Scammers Target Families of US Soldiers Deployed in Iraq

A new scam is impersonating Gen. Ray Odierno, the senior commander of US troops in Iraq in order to steal money from the soldiers' families. The rogue messages ask for $200,000 in exchange of sending their children home earlier.

The New York Times reports that Gen. Odierno himself mentioned the ongoing scam during a Pentagon press conference last Friday. “I’ve had several scam artists on Facebook use my Facebook page and then go out asking people for all kinds of money: ‘If you pay $200,000, your son can get sent home early,’” the general said.

In order to counter the effects of this scam, Gen. Odierno's Facebook page now displays a warning message reading “If anybody asks you for money in my name, don’t believe it.” But unfortunately, practice has demonstrated some people let emotions guide them and fall victim to these schemes even if they are warned by the authorities.

Known as 419 or advance-fee scams, these types of targeted attacks are quite common and are usually tailored to target specific groups of vulnerable people. It is also common for these scammers to impersonate officials or government agencies in order to add credibility to the schemes.

Last week we reported about such a scam, which was sent from the compromised Yahoo! account of Iowa State Senator Bob Dvorsky. The fake email messages claimed that the senator was stranded in Scotland after his wallet was stolen and asked for a $10,000 loan from his friends in order to help him get home.

FBI's Director Robert S. Mueller has also been impersonated by scammers on multiple occasions. In order to be more credible these fake emails included the director's picture, seal or letterhead. The name of FBI's Assistant Director, Kevin Favreau, was also abused in a similar fashion.

“So we’re constantly going after these scam artists that are out there. And we are very aware of all of these that are going on, and we have a very robust capability to attempt to take care of it,” General Ray Odierno, noted.

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