MSG Robert Mclaughlin has been assisting our readers ferret out military dating scammers since I wrote Internet Dating Scam: Fake Soldiers back in October of 2009.
Moreover, he’s also been educating us about how to avoid getting caught up in a military dating scam.
His latest comment highlighted in point form all the things to look for when you meet someone online who says he or she is in the military. (Note: some changes have been made to the original text simply for readability. The original meaning remains unchanged).
- If he says he is military do not trust, especially if he uses a hotmail, yahoo or other free email account address. Ask for his email address ending in .mil. All military folks have one. If he says he doesn’t have one, or won’t give it to you, he is not a soldier. If he says it’s secret then demand the other one. YES, there are classified email addresses out there but all military personnel also have an unclassified address.
- Is he claiming that someone in his family died? Wife, parents, kid,etc? Check the social security death index to verify his claims.
- Is he divorced? Ask him in which county he received his divorce decree. Records of the divorce will be on file and many counties have the information online now.
- If he is telling you that he needs money to take leave, here are some facts. We earn 2.5 days of leave per month. That’s 30 days a year. If we pay for leave we only pay the plane ticket in the states. So maybe he needs $400 to fly coast to coast. You do not want a man who cannot even afford a plane ticket at that age. We pay no money for leave at all. The form we use is DA31, Google it. Anything else is fake.
- If he is under cover or on secret work he would never tell you unless you have a clearance and a need to know what he does. So that is a lie.
- Ask for a picture of his CAC card or have him take a picture of himself for you and have him write your name on a piece of paper for the photo. That is very simple to do.
- Scammers who lure women talk of love now and in the future. Scammers who lure men do so with promises of sex. Remember if the person is not acting like the opposite sex, it is a scam.
- Ask their name, rank, and social. Not classified and even what you tell the enemy when captured. If he wants you to show your devotion by sending money, well he can show his by providing information you can verify.
- I have checked out over 50 claimed soldiers for folks here. Only one was really who he said he was. The odds are that his claim of being a soldier is fake if you have doubts.
Thanks again kindly to MSG Robert Mclaughlin for providing us with this very useful information.
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I have been talking to a Sgt. Matt Hiller he claims to be on a secret mission n was shot n needs money for treatment . Has he tried scamming anyone else ?
DeAnne,
What did you find out? He is writing me now. Says he will retire in March and he told me that she was somewhere in Europe.
Thanks,
Jennifer
Deanne,
To report a profile as fraud contact the administrator of the site. Facebook has a report fraud button, I think on the lower left, and for others check their help menu.
Email accounts may not be checked but they are still there for the most part. When I left my last unit I lost that email address and got a new address, but my us.army.mil address will follow me for my whole career.
Nneka,
Good catch on the fake!
Sandra,
If Mr. Carter cannot even provide a military email WHY should he ever be believed? You scammers have to use people other than the military now, we are on to you!
Janet,
If he cannot write to you from a .mil account, run! It’s that easy!
I would like to find out if there is a Captain Mark Owen in the army stationed in Kabul, Afghanastan..He messaged me on Facebook He sent me a picture of him in his camo clothes and the jacket he had on said Owen above the left pocket and had other men standing in the background which convinced me he was telling the truth until he started asking for money to pay for his network and now wanting money to pay for storage of a gold box and to send it home to me which I will not do..Said his assets here where frozen due to something, cant remember, and said he couldnt receive mail from me that they werent allowing mail to come in to them right now.I honestly wasnt looking to meet anyone, it just happened.. when i asked him what unit he was in all he said was he was in special forces…
could someone please find out if he is for real.
Thank you for your time and help,
Marilyn
Nneka you go girl!!! Tell Sandra or Cindy or whatever her name is that she can have his sorry butt. No doubt it is his wife. LOL!!!! They will probably be doing time soon if not already. I was sent a check that I was supposed to cash that was supposedly sent by the brother’s friend. I was supposed to cash it and wire it to the so called sister. Then, the stuff changed to send it to the brother’s friend. Number one I don’t take orders from no one. Especially, people that are pushy and inconsiderate. I think some crooked people think other people are STUPID! I was not born yesterday!!!! DING DING DING!!!! I am an ex military wife let alone military runs for many generations in my family. I can BS just like the conartists, I guess he met his match. LOL!!! I can use a fake name too. Bode messed with the wrong person. HA HA HA!!! Who would ever cash a check from someone they don’t know, let alone from a place that does not exists and is a fraud check. Well, all I can say is the check is in the air and hopefully will be brought to justice and time served along with the rest of his friends and family. He is not even American and can’t speak English very well and there is no SOUTHERN accent what so ever. You know where these types of people go??? BURN BABY BURN is all I can say and that I hope and pray that you won’t get your hands on another woman that will give into you. All I can say is do your homework ladies and if it is too good to be true; it is. Don’t fall for it! If you came out of an abusive relationship go get help from the YWCA or get counseling somewhere where you get the help you need to have a healthy and happy life. Don’t put yourselves in another abusive relationship or be taken advantage of. You deserve the best and nothing less!
PEACE & LOVE & BE SAFE!!! DON’T CASH ANY CHECKS NOR SEND ANY MONEY!!!! HAVE YOUR BANK CHECK TO SEE IF IT A FRAUDULANT CHECK AND HAVE IT INVESTIGATED!!!!
How do you report profile as fraud??? Can someone help me???
Thanks, I appreciate all your help!
God Bless!
Do military email accounts ever go dormant?
