Scammers posing as Army commander

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E-mail con artists have been posing as the commander of a British Army regiment, it has emerged.

Scammers have been claiming to be the CO of 1 Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment in Iraq - who needs to move $15m belonging to people killed in attacks.

The RIR has been alerted to the scam and says that anyone who gets such an e-mail should delete it.

It says their CO is incorrectly named and Iraqi insurgents have not attacked Clive Barracks, which is in Shropshire.

This form of con is known as a 419 type e-mail fraud, and in this case offers a 30% share of the cash if the recipient helps keep the money.

At the moment, 1 Battalion, Royal Irish is based at Tern Hill, where it is preparing for deployment to Helmand province in Afghanistan.

It is the first time the entire RIR first battalion has been deployed to the war-torn region.

The 600-strong battle group will also include part-time Territorial Army soldiers from the second battalion of the regiment.