I just came across a post on “A Soldier’s Perspective” discussing a rather disgusting and disturbing trend that has guys posing as soldiers on Internet dating sites. Here’s the quote from CJ’s:
The latest trend involves trolling internet dating sites and convincing women that they are honorable Soldiers who have fallen in love and would do anything to communicate with the object of their affection. But, because they are deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, they need you to sign up for an expensive telecommunications service like “Military TELEX” in order to make that happen. They profess unending love as their motivator and, unfortunately, many women have fallen for it.
The BIG red flag here is that the guy is asking for money. NEVER fall for that con.
If you come across anyone on a dating site who is asking you for money, regardless of the reason; block them immediately from further contact and then report them to the internet dating service.
To read specific details about about one incident, read CJ’s post “The New Military Dating Scam“.
Meet REAL Military Singles at MilitarySinglesConnection
Started in 2002, Military Singles Connection is the premier destination for dating for the thousands of men and women who serve or have served in the armed forces. Other military dating services can’t compete with the number of quality members or features you’ll find when you join the top Military singles dating site.
Military Singles Connection provides online personals services, including online profiles and photographs of single men and women, chat rooms and an instant messenger – to enable others to communicate in real time, a private mailbox to enable others to exchange personal messages, a public forum to enable others to exchange messages and information… and more!
Join Military Singles Connection today!
About Rosalind Gardner
Ok so am I crazy. I am completely heart broken over this. I really liked this guy. I can’t help but feel sorry for the “real” soldier who is protecting this country risking his life like he is. He must have no clue that these thieves have his information or that it’s bring used to do such horrible things
to unsuspecting people. I have thought about contacting authorities but do not know if i should or who to go to. I am just greatful for this website and my gut at this point or I could have lost a lot of money.
Thank you thank you thank you. This person is good yesterday I attempted to make him think I got robbed. They were able to tell me I did not get robbed craziness. I will be using the spying site when I get home this afternoon. He is expecting me to find and send money today. I am going to email him again today and tell him that I know the healthcare in the uk is free. See what he has to tell me. I also explained that I know when military pay arrives it is twice a month as my bro is in the service. He states army regs do not all video chat again I know my brother used it. I am not letting my heart over take my mind or gut at this point. So I just spent over two hours chatting with him on messenger, and I checked spypig yup he is out of nigeria. like I knew and thought.
Tara
Tara: HE IS A SCAMMER. I wouldnt call you dumb, as I fell for the whole sob story deal with a scammer, but woke up to myself after only a little bit of research. The UK has a fairly good universal health care system, which wouldnt require you to pay for chemo. The information supplied on this site is a life saver, for some it comes too late, for others, it comes just in the nick of time, either way this information is not only coming from victims, but also those in know. Such as serving military personnel. As an experiment I created a Facebook profile (or 3 to include ‘Friends’) and not only found enough photo’s to appear legitimite, but managed to fool a scammer into thinking I was a perfect catch. Its not hard to do. One of my pointers to my girlfriends in this regard is to go to a little site called SPYPIG.com (IF YOU ARE IN REGULAR EMAIL CONTACT), follow the instructions and attach a little blank box to include in your next email. When they open the next email it will automatically send you an email to say that your email has been opened and it will tell you where they are sending email from. Like other women here, after I called the first scammer out on his deceit, it became much easier to pick them. In the last 12 months I have been contacted by numerous scammers posing as soldiers, none of them were real. I don’t even have to read their emails to know, just a quick look at their online profiles tells me all I need to know. They are usually ‘widowed’, with a child or two, or ailing parent, they often confuse first names and surnames (reversed), often with long winded profiles about how they are God Fearing and looking for their SOULMATE. They make basic grammatical mistakes and dance around giving you a .mil email. Their profiles are usually taken word for word from unsuspecting military personnel and the pictures are very easy to copy from online. My scammer was very good, but when the alarm bells start ringing and you get a gut feeling that something isn’t quite right….ITS BECAUSE THERE IS SOMETHING FISHY. HEALTHCARE IN THE UK IS FREE. Soldiers don’t pay for leave. Try using SKYPE. Be wary, don’t let your heart overrule your common sense.
What gets me if he is Infact a scammer. Where is he gettin the pics that he has. Especially if it is a true soldier fighting for this country and their info is being used (identity theft). Without their knowledge. All I keep thinking is this man for real. Or is someone thinking im dumb enough to fall for this
Thank you for the info. I did know about the Facebook as I am a friend on there. He sends me pics regularly and they are always the same person i am just at a loss as to
Whether to believe what he is tellin me. The other night he asked me to help pay for his mothers chemo in the UK so now I am very Leary. I continue to chat with him. But at the same time am avoiding talks about money. He assures me that he is who he says he is. Just not sure what to believe. I have asked for his APo address ako email. As well as his social and les. I am going to wait and see if he can provide the info requested.
