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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hi everyone i posted about two scammers one is Gary Search, email garyalways65@hotmail .com and the other Darren shakman…gary has just asked me to apply for his leave and pay money cause the quicker i get him here the better so we can marry ..thank god i found this site and read about these scammers
and can anybody tell me if it is true you have to pay for the e-mail finder? or maybe i did something wrong?
btw, i forgot to ask to ask MSG Robert Mc Laughlin, ifi, or you can worn Sgt Giunta that his name and pics are used on the Badoo site, his pics are now placed under the name of sgt Keith. I feel realy sorry for the real sgt, and he is without knowledge of the situation, tnx in advance. I am affraid to put my email address over here, you never know if the scammers will look at this site also.
my ow my, i wish i found this site earlier, am was so ashamed, i told nobody yet,but let me tell you that the scammers do ther job also in the Netherlands. I was on the Badoo site, just want to build a sandcasteel with someone, and there he found me, sgt Salvatore A Giunta, and i was smart, and googled his profile. He was a good looking sgt, receved the medal of Honer, so i tought i was clever, but he told me he put the pics, bcuz he tought it would never be serious, but he liked me so much, bla bla bla, so i fall for him anyway. He told me his real name was sgt Lex Adam Salvatore, but i know now that was fake also. I chat with him for three months and also with his son, who lives (where else?) in Ghana, de boy’s name is Jack Salvator, and calls me mum or mama, just afther 1 chat, and afther 2 months he was not able to pay his schoolfees, 500 euro, so i send the money via Western Union, how stupid of me. Normaly i can not imagine i would ever do such a thing, but i guess i was blind. I know now for shure he is a fake, but i still chat, and promise him to send money for his son’s medication, (Malaria), and never send it, i will let him wait until easter and christmas can be celebrate on the same day, and that will be never, so i can take a little revenge. I act maby tough, but my heart is injured, but not broken. I was never looking for love on a datingsite, just chatting with nice people, and i found them too, but here you see how sneeky and good they are in what they do.I want to thank all of you over here to be so honest and tell the world your story, and i wanna thank MSG Robert Mc Laughlin and Gost 2 zero, for the information that helps alot. I love to see that the real Army man are honerable and nice guy’s, so there is alway’s a chance for me to find a true sgt, haha. Buy the way, there was also a diplomat who was planning to send me gold that was taken from a rebel, and i was invited to be the keeper of the gold, but the diplomat was short of money to come to my house and bring the gold, so he asked me to send 2000, euro, but i did not, am happy to say, i already doubt the story by than.The name of the diplomat was Ibrahim Atsu, and the teather of the son, whom withdrawn the money i send for the son was Ayitey Prosper, from Accra Ghana. So if my story helps only 1 woman, i will be happy anyway. And am sorry for my English,hope you all understand me, but i guess i’ll make less mistakes than some scammers ;-). And i want to ask Mr McLaughlin and Gost 2 zero, if you are ok with it if i send you a mail, for more info, tnx
A supposed Colonel Frank Roberts in Logistics with the British Army, on peacekeeping in Afganistan has spent the last 7 weeks, drawing me in and finally requesting his diamonds safe passage from Accra International Airport. The excuse being the Dimplomatic Stamp had expired and “could you help me darling”. Thankfully i didnt. I wish I had seen these sites before being stupid enough be be drawn by the the Polish/British connection. This,I thought, was the reason the flowery conversation.
I, like any women, it seems have fallen for the declarations of love – and when you “thought this is too good to be true” it is.
I have have survived a my pride a little bruised and somewhat empty for what i thought was to follow..
