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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Janice anyone can photoshop a picture. I don’t know how to do it but I could learn.
I know its hard to believe that people out there do this kind of thing but they do. Read any post on here and they are all similar stories. His wife died. Kids live with relatives or kids have died too.
Ask him for his mil email address and see what he says.
I agree with Janice, where are they getting these pictures? I probably have 15+ pictures of mine, including some with his daughter and some of her alone, some in casual clothes in his home. He is on facebook (but forgot password so can’t accept me as friend, yeah right), on Military.com, on Skype. My guy from Afghanistan claims he cannot send any personal information over the internet due to the security level of his job. Can’t send me his home address or even email me from military email address. Can’t Skype for security reasons. Don’t buy “top secret security” as reasons for not identifying themselves. Talk to MSG Robert McLaughlin about it. Send pictures to Ghost 2 Zero – he confirmed patches did not match the rank he was claiming to be.
Mine already got money for a “leave approval” and travel money, now wants money to process retirement paperwork. He has even claimed he was relocated from Afghan to Libya and only contacts once every 3 or 4 days, probably to make story feel real. He made a phone call to me supposedly from army field phone, which came in as unrestricted and of course lasted less than 10 seconds – all I got was “Hi Baby”. He sent me flowers. He had a friend from US call me to tell me he was real – call came in unrestricted and guy had accent, supposedly friend from Thailand now living in US. And now he has used the microphone over Skype (supposedly risking career) but only for a few seconds – claiming accent is due to being stationed many places around the world…. He claims to live near me and could answer any question I had about the area with no hesitation. No poor language or mis-spellings. This scam is very elaborate…. MSG Robert McLaughlin has been a lifesaver in shooting holes in the story. Don’t believe them….. It will have a negative impact on your pocketbook and your heart and will make you feel like an idiot. BTW-Douglas Afford. Look out, he is very good at this and is probably a very rich scammer….
Magaly, it’s a scam, read back in my post about what to do if he claims a dead spouse.
Janice … I agree with Susan … BLOCK and DELETE IMMEDIATELY! This person is a professional scammer and will only cause you heartache and financial ruin. This is experience talking.
I would be very interested in seeing the pictures you have of him. I understand the pictures used by the person who scammed me are still being used on the internet to lure more womon. It would be interesting if the pictures are the same as the ones I have. I am also afraid that the pictures of my family and home are being used as part of the scammers portfolio. If my family found out I sent a stranger/scammer pictures of them, they would probably stop disown me.
An APARTMENT in Iraq? HAHAHAHA! Will he get a job as a pizza boy after hours next? We all have access to our money, worst case we can get a cash advance against our next check in hardship circumstances. He spent all this time buttering you up. Ask him for his military .mil email address. Ask for a picture where he sits holding a sigh with your name. Ask for his home address and call them. Sorry, it’s a fake I can see from a mile away.
Im was talking with a guy named Captain Charls Kenneth (his facebook name is Charls Kennnethet) He told me he have a son @ Kentucky his wife is death long time ago, and the kid live with the grandma (mom’s side)
He told me he no have no more family.
Can u help me to see if he is real, im really like the guy but im so afraid about all this “scams issues”.
He give me all his information. You can check all his pictures @ facebook (Charls Kennethet) and his email is captaincharlskenneth@yahoo.com I check his IP and show me from Orange and Sunnyvale or Sunnydale California
If u need his info I can email to you.
Thaanks a lot..
where in the hell r these scammers getting the army pics from to use to scam people? i have search high and low for the pics of my soldier. cannot find him. one pic is where they had a meet and greet. and he was shaking hands with david letterman. this pic is were his name is on his left shoulder patch. aritchison. right shoulder patch airborne ????
Janice I would run in the other direction. He is trying to scam you. If you read any of the post on here all of the stories are similiar to yours.
