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.
You can also check out who is really behind their email address…
AND / or their telephone number…
To read specific details about about one incident, read CJ’s post “The New Military Dating Scam”.
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Sue, there are a lot of red flags here:
1. Aak for his Army.miil addess, not yahoo.com
2. Army has squads, usually about 15 men, Air Force has Squadrons.
3. An Army sqad leader will be E-4 or E-5 and 19-24 years of age. If you have a 19 year old kid and are a squad leader your career really sucks.
4. Upload the photo to tineye.com to see if it is used elsewhere online.
5. Shaikh Khalid is the mastermind for 9/11.
Too many red flags. Get his unit mailing address and don’t buy the stories about secret missions and drops. He will have an APO mailing address. Post it back here. If I was not on vacation now I’d run his name for you in the AKO database.
Have been emailing and im a person named Kelvin Morris. kelvin.morris25@yahoo.com. Says he is in Iraq, coming home to Burlington, IL. soon. Has 19 year old son at Columbia College in Chicago. Doesn’t know where ex wife is. Says he is a squadron leader in the Army and has sent photos of himself in uniform, actually at a meeting with someone named shaikh Khalid in Iraq. He has not asked for any money yet. Has anyone else had contact with this person? Thanks.
I have had experiences recently. One in particular is extremely clever in his approach. Be very careful of TOM GEORGE who says he was born in Birmingham and was in the army…and now is based in Virginia area but working with US forces. Age 58 and on the dating sites.
The other thing is that I’ve discovered that the ’email-finder’ is very flawed and in itself could be a ‘scam’. I really dont think it can be reliable as its been revealed that they dont provide the accurate information and only want money from people who sign up!!
IP is about the best way…but also not reliable.
I really dont know what we can do about it. Except that dating sites ought to be vetting somehow. I know that men are targeted in the same way by women scammers..(who are probably male…or vice-versa)
Any long-distance relationship, where you cannot meet with the person is going to be fraught with difficulties…and absolutely open to abuse.
This internet scamming is now big business. Anyone who has a lonelt heart is vulnerable…and can be an easy target. Aftyer all…if you get someone falling in love with you…and telling you everything you wish to hear…you are then sucked in as their victim…they have your heart….but all they really want is your money!!
We should campaign for Dating Sites to put a stop to it by serious vetting of members before joinging. They are really playing the same game by allowing it.
Jonsson, ask for their army.mil email address. Anyone who has internet access to email you can buy their tickerts online too.
Elaine, I am so sorry you got scammed. Undercover return home? Not unless he has three girlfriends all at the airport awaiting him.
Anyone who wants money from you is a scammer. A Lieutenant Colonel in a combat zone czn take home $11k a month. Think about who should send money to who!
Hi Michelle,
I was contacted by an Aaron Ramos last year. I stopped contact with him shortly after we started talking.
Hi
Does anybody now a soldier with the name Major Wilson Curtis?The Us army He is in a peacekeeping operation oversea in sudan.
He`s e-mail is handsomesoldier75@hotmail.com and he says that he is from pennsylvania.
he wants me to replay for his leave and flight-ticket m.m he can not do that by himself he says because he is on special operation.
Does this person exist or is he just a scammer? He chatt with me and called me on my mobil.
Hello, I met my soldier on singlesnet.com. We emailed and chatted for over two months. He seemed sincere, and his grammer was good. He talked about the phone to purchase so we could talk, but never pressured me to buy it. We then talked about him coming home, but he stated he would need money due to the nature of an undercover return home. His name was Captain Matthew Tyler, and he emailed me his status here in the states, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Tyler with the 249th battalion army corps of engineers. He said he was a recent widower, his wife had died of cancer, and he had a 19 year old son named Stephen. He seemed sincere, and I decided to send the money, $3150 plus handling charges. At the last minute the Colonel who gave authorization for his travel emailed me to state he could not return to the states for security reasons, his name Colonel Jim Woodbridge. I received one more email from Matthew, apologizing for not being able to come home, and the Colonel wrote and said he would be traveling home the following week. A week went by, and no more emails. I realize now after all these readings I was scammed by an internet scam.
Aaron Ramos is a scammer. Please be very wary of anyone claiming to be Aaron or brian Ramos. he claimed he worked in the radar room. we talked for a while an then he asked for money, it was for small things at first, (his IPOD broke, etc.) then the amounts got larger and larger. Please ladies avoid him, Michelle Irish
Hi All, I feel quite disgusted and disturbed really, about the people who steal identities for their own benefits (military soldiers even) – I would love to meet one of these scammers and waste their time for a moment, I have not been contacted by any of them but hearing the stories of the many people that got cheated/scammed, it’s terrible 🙁 . Please pass the message across to help spread the word around and I respect what CJ is doing – Take care everybody.
I got an email 3 days ago from a guy claiming to be a US K 9 Unit Srgt Olic Barriere in Kabul, Afghanistan . He is on facebook and myspace ( goes by o-wall) does anyone here know of him? His email addy is sgt.olic@yahoo.com Yesterday he asked me to email the ts2 I did to ts2@qualityservice (learning this is fake) He told me a guy on duty with him gave the information to him and would talk to him again , that we had to be careful so we don’t get swindled. I haven’t sent any money (wanted $575 USD) and won’t. Just wondering is he a scammer? Thanks for any help.
