Part Of Saddam's Booty For You? Too Good To Be True

By Sam Bakken in Miscellaneous on Mar 12, 2005 5:59AM

Attention gullible dipshits! If Sgt. Mark Dang contacts you via e-mail to ask for your help in transferring part of Saddam Hussein's fortune that he found in Iraq, be careful. Sgt. Dang may only be taking advantage of your delusions of renown among the U.S. Armed Forces and, according to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, may not even exist. "I would be very surprised if this con artist is a member of our military, which is serving so courageously in the Middle East. ...This seems to be a new twist on a very old scam," Madigan said today.

The scam Madigan refers to is everybody's favorite "Nigerian 419" or "Advance Fee Fraud" scam where an individual you don't know sends you an e-mail asking for help transferring the funds of some jailed or dead foreign politician or business person. They need some money up front for various processing and delivery fees, but something will go wrong and you won't get your share of the haul.

You can read one version of the e-mail here and read about the British version here. For more information on Internet scams check out Snopes.com's scam report.

Image courtesy of Ben Swetland, via Topps and U.S. 4th Infantry Division