keen J. Richardson <[email protected]> -- Military

[AlanJones]

A "Sgt. keen J. Richardson" purporting to be a US Marine, currently in Syria, apparently needs help getting a box containing "$6,950,000 (Six Million Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars) and 96 pieces of gold bars" to some friendly country. When last I heard the box was stuck in customs in Istanbul waiting for me to pay 1,250 Euros.

The lead in was sent to a mailing list when on 27/07/2022 11:30, keen J. Richardson <[email protected]> wrote:

A mail was sent to you sometime last week with the expectation of
having a return mail from you but to my surprise you never bothered to replied.
Kindly reply for further explanations.

Respectfully yours,
Keen J. Richardson
For completeness I enclose the next two emails in the chain below. It is entirely transparent !

Over time I have collected the email addresses:

Keen J. Richardson <[email protected]>
[email protected]

And the "shipping company":

AIR GATE INTERNATIONAL FREIGHT FORWARDING
[email protected]
Address of Togo Lome Branch 1381, Rue De l'entente Lome Togo
Telephone number +, WhatsApp +228-97401748
HERE IS YOUR TRACKING CODE 55782022
Https://Www.Airgatecargos.Com/Shipment_tracker.Php

I also have collected a number of bank accounts in various names, one in the UK and the rest in Turkey. It is not clear what I should do with those.

"Kim"

From: "keen J. Richardson" <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:43:29 +0000
Subject: THANKS FOR YOUR RESPONSE[list]

My dear friend,

Sorry to encroach into your privacy in this manner; I decided to contact you for urgent assistance which I presume will interest you and benefit
both parties in the end.

I pray at this time that your email address is still valid so you can see and read my email. My name is Keen J. Richardson.I am 35 years old, a US citizen, from Houston Texas to be precise. I joined the US military after the events of September 11, 2001 left 3 of my beloved family members dead, ever since i have been engaged in this war against terrorism in Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria. My unit was involved in the "Operation Odyssey Dawn" in Libya but we have been transferred to Syria to help fight the Islamic militant group called "ISIS".

For a long time I have lived like a soldier, now I want to live like every other normal person. I want to have friends outside the military, I want to find love and to be loved, I want to experience what life is like in the outside world, I want to enjoy the freedom that I have fought for, and I don't want to live in fear any longer. I really want to spend time with friends and loved ones and to go on vacations too, i can't remember the last time I went on vacation.

My dear, here in Syria the attack we see every day reminds me of how close to death i could be and the situation here is not getting any better, i have been very lucky to still be alive till this day.I contacted you because I seek assistance from a sincere, truthful and reliable person for friendship and as a business partner to help me receive a cash box from a Shipping and Security company AIRGATE (AG). I want to quit the military and I hope to start a new life with this money because life here in Syria is very risky.

The money in the cash box is my share of the money my team (Odyssey Dawn) discovered when we were in Libya on a mission. When we found this money, my
team agreed to share the money amongst ourselves and to keep it secret. Out of the total money, my own share was $6,950,000 (Six Million Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars) and 96 pieces of gold bars for safe keeping until I am able to meet you in your country.

I will be relocating from this military base soon because the U.S new Government has ordered that my team relocates to another U.S military base, so I really need your assistance to help me receive the money.

I am seeking your assistance to help me evacuate my share of this money to your country for safe keeping as I hope to meet you as soon as possible.

I was not able to relocate these funds to my preferred destination before our assignment changed and I was redeployed to Syria. For safe keeping, I enlisted the help of a shipping company who registered it as a family treasure pending the time I sent them a delivery address of my choice. AIRGATE (AG) Now i need you to help me receive the box containing the money from the courier company, it will be delivered to you legally as a diplomatic package. All you have to do is stay at home while it comes to you legally and without any danger.

I have chosen to contact you after my prayers and I believe that you will not betray my trust nor thwart my dream, though you may wonder why I am so soon revealing myself to you without formal introduction, well, I will say that my mind convinced me that you are the true person to help me in receiving and investing this Fund.I hope my explanation is very clear but if you need further clarification just let me know and i will explain further, I want to let you know that here in the military base camp we are not allow to make use of mobile phone, we only make use of radio message and email communication, so please let us continue communicating through email for the mean time.

I want you to please assure me that my money will be safe and intact if delivered to you, as this is my last hope for a new beginning. I have decided to compensate you with 15% $ 1,042,500. i.e One million, Forty two thousand five hundred US Dollars) of the total money in the cash box once you help me receive the money on my behalf.

My dear good friend, one passionate appeal I will make to you is not to discuss this matter with a third party, as this will jeopardize all my efforts for a new beginning. If there should be any form of leakage of this information I will be in danger based on my position in the Army. I promise you a safe and risk free delivery of this package to your home in your country only if you keep this discussion between us.

Thank you for your time as I wait for an immediate reply as regards to my appeal, your urgent reply will be highly appreciated.

Big Hug and Kisses

Sgt. Keen.

Sgt. Keen sent two pictures of herself, one in a camouflage jacket "KEEN U.S. MARINES" but with no insignia. At some time between those pictures she has dyed her hair and eyebrows.

Another e-mail they are using for the fake shipping company: [email protected]

Pictures sent by the scammer (note that this is most likely an innocent third party being impersonated by the scammer):

I do not know if it is related, but I received a call on my mobile from +44 7843 794356 which I did not answer. They did not leave voicemail but did send this text:

This is the North Yorkshire Police, you are under investigation for trying to scam people. Please attend Fulford Police station in York within the next 24hrs giving the reference number iamacunt999 to avoid immediate arrest in the near future.

This is obviously bogus and I have sent it to 7726 and blocked the number.

It is better english than Sgt Keen and Airgate manage. I would like to think it is a coincidence but I rather fear it is not. I did say I was from Scunthorpe.

Since my conversations with them were via gmail, I am not sure how they got my mobile number. I wonder if this is a prelude to an attempt to hijack my mobile number ? But if so, why warn me ? I guess I should move all my 2 factor security to another number, just to be safe.

Any advice ?

"Kim"

[AlanJones]

Judging by the "reference number", I would say that it is very likely that it is connected to the scammers.

It's unlikely that it is a prelude to an attempt to hijack your mobile number (at least not by these scammers), more likely it is an attempt to get back at you for wasting their time, but it would probably be safest to remove that number from any 2FA that you use it for just in case.

The fact that the scammer managed to get your number would indicate that your number has somehow got online and been associated with the email address you are using. If you have used the email address and phone number for registering on other sites then it is possible that it was part of a data leak.