I really hope you haven’t sent him any money because you won’t be getting it back.
garyaritchison@yahoo.com. army in Iraq, airborne have pics. anyone heard of him. from columbus ohio, so he say ex wife cheated on him.left son with nanny, been chatting wit him for 7/8 months. now he is requesting money, for transit home ($2000)to marry, he just told me he got an apartment in Iraq, his commander done that for him, because he likes him.???? he does not have access to his acct. when he divorce, did not trust anyone. i thot all army men always have access to their accounts. but he said he did not use it, because army takes care of all his needs. and will pay me back when he gets home. so he can put my name on his acct. after we marry. i feel madly in love with this man. but now have my doubts after reading all others statements HELP!
anyone heard of sgt.gary aritchison army in iraq, airborne have several pics and on patch has aritchison on it other patch airborne.
Angee: Checking out Sgt Mark Mehlhoff. That is a very unusual last name so this should be quick. Okay search completed, no one by that name of any rank in any service. BUT… a search for just the last name DID give me a result and I emailed him letting him know his pics are being used for fraud. Sorry. By the way they dare not foreclose on a house of a deployed soldier. The SSRA will freeze all activities until the soldier comes home.
I was recently approached by a guy on Cupid.com. He said his name was Adam Scott, a pharmacologist working for The United Nations in Pakistan. To cut a long story short, he was pleading his undying love for me as soon as we started talking on Yahoo messenger, couldn’t wait to get home to meet me, lived in Colchester and he was doing contract work for Pfizer.
One of my customers is Pfizer. I contacted them to see if by any chance they had an Adam Scott work there, and low and behold, they did. But not my Adam Scott. This character was using a poor guy’s identity and sending me letters that were supposed to have come from Pfizer, for drugs that he had to purschase on behalf of the UN. But until he paid the sum of £4300 which i was to send him. Pleeeeeeze. NO! i don’t bloomin think so.
I contacted Pfizer to make them aware, then called the police. They came, and because i had not handed over the money could not do anything……. How sad!
He sent me this phone number as well, to make contact when he got home…. 07955 124531
Caught!
To MSG Robert McLaughlin and Ghost 2 Zero. I sent both of you the name and pictures of a very probable fake soldier. Thank you for any help u can offer and thank u both so much for all the help you offer on this site.
I need help PLEASE. I have a man named Sgt Mark Mehlhoff wanting money from me for a trip home to save his forclosing house. He wants to marry me.He is 32, has a 6 year old son named Sean, and is divorced. His wife cheated on him with his best friend. He has a friend named Stone Blackwell or Blackton. Is he a real service person? I fell in love but feel like such an idiot and dumbass for believing him and my heart is broken. I sent $300 thinking I was helping him save his house. Can somebody PLEASE help me???? Thank you for your help!
It’s been a while since I posted here, but if it is any help to any of the folk who have been scammed, either financially or emotionally, I want you to know there are still good people out there. I have now met a man through a dating site, despite my misgivings of using them. He is local to me and is all I could wish for. There is still hope!!!! These guys who are scamming work on the lonliness of all of us and also on our own belief that we are desperate for any kind of love. Keep believing in yourselves people. The adage that ‘if it’s too good to be true,,,,,’ is a very true one, especially on dating sites. Robert McLaughlin – you are one very, very good man. Keep up the good work.
You can make your own page at military.com. I did, they do not verify units or anything. A deployed E-9 will make quite a bit of money. My bank account got horked, I simply opened another one online and had military money go there. A leave form, DA31, does not cost any money.
I think the can use any personal to scam, but by using a service member they can give better excuses as to why they cannot meet or why they have money issues. If it was not so effective they’d not do it.
Sure wish there was a way to get the word out faster about this!
Well,quite interesting ladies and gents. but the fact remains that these people don’t do this without charms. Never ever send a picture on net because they print and use it for tying whoever they want money from. Its kinda sad and now those who are really looking for someone are scared to even try. Women and Men should be wise, its better you go for the ugly ones rather than that charming picture you see. Let us pray for changes.
Met him on Match.com, is posing as soldier with 21 years in army deployed in Afghanistan. Had me confirm him on Military.com and he is there as E-9, so don’t know if you can trust that site as confirmation of military member. Claims his bank account is frozen due to hacker so needs to borrow money until home to fix the account. Has scammed me out of money twice, once for “fee to process leave application”, next for money for flight home. Didn’t stop there, now is asking for more money to pay fee to cancel deployment in order to retire.