TO TARA; I googled the name and a lot of stuff came up. There is one on Facebook, but shows no friends. There is a pic on Facebook. Try to get him to give you a pic if he hasn’t so you can compare but avoid giving him one of yourself as scammers use them. I don’t know if any of the posts pertains to your guy. Start asking him questions, things you can check out. Guard your personal information.
TO SANDRA COLEMAN; Most likely he probably is a scammer. Doesn’t sound like you have been online with him very long. You were sharp in picking up on his little mistake in words. You need to ask him also to email you , using his .Mil email ID that is issued to each Military person. They all get one and don’t let him say he can’t for security reasons, that is not true. If you can go through the posts on this website from MSG Robert McLaughlin, he outlines many things you can ask. I get the feeling this guy your chatting with is a clever one, but it is just a feeling I’m getting so be on guard . Keep us posted and don’t be a victim.
TO JESSICA; Well first I would like to say I’m sorry one of them was able to enter into your life. I’m also sorry for your pain. I know exactly how you feel. I was online with my first one for 15 months . I went through 3 different “life” scenarios with him, each one filled with drama and his being desperate to stay alive, needing shelter and food, and so on and so on. All lies of course. With each scenario he found reasons to demand money . After losing the initial $3000 to him I wouldn’t send anymore, telling him I was trying to find it but then would end up telling him I just couldn’t find any money. He tried for a very long time and all along telling me how much he loved me. Lol – oh he was good- and so finally on April 24th I got my last message online from him, telling me he was waiting for me to send him money so he could stay in this hotel. I waited a couple days and then left him an offline message I could not find any money and he has never responded. I suppose he has finally given up. My story with him is quite long, involved and detailed, which I have told to some extent on this website already. I will tell you that during that 15 month period I learned everything I could on the internet about scammers. I will tell you how they keep their lies straight. I will make it short, and just tell you that when they pick you, usually from a dating site, and they like Facebook also, a file is made up on you, a profile, and they keep a script on the conversations made with you I think to some extent. It also is not always the same one chatting with you. If they should be one that is in the syndicate, your file is rotated. They usually have many women at one time their working on. One ring was found in Malaysia and found to be Nigerian students going to school and this was how they were paying for their education. It is a profession, and is world wide. We have to educate ourselves on them and stay one step ahead. He broke my heart, left me in financial ruin, and I still have moments I just break down in tears. It’s painful but I know I am better off he is gone. I also had to come to terms, he was not the person I thought he was in my mind. I’m glad you found this site and could be spared some of what a lot of us were not. I sincerely wish you the best.
Hi ladies. I need help. I met a man on a military dating site. Goes by Robert Meeker and is in the USMC. His letters are so awesome but he made one mistake and Im starting to think he may not be real.
He said he was a sergeant major then on the next letter he said major sergeant. He is not married, no children and currently deployed in Afghanistan.
Last night I finally asked him for an APO address. Waiting on his email tonight. Is there anything else I can do to make sure he is real? Someone help. Ive never experienced this before.
Hello was wondering if the name Jason Arp is a name anyone has heard of yet
Just met a few weeks ago not real sure if he is legit just covering myself at the present time
Thanks
TO YALANA: I just read your story. THAT is exactly how they work you. He used all their tricks and methods on you. He is definitely a scammer which I can see you know that now. I just hate the fact he was able to get your money. They are such low-life scum and that is being nice. They have no morals, and care ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about how they hurt people. I think they would rob their own dead and I’m not kidding. He used the old child in need trick, which I have had a couple of those tried on me in the past, but I knew what was going on and just came out and said no. They will leave eventually if you don’t pay out but if you do then they become voracious Parana’s. The best thing to do is report them, delete them, and block. They are like a disease, and remember they are not who they claim to be.
Well Margaret I was just contacted by another woman who read a post about my scammer that I have on another site. He gave her many different details about his “life” than he did me. How do these scammers keep track of all their lies? Well he asked her for money.( didn’t ask me) Needless to say we busted him together,not before he tried to convince me that he swears everything he said was true and someone was putting his name out there on the internet(me) and he was glad that he got to me before some one else told me what was going on….haha i knew days before he told me because I was the one that put his name out there. Anyways havent heard from him since…good riddance! Im glad these sites are out here for people to see …may save woman alot of money but certainly not the heartbreak. I still feel heart broken even though I know the guy is scum! Thanks again for the help!
These Africans are really something else. I met who i thought was an African-American soldier, Andrew Handy on an on-line dating site recently. We started chatting off-line and he told me to “romove” myself from the dating site as he was a “one-woman man”. Almost immediately he started the terms of endearment, “sweetheart, baby” etc., and said that he was a christian who loved God and was looking for the right woman to settle down with.
He immediately sent pictures of himself and his young daughter who he said was staying with her grandmother in Ghana, as his deceased wife (she died in a car accident visiting her family in Ghana) was a Ghananian. He even had his “daughter” e-mail me calling me mom and wishing us to be a family. All the while he kept up his show of interest.
