A few good words from the FBI

Intelligence Note

Prepared by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

August 9, 2011

FBI Officials Continue To Be The Target Of Spam E-mail

Various government agencies and high ranking government officials have been the target of previous spam attacks. In their attempts to lure victims, criminals continue to explore new avenues to obtain their goal.

A new version of the spam e-mail uses the names of FBI officials along with the names of specific units within the FBI. The e-mail alerts the recipient that two "Trunk Boxes" containing a large sum of money were intercepted at an international airport. The funds are allegedly from the Office of the Ministry of Finance, Federal Government of Nigeria.

The boxes contain documents bearing the recipient's name as the owner of the funds. The fraudsters advise an additional document called the "Diplomatic Immunity Seal of Delivery" is needed to protect the recipient from violating the Patriot Act. The recipient is required to contact the fraudsters, via email, for instructions to obtain the document. The fraudsters further inform the recipient of the consequences if they fail to comply and are told not to contact any bank in Africa, or any other institution.

Do not respond. These e-mails are a hoax.

Neither government agencies nor government officials send unsolicited e-mail to consumers. United States government agencies use the legal process to contact individuals.

Consumers should not respond to any unsolicited e-mails or click on an embedded link associated with such e-mails, as they may contain viruses or malware.

If you have been a victim of Internet crime, please file a complaint at www.IC3.gov.

For previous IC3 Alerts concerning e-mail scams targeting the FBI and other government agencies visit http://www.ic3.gov/media/2009/091027.aspx.

(Earlier blog entries at www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com)

FBI will lie to you and then arrest you

If you are engaged in any illegal, criminal action or activity likely to attract the serious attention of the FBI, let me give you a tip: Don't come downstairs or leave your residence just because a caller says someone broke into your storage locker or your parked car has been hit in an accident. It is probably the FBI lying to you and waiting to arrest you.
On Wednesday, June 22, the FBI ran such a scam on James "Whitey" Bulger, who the Bureau had been looking for for the last fifteen years. Bulger was called on the phone and told his storage locker had been broken into. Would he come and see what was missing? Who wouldn't? When he got outside in the open he was arrested. Bulger will be tried at a later day on a variety of charges.
This old, time-worn Bureau trick was used years ago to lure the retired Navy communications Warrant Officer turned Soviet spy John Walker out of his room in a Montgomery County, Maryland, motel known to be used by prostitutes. A call was placed to Walker's room in the early morning hours and he was told his car had been hit in an accident and would he come down and check it out. Walker shuffled outside and was nabbed by the FBI. He is in the federal prison in Terra Haute, Indian, working on his life sentence.

How the government spends some of your money

At one time or another we all wonder about how the government is spending our money. A portion of that money goes to maintaining and operating the FBI in Washington, across the country and in some foreign lands where we have embassies. One way to get an idea of what you are receiving for your money is to go to www.fbi.gov/ and look in the left hand column. You will find links to receive daily e-mail updates from the Bureau covering activities throughout the country and you can submit your e-mail address for press releases from the Columbia, SC, office (or other field offices in areas you are interested in). The daily e-mails come bullet-like with a summary of the issue and a link to the details. I have looked at these for a few weeks now and find them as interesting as any news magazine I read. One category of crime that surprises me is "public corruption" which gets much attention from the Bureau because of its effect on citizen respect for government, as well as betrayal of public trust for money or other favors. (Corrected copy.)

Case solved - Print recovered

The celebrated case of the missing print (last blog entry) has been solved. It was returned to its place of honor on my alcove wall shortly before noon today. To save the culprit further embarrassment, we will not disclose additional details of the case. Let us just say it was an honest mistake. Members of the firing squad may stand down.

Print stolen - reward offered

On Sunday, April 26, 2009, someone stole a signed print by Robert E. Kennedy of Hemingway's favorite hangout in Key West, Sloppy Joe's Bar. I obtained the print while visiting Key West in 1993 and later had it matted and framed. The print was hanging in the alcove at the front door to my apartment since February 2008, when I moved to Franke at Seaside. The theft has been reported to the Mt. Pleasant Police. The print is today valued at $300. A reward will be paid for information leading to the recovery of the framed print. (This is a copy of the stolen print.)

Light up the night

Letters to the Editor
The Post & Courier
134 Columbus St.
Charleston, SC 29403

Dear Sirs:

I live at Franke at Seaside, a retirement community off Rifle Range Road near the Isle of Palms connector. On many occasions I have driven down Rifle Range Road from Coleman Boulevard almost to the connector in almost complete darkness. This is not a safe practice, but it is a necessity at times.

I was not at the Mt. Pleasant Town Council committee meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 6, when a woman asked for lighting along Rifle Range Road. But in reading the story in the Jan. 7 Post and Courier, I am led to believe she and her request were treated with scorn. One would thing that what she has asked to be erected was a statue of Ted Kennedy in the city park being built at the foot of the Ravenel Bridge.

I recently made a special trip down Rifle Range Road from Coleman to the connector to see if there were sufficient poles. City administrator Mark Burdette was quoted as saying it would cost $117 per light if the poles were in place and $1,700 each if new poles were required.

There are poles aplenty to hang lights from. These carry power to all the homes on the road. Less than six of these have small lights attached, usually near a residence. Perhaps the occupants of those homes did a private deal with the power company.

Mount Pleasant ought to take a deep breath and listen to the woman who asked for the lights. There is no need for new poles. Lighting this road would promote safety, and perhaps discourage criminals, reduce automobile accidents, and break-ins of automobiles parked in yards. It would also put Mt. Pleasant in the lead to becoming a modern and model city.