Add another Haggard to your list….Collins Haggard. Took me all of 12 hours to figure this bum out. I am trying to find the real Haggard in the pic this evil doer is dispensing like pez. The previous mentions of incorrect word usage is a dead give away……especially verb tense. All non-americans have a really hard time with verb tense present, future, and past tense. That is a dead give away to a fraud/scam artists. When you confront them/him anger is the response. If in doubt ladies as them to put your name on a sheet of paper, photograph and send ASAP. Legit army guys do it in about 2 mintues.
justin_kime@yahoo.com
JUSTIN KIME….if the previous one mentioned is the same as this one …then its a scammer in GHANA!
Hello,
Be aware of some one using the honorable name of Col Ricky D. Gibbs, his email address is ricky.gibbs74@yahoo.com. He knows all the profile of the Real Col Ricky D. Gibbs, he also had copied Col Ricky Gibbs pictures from the internet, The Real Col Ricky D. Gibbs in everywhere in the web, so is not hard to obtain these pictures, he is a professional liar. He contact me from Zoosk dating website. He says is in Baghdad and he will be retired in 3 months. He gets you so involve with sweet emails, like babe, love you forever, sweetheart, my love etc… until he ask me for $500 to talk in the phone at the military base, she said the internet was so slow or no connection and that he wanted to be able to reach me all the time, then I knew something was not right. Please do not follow his game. I was smart enough no to follow the game.
I got contacted on Myspace by a Brian Raymond, supposedly a sergeant in Kabul. The e-mails on Myspace were about friendship, written in good English. We switched quickly on Yahoo, and then bam, first e-mail, I’m his soulmate, long lost lover, whatever…the second one was in bad English, didn’t answer my questions, wanted to marry me…the third one was even worse, and there appeared the sister ouf of a job, and taking care of his father, and him who can’t access his account. He asked me to contact her…Right. IP adress shows it comes from Nigeria via CA. I’ll play with him for a while, just to make him waste his time and I’ll alert the website.. I’m just sorry that there might be somewhere a guy whose ID has been stolen.
Lesley
Be aware that they do not normally use the real name of the person whose photo’s they are using as that makes it too easy to check up on. If the surname is showing on the uniform they have to use that but will change the first name.
If he is asking for money to take leave then it is a scammer, do not send money. Have you checked the IP address, it is a good starting point if you want to confirm for your peace of mind, I have given instructions a couple of times on this web page on how to do this.
I had two so called military men that I was talking to. I met them on match.com. One was Richard Cason and he had pictures with Cason on the uniform. He tried the package deal of needing to get money out of Iraq that he earned by saving a millionaire’s wife. I looked up the scam on the internet and sent it to him and he was very upset. The other guy was Wiley Jackson and he didn’t get too far because I learned how to look up IPS address and it was from Ghana. It’s a shame that they are impersonating American soldiers.
Has any one heard of Mark Gardner on Facebook he is from Texas i think he is a scam also his only friend is a woman he claims to be his sister i think there both the same person as have the same birthdays ? please let me no if anyone else has come across him as he is asking for money to take leave
Hi..
There is a page on FB, to everyone, who like to share there scams..
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Major-Wilson-Curtis-Kvinno-sida/125299304200005..
This Major Wilson Curtis is a Big Fraud..
?.i am 45 years old, presently in sudan for peace keeping operation. i saw your pics on my page and i felt something strange in me. i am the only child on my parent, my mum is a nurse and also from Tunisia while my dad is an engineer,he is from the state,[USA]. My instinct tells me that you are the one for me without ev…en knowing you. i will love to have a chat with you..
Beware of aka Christopher Pedersen a so called American solider from Victory Camp Baghdad who’s travelled to Ghana and needs cash wired to him via Western Union so he can collect his gold dust from a security company… Blah Blah
Anyone heard of Sergeant Mark Herndanez Jordan. In the US army based in Kandahar, Afghanistan? Sounds like a scam already
This is to Diana Brown, regarding David Lingo !!! I checked out the pic on scumbags as I met a matthew Lingo, SAME SCUMBAG PICTURE back in Feb, and for 5 months had the same old tosh, but mine was coming to UK in AUG, to sort out dad’s estate, mother died of cancer yrs ago, son in Virginia with mother!! he wsa 46, and retiring after this tour!! Anyway, finally he wanted me to transfer cash,but unfortunately for him, a friend of mine had mentioned scammers only 2 days previous, so I checked out websites,and found so much of it going on, I was ready for him when he finally started asking for help, I have to say I was very rude and gave him a piece of my mind. He is also on Facebook as Samual Lingo. Please Ladies surname with LINGO stay AWAY. He is scum of the earth.
Hi,
Can someone tell me if you knew or know the fellow name by Lt. Valentino Wilson, who is station in Afgha…… he is from Mimai?? please tell me. I really appricate
Why do you ladies even think that these men need money? If they are captain and so.., they are making lot of money in their work and dont need from us women. The american soliders, captains and men are very gentlemen and will never ask a woman for money… Not any other captain or generals… I did not even think about sending any money to this person. I am not stupid and will never be stupid… Hope you never will think about sending money to any soliders. But I will report person who ask for money!
There is a woman I work with who is invloved with MULTIPLE individuals whom are scamming her in this manner. They are all “soldiers” deployed or “stuck” in some country or other…Dubai, London, Afganistan…She has sent upwards of $100,000.00 to these men – maybe more! She has sent to many wire transfers that hse is no longer allowed” to send money via wire transfer in her name. She has be shown real evidence that she is being scammed & refuses to believe it. Someone needs to intervene or she will be destitude before long. She has a medical condition that affects her judgment & some of her reasoning skills. Does anyone know who we can contact within the US government to intervene & take control of this out-of-control situation???