I did notice the poor grammar and the changing styles of how he “spoke” his words but I played along. Within two weeks he was saying that he loved me and had been looking for happiness since his wife died four years ago and had finally found it in me. When i asked about his siblings, he said he was born and raised in Tampa, Florida, had no siblings and lost both parents in a vehicle accident. Three weeks into speaking with him, he started to say that he did not want to ask me but he had no one else to turn to and he needed money to send to “Mandy” his daughter in Ghana as she was going to lose her place in school. At first i ignored him as I was not going to part with my hard earned cash but he kept up the nightly badgering before leaving to go on patrol, saying that he would return the money to me and that he was in a ‘war zoon’ and had no other choice but to ask me for help.
I eventually assisted with $1,200 U.S when his “daughter” kept e-mailing and begging, telling me that she was missing out on her schooling. I am a sucker for kids, so my heart got soft. The money was sent via Western Union to a Gloria Adeti, who is purportedly his kids grandmother, she collected the money.
A week later “Mandy” writes him stating that she needs more money and her grandmother is very sick in hospital and will not be attended to until $1,750.00 U.S is paid. Needless to say, I smelled the rat right away and told “Andrew Handy” that I had to acquire the funds which i did not have it at my immediate disposal. The guy badgered me almost nightly until i told him i would block him and stop communicating if he continued his harrassment. A week he e-mails me and tells me i can $800.00 as they were able to raise some of the money for her treatment. I ignored again.
A week later, he then tells me his daughter is lacking food in Ghana and could i assist.
He did not use a yahoo or g-mail address. His pictures were of him and his daughter, dressed in his camouflage and one in casual wear.
He then said that he was due to retire from the Army in May 2012 would collect a large sum of money which i needed to assist him in obtaining by paying a diplomat based in Ghana a sum of money (1500 Euros), the diplomat would then meet him in Afghanistan for delivery to my doorstep.
Needless to say i have totally ignored this request.
I dont believe the real U.S soldier is involved, I think his identity was stolen by these African conmen and the poor guy is none the wiser.
These people are brutal and evil and women we have to protecct ourselves as the best profile could be the excellent work of these African con artistes.
Hi Beverly – yes indeed, over a year and a half time period, not a single one turned out to be a real soldier – ALL SCAMMERS. Now some are saying their from the UK but working in Nigeria for oil companies. I just had one say recently he was from the UK and working for an oil company, and then a few days later says he is working for a communications company. I called him on it, and he said oh the oil company was when he first got there, but now he is with this communications company. Oh right !!! He also messed up by saying at first he was from the UK and then a few days later he was from Ireland…this one hasn’t got his lies straight. He’s using the email chasewilliams770 in case it pops up elsewhere.
TO JESSICA NICOLE: Yes I knew he would return. I can see what he is. In the past 1-1/2 years I have been contacted by at least 50 soldiers and NONE were who they claimed to be.Each one turned out to be a scammer. I was originally contacted on Facebook by my first one posting a pic of a soldier. I however was naive and didn’t find this site until it was too late. Fortunately you have found it in time. He used all the tactics they use, love letters, promising to come , wanting me forever, marriage, the whole bit. In 3 months time he had me hooked on him and I sent $3000 for his leave to come to me. He never came. After he took my money he came up with excuses for not coming that coincided the the news headlines so I believed him. Oh they are good and know their profession. Everything is well laid out and planned. Most of them belong to a world wide syndicate and he sounds like he may just from the way he is handling you. “He can’t stop talking to you” – a way to make you think he is falling for you, so you will reciprocate his feelings. You “found the true owner of the pic’s” – probably not. He posted that up himself (the scammer). No real person would want to play games with you or trick you and real Soldiers don’t have time for games and barely have time to socialize on the Internet. Think about it. Their fighting a war. Only the scammer would want to trick you. No matter who you confront, he has it set up that you will be confronting him. It is a profession to a scammer, a job and they cover all angles. Simply ask him to email you using his .mil email address. One is issued to each Military person. If he says he can’t for security reasons, that is a lie. I would bet all, you don’t get one. Be careful, it sounds like your getting involved – mistake #1. Check out “Nigerian Fake Soldier Scams on Facebook” here on this site. I am sorry, but you have a scammer. I just don’t want to see anyone else go through the painful heartbreak I did.
Yes Margaret you are correct he has come back 2 days later saying that he has been advised by his other sodiers to stop contact because it is messing with his cocentration.,but he just cant stop talking to me. Now heres the kicker… I found the true owner of the pictures he is using. I saw that they were years old… but I still dont know if this guy is a scammer or he is the real guy playing tricks on me…..The”scammer” seems to know details of the real soldier from his Facebook account which is set on private. I want to confront the real soldier but i think I want to play along with the game a little bit longer. I will definately know not to send money. Thanks for the website!