm waiting for his response, and then I'll copy the link of this website to him.. Bet I'll never hear from him again after that email?

How did things end up with you and your emails from this guy?

Greets,
Saartje (from Belgium)

Hi there!

A few days ago, I recieved an email from a man who speaks English, he was interested in buying my grandfather's house (that I put online on a website).
I responded to him very friendly, he replied back, so did I again and ... about an hour ago I got the following email:

Hello Dear ,


How are you and your family today, I pray you are all safe and good. I wanna thank you so much for the urgent response on your property and I wish to let you know that I am sincerely interested in your property and I am surely buying this property on your prize and I am hoping as well that we can work together on a better and higher platform considering my relocation to your Country, I sincerely want to trust you. I am a war veteran with the NATO troop in Afghanistan, on war against terrorism. I served in the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad Iraq and now serving in Afghanistan.


I will need this property for my private purposes as i will be relocating to your Country I have been deployed to come and serve as an Advisor in one of the US Military Base in your country and this is why i contacted you so that we can put head together towards my plan to invest in your Country. As a result of this,it will be important for me to reveal to you that I have in my possession the sum of €10.2 million. which i got during our raid on terrorism in Kabul Afghanistan. and as soon as I hear from you of your reassurance to assist me then I will communicate for the delivery with the help of a red cross cargo jet.


I have this money stored somewhere very safe in our camp in Kabul Afghanistan waiting for a moment like this to put the money in good use and now I want the box moved without delay. I have a very profitable investment plans on hand. I cannot move this money to the United states because I will be in your Country for about 5 years, so I need someone I could trust. If you accept, I will transfer the money to your Country where you will be the beneficiary because I am currently settling some scores with the pentagon so I cannot be parading such an amount so I need to present someone as the beneficiary.. I am an American and an intelligence officer for that so I have a 100% authentic means of transferring the money through diplomatic courier service. I just need your acceptance and all is done.


Please if you are interested in this transaction I will give to you the complete details you need for us to carry out this transaction successfully. I decided to find someone that is real and not imaginary and that is why I went to a secured site where I can be sure that the person is real. I believe I can trust you. Right now i am very careful with the way i communicate so as to reduce any kind of risk until this money is finally in your custody. i shall be communicating to you through email and would also give you a call when it is necessary so as to inform you on any important information. I want you to be brave as i have everything under control. I have every proof of this fund in my possession to show you that everything is authentic.


If you are not interested do not reply to this email and please delete this message, if no response after 3days I will then search for someone else. I am doing this on trust,so i would want you to put aside any act of greed or the thought of cheating as we have a lot to gain in this business relationship. €10.2 million is a lot of money which is the dream of anyone. I am in Afghanistan right now and need to secure this money and send it to you if we reach a proper agreement. I am writing you from a fresh private email address, please delete this message if you are not interested in working with me.


I wait for your contact details so we can go on. In less than 5 days the fund should have been delivered to you and I will come over for my money. I will give to you 20% of the sum and 80% is for me. I hope I am been fair on this deal.

Regards,
Captain... (I left the name out)

I'm not stupid, in fact a little (or a lot) sceptic, so I took a look on the net and came across this website...

It seems that this person, or this organisation, is still sending these emails..

I played dumb and asked him what I had to do.. Now I'm waiting for his response, and then I'll copy the link of this website to him.. Bet I'll never hear from him again after that email?

How did things end up with you and your emails from this guy?

Greets,
Saartje (from Belgium)

Welcome to SW.....

and then I'll copy the link of this website to him..

Please do not do this, it is not a good idea to educate scammers, as to this site being here fair enough if he comes across it by using a search engine nothing we can do about that

We certainley would not point a scammer to here...

Please post the name and email address of the "captain" in case someone else who received the email searches for it. But as Gateway said, don't tell the scammer that you've posted his email here.

I got contacted too by a so called captain.
He also tells me he will buy py property. He has 10,5 million and needs a benificary for when he relocates.... how do these people come up with this??? what should i respond? Currently he thinks i will co-operate. He asks me for my full name, address and a copy of my id.

Greetings nathalie from belgium