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“.
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Hello I have just had a few weeks communicating with a guy from Are You Interested/ Facebook I started getting Red Flag moments quite soon after we started ‘dating’ he was supposed to be in Kabul Afghanistan, said he wasn’t allowed to use a phone, wasn’t allowed to use a webcam, not very good English and bad grammar, said he was half Italian, but clever manipulation, declared his love very quickly kept asking me to keep it all secret, not to tell my friends I played along with it to the hilt even so far as a sexy session where I drew my inspiration from 50 shades of Grey books!! waiting for ‘the money shot’ and yes it arrived, he was very clever the way he did it, in the end I asked him point blank if he wanted some money from me and he acted offended and annoyed, but of course came back later in the conversation with’ if he were to ask for money would I help’ to help his daughter who had had a heart attack and was in Malaysia. I told him I didn’t have any money and he basically inferred that if I was lying I would not be lying to him I would be lying to God, there was a row but he only ever pushed it so far and then was conciliatory again I didn’t end the ‘relationship’ as I wanted to show my friends, who date online what to expect and look out for. Today I researched various agencies who I could report him to and then I went back into Facebook and told him that I knew he was a F******g Scumbag Scammer and that he wasn’t fit to lick the boots of the guy whose identity he stole. I also feel very sorry for the ‘real’ soldier who has no idea his picture is being used in such a way, his name is Michael Alvarado he is a handsome guy and is probably very happily married. I am happy to pass this information on so that it helps others and raises awareness
Hi Ladies,
Had the same as Jennie from Charles R Allen. He contacted me via marketplace and face book so DO BEWARE. I feel an idiot as well I did send to all the femails he had contacted on facebook a copy of this to them so hopefully they will not get caught out!!!
have james rellinger a other name?
ist james rellinger unter einen anderen namen zu finden?
Sue, Jennie, and others…
Ask for their .mil email address or drop them like a hot rock.
All fake.
Have you heard of a Johnson Cole? I met him on freedating website where he claimed he was an engineer from Middlesex/London England. He now claims to be a Colonel in the US army in Kabul. A number of things have made me suspicious including
1. he only seems to work 9-5 Mon-Fri
2. he seems too vague at the time difference
3. does not give acceptable explanation of what is done in his off time.
4. Says he lived in London, yet says his daughter lives with his Mom in Maryland following a car insident which killed his wife 3 years ago.
5. says they are not allowed to use cameras of any kind – so no skype, web cams, mobile phone pics etc
I hate being a suspicious person but when I googled his name it came up as a scammer.
Will be pleased to hear what you think either way.
Thank you
hi look out for sgtcute charles allen roberts sgtcute@yahoo.com i feel so stupid so glad i didn’t send any money !! wanted me to pay for his leave to come and see me and i asked why he couldn’t meet in salisbury as he based there he said they weren’t allowed of barracks i mean i see loads of army guys around salisbury al the time!! wanted me to pay £300 for leave then £2000 for someone to come over as soon as that came out i knew it was a scam and sent him a army scamming site then he got nasty so deleted all contact. such a shame my first experience on dating site had to be this idiot pretending to be a lovely guy. i warned the dating site about him. and i noticed he’s deleted himself off it he goes by countryman 95849 as well
Watch out for Sgt Michael Sickman…apparently in Afghanistan…12 yr old son lives with mother in New York..US Army…apparently in 2010 he was UK army and son was living with mum in Scotland…I have no doubt the photos with the named uniform are a Mr Sickman US army, but the man who contacted me was not…
Has anyone ever heard of any soldier scamming going on from a dating site called Badoo.com?? If so has anyone been scammed from a richards wiseman?? If you have any information please email me
I had a friends add on Craig’s List to which a 46yr old Army Captain Paul Brian Johnson responded. I received a pic of a gorgeous blonde hair, blue eyed guy in uniform, in front of Army Tank and holding an AR-15. This man looks so young, hard to believe he’s in his 40′s. He loves blk women, late wife was blk but died with breast cancer 10yrs ago and they have a 16yr old daughter who chose to live in UK and attend college because she needed a new start after her mother died. He sent me a pic of daughter, Mary, but she looks white, not mixed and older than 16. After multiple yahoo IM for a cpl weeks, Mary broke her leg in UK and Capt apparently dropped her from insurance since he is set to receive compulsory retirement on Aug 20th and come home from Afghanistan and wants to know if I can pay Mary’s bill of $500. Only prob. was he wants me to pay to a person named Susan Keith in UK rather than UK hospital. Against better judgement, I attempted to send it through Walmart Western Union/Money Gram and they denied me. That was my sign! Does anyone know of Paul Brian Johnson, Paul Johnson or Brian Johnson from California, stationed in Afghanistan now?
