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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To: Lynn
I checked on emailfinder.com, there is a picture of him in front of a helicopter. It says he’s 20yrs old. Also ran a white page search on this site and there is a Sam S Gerber, in Ohio. Maybe this is the real one. Check it out.
Has anyone heard of a donald williams or bryan wilson funny williams and wilson oh well they are scamers donald wanted my bank acct. so that he could have this company deposit his pay ck cus he was working in africa and he didnt have his acct. here in the states anymore well nope that didnt work then bryan wanted me to buy telex and when i told him no if he wanted he could pay for it! how funny ive lost total contact with both but i didnt lose my $$$ so be careful ladies they are good and if ur not careful they will take u for what u have.
oh and i have pictures of both men so if anyone knows of them contact me and we can compare lol xzandria_65@yahoo.com or im me at that addy
BE SAFE LADIES
Hello
My freak of nature is a Samson Simpson Garber – E8 MSG in Afghanistan. Married a Scottish girl got 2 sons she ran off selling the house aftertheir Divorce and he was left in the dark as to their whereabouts for 2 years then last week he received a mail from the oldest son Kelvin. Of course he needed money to help the kids and asked me to get it to them for him. I did not do it and he said it was ok we could do it together when he comes over, He made me next of kin – no proof he had a hotmail.co.uk account which he said he had forever which is sam01@live.co.uk by the way and he can be found on match.com under bravo231. He has been reported to Match they are investigating and he is logged in on line now girls so watch out for him. Anyone else received the very smooth “our tunes”?
I’m gutted that like you all I was duped by the sugar! Anyway he got dumb he sent me pictures that did not match the website ones and eventually he sent me a pic of a MSG Robles US Army – he had his name patches on in the pics – Poor MSG Robles – his guy sent me pics of him skydiving – can see his afce and cooking on post. Where did he get the pics from? What can I do to let the MSG know he is being used in this manner? If he is in Afghanistan the secutity is very poor if his pics are so readily accessable, He should be told so how can I do this?
Please help!
Kind regards
Lynne
Response to Ch. I emailed Steve Ruddock and told him he’d been rumbled and that I wasn’t going to contact him again. Needless to say…. I didn’t get a response. I met him on DirectDating.com, but his profile disappeared almost the moment we started talking on Messenger.
Lesson learned… thankfully no money was involved.
Response to Pauline
Hi thanks for the info, I was able to track down the origins of the email and it looks like it was coming from the UK. I can’t check the name on the uniform because he did not send me any pictures.
The online dating website had his profile terminated once I reported him as a fraud almost immediately.
On a separate note, I did an email search on FaceBook, and found the “imposter” with the same picture… I reported him, but it seems facebook has not done anything yet.
The scammer’s name is Sgt. Paul Becker email address paulos.becker@yahoo.com
To Sharon re Steve Ruddock
I have been talking to James Ruddock for 3 months and I believe he is the same person as Steve Ruddock. He told me he was in Iraq but is retiring anyday now and is coming to live in the UK. His emails come from Ghana or the US depending on the time of day – google some of the content of his emails you will find it all comes from websites such as love letters.com. He is a real smooth talker and I really fell for him at first but when he suggested we should get married I got suspicious and checked him out and found him to be a scammer. I think he uses loads of different names and I think sometimes you are talking to at least 2 differnet people. Let me know if you want anymore info about him.
Hi Lisa
The site I use to check their IP Address is http://www.ip-adress.com/ip-tracer, type in the IP address and then hit ipwhois button, this will bring up the country of origin.
To find the IP address if the emails are coming through using live.com, go onto the email list select the email you want but do not open it. Right click on it and then select ‘view message source’ the IP address you are looking for in this case should be close to the actual message but it is worth writing down any number that is similar to this format 46.005.21.217.
As far as trying to track the real person down, unless there is a surname clearly shown on the uniform, it is going to be really difficult to track the name as it leaves it open for them to use any surname. If you can see the surname a good place to start would be facebook as they have lifted the photos from some website.
I hope this info helps
Regards
Pauline
To all the ladies ere
We all been scammed n dis guys will say anything n all n well the rest u know. Just becareful who un talk to online.
Reminder to watch out for Lt Col George Patterson, Nigerian Scammer
I was too contacted by someone impersonating to be a Sgt. of the US Army. I was asked to submit $500 for a secure phone connection, so I sent the money under the notion he would pay me back once he returned to the states. After I wired the money for the phone connection he then asked me for another $5500 so he can file a US Army Vocational Leave — which I did research does not exist.