Sandra, stop trying to make women fall for a fake person. We know he is fake and is trying to scam women out of money. It has already been reported sot whoever you are trying to claim Bode Carter is a legit you should be ashamed that you would try to continue to perpetuate this scam. He tried to scam me and several others with the EXACT SAME BS STORY. At least if you try to defend someone’s actions they should have the intelligence to make up a new story so it isn’t so obvious that they are fake and get the military lingo correct. Communication Pilot for the Navy is not a ranking. If he was real then this brother you speak would not still be trying to get his surgery in East Timor! Also Bode would be out of the military and back home by now since the story to me was he was out in October. Is he home yet? Where is home? He has passed on the same lies to many women in multiple places. Let it go. The game is over and Bode Carter is well known as a fake on this site and every site I can find to blast his scam wide open. Sorry Sandra, if he is so real and you are his brother’s friend then why don’t you give him your money so he can stop asking us for it!
I actually know Bode Carter,I’m his brother’s friend and we have met in person.Please have your facts right before you soil people’s name!!!
hello . msg robert mclaughlin my name is janet am fom canada . ive been in a relationship since november 2011 byt this man who calls him self stgnoble david ,but now i have my doubts i think ive been scamed . and now i found out on this datin site badoo i might have found the real soldier this man is call brad williams nobile .im really confuse he claims to me hes name has been stolen by this stg noble david can you plz help me thank u
Carol,
The bits of advice in the article above are plenty. They are numbered for easy reading. Check the guy out and see if he can fulfill every one of the entries listed. If he fails at one or two ask more details, but 3 or more, you have a scammer there. These guys do this for a living!
Hi Robert
Thankyou for your response. Any suggestions on how I can get this across to my friend?
Jackie,
No one can handle mail except the mailroom clerk and the person it goes to. No .mil address? Fake.
Barbara,
Dead wife? Did you verify it at the Social Security Death Index? $4000 will also only buy you less than three OUNCES of gold. No .mil email? FAKE!
Carol,
He is a fake.
Thank you
I have been talking to a man who sent me a message on a dating website …through a friend of his profile… the friend has since taken down the profile. He says his name is sergeant Stuart James and has sent me pictures of a man in Army clothing with the name James on it. He says he is stationed in Pakistan and can only get mail through his commanders personal assistant because he come there to see his commander every weekend. He told me this after I asked for his MIL account He said that 4 months ago there was an attempt of food poisoning through his APO address so since he stopped recieving mail through it. and that because of security reasons he cannot call out.
Any help you can give me?
Please can someone help my friend is falling for this guy and she believes every word he tells her
hi there..ive been talking to a randy stankovitch..saying hes a sergeant in us military .saying hes in un nations camp in jalil camp.beirut lebanon..his wifes died and has a 6 year old son.ive sent a playstation to the son at an adress in michigan.us..hes asking now for 4000 dollars for gold bars…hes invested in..i know i must sound stupid..but hey never mind..its the same picture i cant see him but he can see me..ive spoke to him on phone quite a lot..but im gettING RED signs..ive tried to call it a day but ges so persistent..hes not getting any money off me .and ive told him that..but hes still there all the time..ive ad 9 pics off him..could he be for real..i still dont think so..thanks for listening to me anyway..barbara baguley
oh and they have not communicated over the phone only via facebook and msn
Hi Please help, my closest friend has been approached and is currently speaking regularly too a guy named Felix Christopher born 18 or June or July, he is apparently in the US army based in Kabul Afghanastan he speaks to her on @yahoo.com, I can supply the full address and now FB. His religion according to his facebook page is Christen??? an states “Am a Soldier”?? He says he is in special ops? I have seen another facebook page with just one woman added as a friend no one else same name and also states from Miami Florida. I am so worried about my friend he hasnt asked her for money that I know of and I dont think she would try and assist him if he did. She seems to think that the broken english she has read to me is fine but it just signals non english speaking background to me, which would mean non USA. Can you tell me if this guy is for real – I jumped on facebook the other night to find that he is telling her he loves her and has asked her to update her status to in a relationship to signify their commitment? Like I said only several weeks…….She asked him for his mil email address and he did not provide Can you please advise if there is such a guy in the US Military ?
Grace, report his profile as fraud, but he will be back!
DeAnne, we do not have a “Commander Pilot” rank. He’s fake!
I feel like such a total idiot now.if he gets in touch i will ask for mil address.how can people do this its verging on sick.thanks robert .should i tell facebook or flirtomatic or just block him?.regards grace.
Have been contacted by a Capt Edward Pedersen, who sent photo’s of him supposedly with his children! He talked of how my profile captured him etc and of love, I am on the website not for dating but to have penpals! He had a yahoo address and told me his wife had died of lung cancer, he then chatted to me on im and asked if I had a job, I said no and haven’t heard from him since!
I thought it might be a scam! I will delete him from my list and get on with my life!
DeAnne it is the same Bode Carter that tried to scam a few of us, me included. He has a brother who he will tell you is injured in some country, East Timor is what he said to me, and he will need money to help. Avoid him!!!
He got back in touch today on facebook but has deleted his profile and all his pictures.he left me a message saying he needs to talk to me.im going to string him along for a bit.let me know what you think or should i just block him.i hope he is worrying now.
I am not sure if the Bode Carter is the same person or not. This guy says he has a 10 year old daughter that lives with his sister in FL and he also has a brother that is in business with Oil, He is a Commander Pilot in the US Navy of 19 years. I just want to make sure that this is not scam. Supposedly his daughter’s mom lives in Australia with her boyfriend. I just want to make sure that this is legit.
Thanks
DeAnne