Ladies, use skype instead of Yahoo or any IM if you are using dating site to find relationship. that will cut the B.S. and heart ache. Scammers do not want to be seen.
Today I get contacted by this Stephen Therri who uses steevwarts@yahoo.com email – and says he is still in the UK , which he went there on business, to purchase some machine he needed for business he is conducting in South Africa. and now has a problem with cashing a check. His friend wants to wire some money to him but can only wire to Chase Bank. ?? Amazing the problems these so-called business men have. He says he cannot open an account. Why I say??? He just can’t, is his only answer. Then asks me “do I have a Chase Bank account?” So do you see where he is going ? This is just one small approach they use. I don’t answer this question. My reply is why does it have to be Chase ? He does not reply to this. He then comes right out and ask’s can he borrow $1000 dollars. Of course, he will repay as soon as he returns to the States….blah, blah, blah. This is a typical conversation with a scammer. I stayed on with this one after his first request just to see if he would try something else and he did. Sometimes I just like to see just how close the stories are between them all. The ones who claim to be in business and or contractors always seem to need your help involving a credit card ( your credit card) , or help with a bank account ( always yours) or can’t cash some check and need your assistance. A man well established in business, who claims to fly from one continent to another, will not need help from someone he just happen to meet on the internet.
To ArmysgtsgirlfriendisAngela: Hurray !! Success story…so happy to read your post ! You won. Blocking and deleting, the only way to go. Their trying to get bank accounts in another country seems to be their latest thing. I’ve been getting a few of these also lately. Never accept money in your name coming from out of the country. I read where there are cases where this money is money that they have scammed from victims and they are trying to get it out of the country and get it stored for their use, but not in their name. Imagine if I had accepted that $350 thousand from Miller, and how would I explain that sum of money to the IRS or the FBI ? Who knows where this money actually came from. ??!! No thank you.
Watch out for a JamesCSmith85@yahoo.com he says he is a LtCol in the USAF stationed in Gaza and going to retire in November. He uses dating sites, falls in love with you–his wife “died” 7 years ago in a car accident–and then tries to find a reason you would send him money. Pay for flight home, he’ll reimburse you. Wouldn’t it be great to be a family and adopt a young girl he met at a orphanage, but he can’t access his stateside bank accounts.
He doesn’t seem to try to call, just uses Yahoo Messenger and e mail.
Susan: I will NOT ever open a Chase Bank account and I’ve blocked and deleted him from my messenger on yahoo last week..
*Sigh of relief* and I also told my Mom, Aunt and one of cousins about my situation this past week…
ArmysgtsgirlfriendisAngela ive learnt loads from this site the scammers try anythink ,i had one telling me he loves me after one day .
DO NOT open bank accounts ,
Susan: Thank you for reminding me again and I appreciate it, I feel so sooo much better now and I’m sleeping all night again FINALLY!
I also had told my Mom about the so called guy who claimed to be Sgt Jackson Philip and he wasn’t who is was and she told me Angela, and I said yes ma’am Mother you can NOT ever be so sure you’re talking to the real person on any dating website nor yahoo messenger. I then forgot to tell her that he wanted me to open up a Chase Bank account so that he could put money into my new bank account so that I could pay for his leave request… I should tell her that now anyways and that’s what I will do too!
To All: For the last few weeks I have had a person contacting me on Yahoo that I met on Shytle a while back. He claims he is Kelly Miller, a staff sergeant in US Army, stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan. Says has been in the service for 17yrs now. Says he is being shipped back to the States this September. He first came on his cam for me to see him not long after contacting me. He did look like his profile picture. It seemed ok, except I did not reciprocate on the cam, which made him angry but he got over it. Next he sent me about seven different pictures of him, all in uniform. All the pictures were of the same fellow. They all seemed ok. I noticed “Miller” on his shirt. So I’m thinking okay when am I going to see the flaws. Well I began to look. First he spells staff -sarff. So I give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking just a typo. Then notice some other words like “some” for “sum”. So I am a little uncomfortable with his education – lol. Yesterday he begins proudly telling me of a couple awards he received and four other fellows in his troop. He sends me a pic of his receiving the award, although the document was in a picture frame – ?? This one award was for “bravery”. Next he says all the men received a cash bonus with these awards from the Military. His total cash award amounted to $350,000 dollars. He skirts all around on this subject. I tell him about my misgivings on this subject, like this doesn’t sound right and etc. and that I am doubtful the Military would be this irresponsible in handing out cash like this. He begins to tell me how he has no bank account, that the Military told him to close them when he joined up….now I begin to laugh and say then ask your CO what do they expect you to do with all this cash on hand ? He says oh they cannot ask their CO questions !!! I am literally cracking up laughing by now and tell him so. He then says he wants to send me this money either by a Carrier service or by a UN Diplomat I say I have heard stories like this, being presented to women, and there are fees charged by these carriers and there are no UN Diplomat’s. He is definitely agitated by this and says I think all people on internet are fake. and all my ideas are wrong and I am just trying to be strict, and he says something else which made no sense .So I said send me an email from your .mil email address which he tries to get out of by saying he should not, security something, and his superiors may contact me etc. I rebuff it all and finally he says ok i will. I got an email which read kellymiller@armymail.com. Ha! Told him sorry, was not correct. He got the email off of a internet website which advertised their site at the bottom of my page.Again he is more agitated..i said send me your APO address and he says ok but then what else will you want? says ok but is going to go rest now.!!! I am so laughing by now. This morning he left an offline, just saying good morning and hope I have a good day. I don’t think any APO address will be forthcoming. Another busted scammer !!! I feel like blowing the smoke from the tip of my gun…..LOL. Yes I am having a good day.