I was able to get advice from a former military attorney who says is defintely scam. This attorney who has 13 years experience in the military, says these type of fees are absolutely not true or legal and do not believe them. Watch out! The conversations are very elaborate and very believable. He knows lots and lots about places in the area where I live so don’t let that fool you…. Sent me flowers a week or two after we met.
I am sharing to hopefully help someone else keep from falling prey to this scam. It breaks my heart to have these scammers use the identity of our US servicemen risking their lives for our country…..
If anyone wants to send me names or pictures of unit patches my email address is in a previous post. I will only check the database once a week because it’s a bit cumbersome and I have other things I need to do too. :>
Thank you for this site and I found it early in the scam. Just to give out an alert for user id Dagrine63 and phony name on letter sent to me James Patrick. I live in Delaware and one thing he did not know is where is Delaware and what does Dover Air Force Base main use. After I received the phony letter in yahoo you could put you mouse over certain parts of the letter and see it was inserted with dead soldiers name and places. I reported him to yahoo and SeniorPeopleMeet and I even got him to admit that he is out of Canada group. So look out for this jerk! Thank you again for all your help.
Thank you Robert, maybe it takes a kick in the pants to wake us up ladies, but use your brain. I got stung, but didnt lose my pride completely, we know, we just don’t act on it all the time. Your advice has been good. USE YOUR BRAIN.
Pam, please resend the photos.
Hello, and thanks to all for confirming my belief. Special thanks to MSG Robert McLaughlin for all his time and help for us all. To Carla, sorry your info was used. I wish I had heard of this being done before now, but I’m wiser now. Kinda ironic there is an ad on this site for MilitaryCupid.com, don’t you think? 🙂
OMG!!!! Had I known this a few months ago. I thought I did my research, I thought he was real & thought God had finally given me someone that loved me unconditionally, whole heartedly & forever. Well, the devil had his hand in this one, because the “soldier” Sgt (Robert, Robbie)Bob Jenkins was a total scammer. Thank you to everyone posting on here with your comments. I feel I should be branded stupid, gulible & a complete moron for falling for all the lies of love. Reading your comments is helping me heal thru this process.
To those who have contacted me, I replied and sent what I could. Sorry no good news anywhere, all scammers. One person sent me photos and I was able to track down the soldier and pass on word about the fraud. Another person sent a unit patch and I was able to send contact information on the unit.
You can easily do this too — if you see a unit patch go to google and type in the details, like – army unit patch horse – or something like that, whatever you see on the patch. Click Images at the top left, and then you can find the command. Then google the command name and look for an official site or their contact info.
Some of the patches even have me confused. And I thought I had seen them all.
Quick points to remember:
– Did his wife die? This is for you Tess. Verify it at the Social Security Death Index here: http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
– Does he want to move out of the country when he gets back? That is a no-no and can easily cost their job and security clearance. Don’t believe it.
– Do they need money for leave, plane tickets, or anything else? Run. There is no Wal-mart in Afghanistan, all we can do is save our money.
– Is there drama? Bank heists? Secret missions? Million dollar transfers? Diamonds? Don’t buy it for a second. That’s even too good for the movies.
– Do they give you an email address for yahoo? gmail? hotmail? Do not be impressed. Ask for their .mil address.
– So they sent a picture, look for traces of photoshop trickery in it. Editing, cutting, pasting, and ask them to hold up a sign with your name on it.
– Check out the details of the picture they sent you. Save it to your desktop, right click on it, and select details. That will tell you the camera they used, the day they shot the picture, and so on. One picture I just opened had none of this and only said “Photoshop 7.0”. Scammer in action!
Dunno about asking about home town info, they can search the web for answers. I learned a lot about Altoona in the last 5 minutes.
Wendy, I met a lady on facebook and flew to meet her. She found me first, and sent me a picture of her on the computer looking at my webpage. That shows it is the real thing. Yes we talked on the phone before that, but you are right, until you meet in person you can be talking to a 20 year old picture.
I cannot imagine the tears and money lost over this. I did find out that if I am a victim of fraud my homeowner’s insurance will cover me to a point. If you are out money check with your insurer, you never know.
Robert