I wish Match.Com had let me know when they had removed him from the site, they must have know how many women he had contacted…
Hi
Does anybody know a Sgt/Major George.J.Morrison in afganistan. He says he is from Florida in the USA, has a son of 17. I have pics. He also wanted money for delivering suitcases of money to me. His diplomat a Mr Makwa Julius is working for the UN and is in currently in Ghana. My e-mail is dfouchee@live.co.za
omg…there is a guy called Gary Search…his email is garyalways65@hotmail.com…i met him on click and flirt and he was so charming and fell in love in 24 hours of first meeting me, within days he wanted to marry me lol and needed me to send him a phone, not just any phone but a blackberry smart phone worth $1,000, now i have been around the block quite a few times and thought this guy is a scammer, i confronted him and he professed his love for me and didnt i trust him and he was crying cause i didnt trust him….so i googled his name and found him on my space…this scammer had taken the real gary searchs pic of his my space and put them on a dating site….of cause he was an only child, never married etc, the real gary has a sister, i ask the scammer about why he said he was an only child, his answer was for security, to protect his family…i told him no i wouldnt send him anything and guess what? havent heard a word from him….i tracked down 2 other australian women that were on his MSN, one knew he was a scammer, the other poor woman was just shattered
as soon as i ended my “relationship with gary”….i was contacted by Darren Shakman , i must have stupid on my forehead, his email is meetdarren@hotmail .com and he wanted $240 to have a phone set up and i said of cause hun …whats the address to send the money western union and guess what it was a nigerian address, so he never got money not that i was going to send it, then i was contacted on click and flit by the famous Aaron ramos mentioned quite abit in above emails by this time i was so sick of scam artists i said to Aaron if u want a phone, money, laptop u wont be getting it from me!!!! never heard from him again, ladies please be careful these people know what to say to you dont be fooled by them
Hi Everyone Again … you won’t believe what just happened the night of April 20. I actually spoke to a scammer on the phone after I told him online he was not a US soldier, that the picture he was using was not him, and that I wanted my money back. He asked me for my phone number and I gave him my cell number so it can’t be traced (well at least I don’t think it can be) and within 5 minutes he called me. He tried to keep up the lies but finally he knew he was talking to someone a little smarter then he was. I was calm, cool and collective when speaking to him. Boy was his African accent strong I had to keep asking him to repeat himself. A friend who I met through the “Stop the US Dating Scam” on Facebook was at my home when this was all happening. She took the phone and just blasted this creep. Believe it or not he asked to speak to me again. I took the phone and what came out of him mouth was unbelievable. He asked me if I knew about the “Slave Trade”. I told him of course I did. He then proceeded to tell me it was unfair and that WE continue to steel from them, their gold and precious stones. He was justifying what they, the scammers, are doing to us innocent women. He thinks this is justice. I proceeded to explain to him I was a Canadian and that it was the Canadians who help the slave escape and find freedom and that he was picking on the wrong people. I also told him women in most countries if not all were considered second class people and had no rights for centuries until some of us won our independence. He actually stayed on the line listening to me. All through the conversation I kept telling him I want my $16,000.00 dollars back. The conversation went of for more than 45 minutes before the line went dead. I was drained emotionally after that call. He has tried to call me 3 times since leaving very short messages on my phone. I wish I would have had my girlfriend call the police on my land line. I don’t know what they would have done but maybe something. Oh, by the way the dating site he contacted me was Lavalife.
Hello Ladies.
I’m sorry to read of your stories. I came across the site as I was doing some research into some of the scams that guys have been encountering through dating sites – having been a near victim myself.
Just wanted to let you know that photos of you pretty people are being used to lure folks to their doom with all manner of stories once contact is made.
One suggestion I’d like to make is watermarking any photos you use in an area where it would be difficult to crop out.
I haven’t yet thought of anything foolproof you could use but as ideas consider:- the name of the site where you have placed the pic or a pet animal’s name or something that you can offer a rational and convincing explanation of to any legitimate enquirer, possibly with a cross check statement or question in your profile.
I’ve teased several would-be scammers along now to learn their ways. It’s amazing how a person who is supposedly listed as being in the same city as myself is suddenly visiting in Ghana or Turkey or the USA when it comes to voicing their need of assistance because they have been mugged or lost their phone or passport or….. There must also be quite a lucrative trade in phone cards and sim cards going on in some of these places as well. Or of course they might be using them to suck other people into their sick schemes.
It seems blokes aren’t quite as willing to admit they’ve been conned, and perhaps the percentage being targetted or successfully swindled is much lower than for yourselves but it definitely is happening. Certainly has made me even more cautious about dipping my toe back in the water…..but I do enjoy fishing as a sport and feeling them twist and turn at the end of the line :-))
Happy and safe hunting to you all.