My guy was all American until i answered a text he sent me with the common word anybody knows and that was “ditto.”The flags went up .Next the text on yahoo messenger was so not American.I sent him an email and told him so and that he was not the person in the picture.He wrote back saying by my listening to what people posted that i was losing a good thing.I then asked him to prove that he was this person to send me a picture of him out of uniform.He had sent me two photo’s ,it was the same guy but much younger.I have yet to receive the picture .He uses the name Peter Carlos.I’ve done a check on him it cost me $39.00 well spent dollars.His IP number from his email was all over from Sunnyvale California to Ontario Canada.I wish these bums would get a life and stop using our servicemen pictures .I am sure some are no longer with us.He found me on face book.I have alerted all my friends on face book and told them do not friend these people ,because they only want to connect with your friends.
It would be a best seller Margaret…
Other names to look out for since i have remarked on this site are:, Andrew Pedersson, Irving James..Both of course said they were ‘special forces’..Backed off as soon as I called their bluff…
Hi Cheryl – I am so happy you did not get sucked in with this creep. I had to chuckle when you mentioned his voice not matching his looks. I too get this all the time. I am glad when they call as then I can confirm that I am going to hear that Arab or African dialect.They think they are so smart by phoning you, thinking they are convincing you that they are real but the main reason they call you is to get you online so they can make contact and not have to waste time waiting for you and missing you online. They try to make the bond as strong as they can. Again, I am so happy if I helped.
Margaret,
thanks for the heads up! When I asked if he had a military email address and reminded him that I am retired Air force and clarified army rank he got defensive but continued to try to convince me that we were in love. I knew something was wrong in the beginning but I wasn’t sure. He called me on the phone he had a tiny tiny voice with a strong Arab/african Dialect, I thought he sounded like a little person. In his picture he look african American and Arab and was 6’2 and 250. he stated that his wife died from breast cancer and his nanny took his daughter to Ghana ( My ex is from Ghana) I new a lot about the country. I asked did he have any family members in the States, he said he lost both parents in a car accident and the uncle that raised him died in 2001. that’s what prompt me to check him out was that is too much death!! I found your site by typing in his yahoo address. thanks for look out
james hannett57@yahoo.com has been elininated and all I lost was time. thanks 101date. it was hard for him to stop IM me on yahoo, He tried his best to convince me. I never would have given him any money he is not related a dependant and under 18.That is one thing I have never done with anyone! Be safe ladies!
Any person in the world can post any picture on the web and post any name up they want. You can put up a dog and say its name is “Lassie” if you want, and say this is the latest picture of yourself taken. Unfortunately, you never really know who is behind that screen. I also have had three fake cam video’s presented to me on Yahoo Messenger. Yes I said fake video’s…..It took me a while to figure out how they do it, but I eventually did come across the info that explained how it is done. You can be chatting with more than one person also ,claiming to be your darling . This method is used extensibly by the ones who are in the scamming syndicate. I just was on Spokeo before typing this, running my first scammers email. This blog lists his email on 80 different networks. Imagine !! I also ran taylorhenry42, and he also is listed on 80 different networks. This is all you get for free there, as you must pay to find out the exact names of the networks they are listed on. I suspected walter and taylor were one and the same, due to similarities between the two, and i still suspect this could be the case. However I also suspect walter has used many other names ( at least 12) to try and scam me more. I have learned so much, and have so many stories, I could go on and on. I am in the process of writing a book on all the material and hope to get it published.
This is so weird but I haven’t felt so naive about any man on any dating site, not just Badoo either and I wish I was more sure of the guys on all of the dating websites… from http://www.militarycupid.com, http://www.armydating.com and so on and so forth.