When this imposter called me, he had such a thick accent and could barely speak English. When I told him he sounded like he was from Nigeria or Ghana he quickly hung and never called me back. I sent him a few emails for him to send me pictures in his civilian clothes and he told me he couldn’t because his network is really slow. At this point, I knew I lost my money and I’m never going to see it.
The so called “phone connection” department has not responded to any of my emails. I filed a complaint with ic3.gov. it maybe a long shot but at least I brought some awareness to them.
Even though $500 is a lot of money — good thing it wasn’t everything I had in the bank. This was one expensive mistake and hopefully women reading this– do not believe any soldier looking for a secure phone connection. The email address for this fake connection is militarycalls@armymail.com
Message to Joy Mboyo (I think this was the surname)
I received an email asking for my help, but it came through in the junk mail, it was deleted without being opened. Joy if you found my email address on this site, please enter a comment here as to what problem you have and then send me a new email. I am not risking opening emails from sources that I do not know. If you need my help then I would be more than willing to assist.
Regards
Pauline
reply to sharon,
I will find out some more information for you, ive been away and only just seen your message, but he contacted my family member by a dating website (very possibly Dating direct as i know she was reqistered there), he was asking for money to pay for baggage to come out of iraq, he wanted 2000 pounds and asked her to sell her car for it! The photos that i have seen he has a moustache, is 40s to 50s, light brown hair going grey and he is pictured in some kind of outside army shelter with a rifle. He has a son about 16 years old and claims to be from Texas but has moved from there recently. He is really persistant with calling and emailing and texting to the point of harrasment. I’ll get back to you as soon as i have more info my email is moonbunnyears@yahoo.co.uk if you want to contact me personally.
pauline please email the sites where you can check their names
Susan,
On your email there should be a button that says “full headers” click on that and it will show you all the header info. Highlight it and copy it. THen paste it into http://www.whatsmyipaddress.com. I think you go to email finder on that site. Once you paste all that info it will show you were the email originated. Let me know if you need more help. Good luck, Karen
Hi Jazz
Does his uniform have the surname on? if so it helps to narrow the search down? I have requested the name of a couple of sites my friend put me onto which helped me track down Gordon. Once she gets back to me I will let you know
Regards
Pauline
Hi Susan
Which email provider are you using? if you send one of his emails to me I might be able to check the IP address for you, or send me your email address and I will try and talk you through checking it. paulines56@live.com.au
Regards
Pauline
I did send a message about a Steve Wadsworth a Martin Wadsworth and also a James Wadsworth all in military uniform in pictures ranging from Colonel to General
Have been searching and as I said beware of the name Wadsworth have now found he goes as Colonel martin Wadsworth Steve wadsworth and the one I was talking to was James Wadsworth and I believe in a Generals uniform as well as combat uniform and also in a suit
ladies BEWARE of anyone with the surname WADSWORTH he is a scammer
hi pauline
i did finally found out where lt timothy location, in nigeria and i wish i could inform d person about their pics been used to scammed women. any idea….
wish i knew how to check what an ip address was
was the JAMES W#####th actually james rellinger staff sargent?
hi, My name is Karen,
i just wanted to say that these guys are still out there, i myself have just had a close call, i fell hock line and sinker for a General Steve Johnson, who for the past two months have chatted 24/7 told me he was from lakeland Florida had a son 14yrs, so up until two days ago when he ask if i would accept a package from him containing gold bars, which he’s been give by an Arab King !!!!and that he was going to use them for our future together… need i say more, so i sadly did a search on his IP address and found out he was from Ghana, and i also found you lovely people, who have taken the time to tell your own sad stories.
I would be very interested in knowing if anyone out there has also spoken to the same man… General Steve Johnson, he sent me three photos of himself two in uniform with his name on them, if you would like to see the photos you can contact me at k-finn@hotmail.co.uk
thank you all so much. karenfinn
Has anyone been talking to a James W######th
This is for Rosie who posted on April 3rd Everything you put has been happening to me as well. I think it is the same person. But unfortunately I sent money
Hi everyone
Just to let you know that I received a reply from the real G Hannett, apparently he had been contacted several times in the last few weeks by women who had been scammed using his photos, he has lodged a report, but I don’t think it will do much good.
Also to the ladies who are checking the IP addresses, when you come up with the SunnyVale address that is only the Yahoo server, keep checking through the list until you get closer to their email address, this is the one that will tell you where the email originated from. Sometimes it will pass through other services before it gets to Yahoo (I had one that went from Ghana to Germany to the USA). The more emails you check the more confident you can be of having the correct information.