Bye for now.
wsatch out for Lt General James Hayford
Sgt Ramos Jackson
Brigadier General or Lt General Mark Yenter
these are scammers Have stolen the ID’s
MSG Robert McLaughlin
Thank you for your reply to my email. I stopped all contact with Robert Burgess when he started telling me about his personal stuff being stuck in Africa and that he was worried about it. I stopped him right there because I knew the money matter will be next. He was supposed to be in Iraq, so why was his personal stuff stuck in Africa and even if it was he should get the army to sort it out for him.
The scammer using the ID of Daniel Knotts is still live on hotmail.com does anyone know how I can get him removed from there? It pains me to see that he is still doing the same thing to someone else.
Rosie (entry 3 April 2010)
I am from Perth, Western Australia. I have been working the internet for a few hours today to try to track this guy. I finally found him on your entry of 3 April. He was only 58yrs then because his birthday is 25April. He is still Robert Burgess. I wonder if we can compare photos if what you have are same as he sent me. He was good, I thought. But I have been bracing myself when the money issue will come up and true to form yesterday, he told me he has personal stuff he wanted to send home that were stuck in Africa. Yes, right, next you will be asking me for money. Well you can take a mortgage on your home in Norfolk, Virginia, I told him.
Haven’t heard from him then. Good riddance. I feel bad about the real Robert Burgess.
Thanks to all of you who have posted your stories. It helped me. Beware of someone claiming to be james_carter164@yahoo.com. He is also on facebook under James Carter. Started researching yesterday when he asked for money to help sponsor him on early leave. Yesterday, it was $300. After researching last night, I played along with him, and the amount went to $1,200 this morning. I continued to play along with him and he said he was “Lt colonel Smith AO LOGISTIC engineering unit, Gaza. Said I could get the money to (1) troopswelfare@gazatroops.com (doesn’t exist) or (2) http://www.gazatroops.com (fradulent site). Then, he said it would be quicker to “Money Gram” it through walmart. Said the receiver was Adesaanu Moses and Egypt was destination. I deleted him from facebook. Then, I told him that I knew he was a scammer and would get no money from me and deleted him from yahoo Messenger. I reported him to Facebook and Are you Interested? Anywhere else I can report this? i didn’t send any money so i don’t think local police will even take a report. Thanks again for your stories to help me understand what is going on.
Met Bill Haggard who is in Afghanistan and supposedly coming home in 6 weeks. I did not read Match.com’s tips about romance scammers before ‘Bill’ and afterwards realized he met quite a few of the how-to-tell’s. Horrible spelling/grammar, but then nice grammar–almost like he cut & paste. When I asked what time it was in Afghanistan, he was off by 14 minutes–time zone differences are either 1/2 hour and hour increments. Based on some of the inconsistencies from our IM chat, I decided to see if I could find any information on line and I did–on this site.
@ Pam – thank you very much it helped alot.
I found my fake army soldier is operating out of Iceland, interesting to say the least. Now I want to know who these photo’s I have really belong to?
ive just caught another scammer using the email address of cutetonycares@yahoo.com this man is a nigerian using a internet caffe to send messages from this man said he is a engineer working in nigeria from america california using pics and a profile that is stolen i met him on tagged dating site beware of him he asked for 1,500 to assist him to com to australia he said he had raised 4,000 well ofcourse i said no cant help him to which he became very upset silly scammer ive caught many men using same mo wanting money saying you ladies are greedy you got plenty money so beware dont web cam unless you can see the person and ask them to stand up sit down because it can just be a frozen picture put on the cam this ive proven to be the case be4 thankyou
Meet a man on connectingsingles.com claimed to be an Officer of the US Army on deployment to Afghanistan. In his first e-maiol corespondence gave me a yahoo email address. He seldom uses e-mail for his monetaey request, but does vis instant messaging saying he is collecting money for charity.
His first request for money was declined instantly. He told me he is a high ranking officer and only officer of his rank has access to email. He told me he was of from a certain ethnic background, when I asked questions re langauges sopken, religious holdidays his replies were he is not practising his faith.
This man is not an American, but an African phase he used was sending to his son to International school in Africa/Asia. I dont believe the Us Army will spend money in this economic crisis to send a child to school abroad.