Francis X. Archibald
Franke Drive
Mount Pleasant

(Published Tues. Jan. 20, 2009)

Bring back crucifixtion

The United Nations Security Council has given the Secretary General 90 days to come up with a strategy for dealing with piracy. I have given some thought to the subject and offer my opinion as to what may have beneficial results: Bring back crucifixion.

This simple strategy against the pirates in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia, and in the Straits of Malacca, is worth trying. Acts of piracy are on the increase. Holding ships and people for ransom are outrageous criminal acts.

There is no indication that any pirates are acting out against "oppression by infidels" or any other reason often quoted by terrorists. Pirates are not terrorists. They are pure and simple brigands, criminals, murderers and all-around low life's. There is no political movement supporting piracy, no claim to desire a Kingdom of Pirates under any law, man or God's.

We know that Caesar crucified pirates who had kidnapped him and held him for ransom, (admittedly he never succeeded in putting an end to piracy.) Although crucifixion has largely fallen out of style in the Western world, as recently as 2003 an Englishman was sentenced in Saudi Arabia to partial beheading and crucifixion. Partial beheading and crucifixion is one of the punishments known under sharia (traditional Islamic law) as al-hadd, the limit, a reference to the ultimate sanction allowed by God.

Although the Englishman's sentence was not carried out,Saudi Arabia reportedly crucified two highway robbers a few years ago.

We ought not to adopt Islamic law totally in the Western world but in dealing with people to whom Western law (arrests, lawyers, courts, trials, juries, prison sentences, fines, parole, and eventual release) has no fear factor then we should deal with in terms they may well understand and appreciate.

Ships can try to defend themselves with heavy water cannons and ear splitting music to ward off pirates. They may also "pour on the coal" and outrun pirates usually attacking in smaller boats. But it is worth considering the potential payback to catching and crucifying a few pirates and letting them rot in the sun for three days to a week.

Dr. C. Truman Davis* more than 30 years ago wrote an essay on crucifixion which describes the grisly procedure in detail and is worthy of reading. Many pirates may not be able to read and thus may not be scared off, but seeing their buddies Ali, Hosea and whoever hanging on a cross rotting in the hot African sun may well send a message to other pirates to consider a new line of work.

(* Dr. C. Truman Davis is a nationally respected Ophthalmologist, vice president of the American Association of Ophthalmology, and an active figure in the Christian schools movement. He is founder and president of the excellent Trinity Christian School in Mesa Arizona, and a trustee of Grove City College.)

Back in the slammer again

Remember Gene Autry's theme song, "Back in the saddle again"? The judge who sentenced Paris Hilton to jail originally must have been humming that as he ordered her back to jail - overturning a decision by the sheriff's office to let her serve her sentence at home. Following my blog item on her release from jail, I heard from four readers to wit:

Money talks in America

I for one am so relieved that poor Paris will do the rest of her time from home. I understand that shecould not even use a face moisturizer during her confinement. Perish the thought.

PLUS--they gave her a whole day off her time for Sunday, when she arrived just before midnight, and yesterday, when she left just after midnight!! So after spending 3 days in the slammer, she gets credit for having served 5. Yikes! Preferential treatment, who would have thought?!

It’s been standard knowledge for many years with working people that the law is made for the poor. Very few rich serve time and if they do, it’s in a luxury prison such as one at Elgin AFB and another one I know of in Louisville, Ky. They have them all over where the VIP's go. I hope the Judge tomorrow makes her serve her time. Otherwise, if I am ever sentenced I will tell them I may not be as rich but I'm a much better person than the tramp called Paris and want the same sentence she got.

California - A Soft Touch

So Paris Hilton, celebrity prisoner of the week, has been released to home confinement after only a couple of days in the lockup in Southern California. Reports are she cried her heart out all the time she was in her 8 x 10 cell, (with commode and sink.) I worked for six years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections and crying never got an inmate a release nor anything else.

David Rattray, 48, dead - murdered by Zulus

David Rattray, 48-years old, master-storyteller of the Zulu War, died January 26, 2007, murdered by a gang of six Zulus intent on robbing him at his home at Fugitive's Drift in South Africa. Here is an excerpt from an article I wrote in 2003 after my wife and I completed an independent, self-guided, two month, driving trip around South Africa:
“At Fugitive’s Drift camp, a small isolated camp in the Karoo (bush country) that uses generators for electricity, we stayed with a dozen tourists, mostly from England and Northern Ireland. One asked Mary at dinner, “When did you book?” Mary said we had not booked, just drove up and asked for a room. (It was the last one available.) Our new British friends commented about “impulsive Americans,” and said they had booked seven months earlier.
“David Rattray, owner of Fugitive’s Drift, is a native of the area. The Anglo-Zulu war is a major event in the long history of South Africa, and Rattray’s lifelong interest. He lectures at the British War College on this subject. On a late Sunday afternoon sitting under trees in folding chairs at nearby Rorke’s Drift, we listened to him for more than two and one-half hours on how 135 British soldiers, on January 24, 1879, successfully held the small camp at that site against more than 2,000 Zulu warriors, some with guns, most with spears and long killing knives. The assault lasted from four in the afternoon until four the next morning. Earlier in the same day the Zulus had savaged the British Army at Isandlwana. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded the defenders at Rorke’s Drift, more than in any other single battle in Britain’s long history.” (see African Adventure-2003 )
The Economist (Feb. 10, 2007) said, “As his stories unfolded, battle-hardened generals would find themselves in tears.” Rattray was a voice for reconciliation in South Africa. Natives in the KwaZulu-Natal called him friend and a “White Zulu.” All the more awful, then, that he was killed by Zulus, who went away empty handed.