To Claire’s post re Chen Johnson. Does he know his identity has been stolen? Where did u find him? I would like to know.
update on my scammer, useing garyaritchison@yahoo.com.i found where he is getting the real gary pics from. what i did is google gary aritchison army webshots, and BOOM! there are lots of pics of the real gary in iraq and afganistan. now i see where my scammer getting all his pics.
please whatch out for these men ill give you the names of these men that have tryed to scam me wth false soliders emails and ids pics names are of men that sent emails saying there in army in afganistine but all emails comming out of nigeria lol names are bill pelver .,jonathan contreras-bird, bill abramham,anders forbes ,jacobs bills, john pearce ,jp man ,jacob bill,jaun.lovessoulforu,jefferychuck,clement rogers,sargent albert witt,peter scholes, john morgan,matt messes,.all mens emails have been sent from africa nothing has been sent from afganistine kubal i kept a list of there names to put up here look out for these con atists ive never given any money to anyone ever and never will good luck ladies my thoughts are wth you all deb
Raymond/Richmond/Michael/Steven Barcinas now has a new name on FB – Steven Ray Barci – LOL AND a new love that doesn’t care if he changes his name! OR uses her picture for his profile pic – it just gets better and better!! Be smart ladies!
Mary,
Here is a good, easy to use IP address finder:
http://www.ipligence.com/geolocation/
Be sure to go far enough down in the header to find the Originating IP- yahoo emails all say Sunnyvale, CA, but if you go down closer to the beginning of the email you will find it. This is ONE of my scammers IP addresses (probably using several internet cafe’s and different computers):
196.201.51.21
and this is what it looks like in the header:
Received: from [196.201.51.21] by web120105.mail.ne1.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 15:29:04 PST
X-Mailer: YahooMailClassic/11.4.9 YahooMailWebService/0.8.107.285259
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 15:29:04 -0800 (PST)
Try using the one above – just copy and paste it into the space provided.
After you find a few, it will be easier to spot them in the header.
Hope this helps!!
This goes to Lin’s post from Apr 19th…I have also been scammed by Bob/Robert Jenkins. I hope your mom has caught on before any money has been sent. I bet we would have interesting stories to share about this loser. He caught me at a very vulnerable time in my life & I fell hook line & sinker for all the “love” bull**** he was presenting. All of these scammers are cowards, because if they were real men, then they wouldn’t have to scan women to make themselves think they have the upper hand. I’m sure they just kick back & laugh when someone sends them money, but they will be judged & hopefully they will experience way more powerful pain than they do to the women they scam.
Frankie:
Wanna play their games too? DO not delete them, waste their time. Ask for more info, give them fake western union numbers, ask them for $100 for postage, and so on.
Elisabeth:
It’s astounding the lengths these scum will go through to win a heart and get your cash. Good for you for the work you are doing and the second glance you give folks. As a soldier I can say I’d happily show you my ID card, log on to the official military web site, and get vetted any way that you want. Never feel you are insulting us by asking for more details, it is only insulting to the scammers.
Mary:
IP address tracing is not 100% but a very good start:
http://aruljohn.com/info/howtofindipaddress/
ClareUK:
If you find the real person let him know his images are being used, that is about all that you can do. Odds are he has been told by others already too.
Alyson:
What US Army soldier would have a child being watched in Kenya? And if his wife died you can verify it at http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ . Military.com is NOT part of the military, anyone can sign up there.
Janice:
The delivery would go to a post office and the “military agent” (haha) can claim the package at general delivery. I’d offer to send a delivery via UPS with a COD of $50.00 then send a bag of rocks. The scammer will happily pay $50 for a laptop and then get scammed himself. Justice!
Amy:
THANK YOU for the details of your encounter. I hope others can read this and possibly see similarities between you and themselves, thus stopping another scammer.
Margaret:
No one quits after 15 years, we retire at 20! If he is real tell him to use his military email address. Ask for a picture of him holding a sign that says “Hello Margaret!” He’ll run.
Maggie:
A .fr address? Is he a French soldier?
ALL:
It is great to hear stories about being on to them and not falling for their scams. This site sure has changed the awareness of the Internet for many. I look forward to the day that this site isn’t needed any more. And it’d be easy enugh for the military to dedicate one person to run names for people!
Have a good weekend!