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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thank you.. now its clear.. so how can soldiers get their money in their salaries? he told me that he doesn’t have a penny.. and he never showed up on cam.. he just sent me three pics.. i am glad that i got here.. i am wondering if they really cant communicate via skype.. i will stop talking to him.. but i will observe if he will message me again.. this is a total mess.. their souls are now burning in hell..
ankia …….. ive had several soldiers claiming thay dont get money but thay do
as ive been asked for money via wu but it was just too strange check his ip address as i think he will ask for more money to travel to you thay are allowed calls PLEASE DONT LET THIS MAN SCAM U ANYMORE
TO ROBERT ; THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING HERE. AMEN TO YOUR COMMENT. PROBABLY THE MOST SURE FIRED WAY TO TELL THEIR FAKE IS TO RECEIVE NO REPLY FROM THEM , USING THEIR .MIL ADDRESS ,OR THEIR REFUSING TO SUPPLY YOU WITH ONE.
FOR EVERYONE ; SORRY IF I WAS NOT CLEAR. I MEANT THE SCAMMERS HAVE A CERTAIN STYLE – SPEAK OF LOVE, SEND MONEY – AND THE SCAMMERS ARE LIKE COCKROACHES, JUST KEEP POPPING BACK UP IN THE DROVES. VERY COLD, HEARTLESS PEOPLE.
Our pay is direct deposited into a checking account on the 1st and 15th of every month. We do nothing, it is automatic.
TO MARIETTE ; THANKS. I TRY TO POST WHAT I KNOW. EVERYTHING I POST IS FROM MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH THESE PIECES OF SEWER AND WHAT I LEARNED OVER THE LAST YEAR AND A HALF. THE SAD THING IS YOU CAN POST EMAIL ID’s USED BY THEM AND THE PICTURES THEY STEAL , AND EVEN WEBSITES THEY ARE ON LIKE FACEBOOK, BUT THEY JUST TURN AROUND AND USE A NEW ID OR FIND NEW PIC’S, MAKE UP NEW PROFILES, AND LIKE YOUR HERBERT JUST POST BACK UP AGAIN BECAUSE THEY CAN. WE JUST HAVE TO EDUCATE OURSELVES ON HOW THEY OPERATE. LEARN ABOUT THE MILITARY. GO ON THE INTERNET AND READ, READ, AND READ. THEY HAVE A STYLE THEY USE. SPEAK OF LOVE, SEND MONEY. PLEASE EVERYONE READ THE POSTS MSG ROBERT MCLAUGHLIN POSTS ON HERE. READ THEM ALL. THEY ARE LIKE COCKROACHES, ACTUALLY WORSE.
TO ANIKA ; STOP, STOP, STOP NOW !!! YOU ARE BEING SCAMMED. NO SOLDIERS IN NIGERIA…THE MILITARY PERSONNEL NEED NO MONEY FROM CIVILIANS. THEY ARE WELL PAID BY THE MILITARY. IF HE SPEAKS OF SOMEONE PICKING UP ANYTHING SENT BY YOU, THAT IS BECAUSE SCAMMERS HAVE RUNNERS WHO DO NOTHING BUT PICK UP FUNDS SENT AND OR OBJECTS. MOST BELONG TO A SYNDICATE THAT IS WORLD WIDE. READ THE POSTS ON THE WEBSITE. WE HAVE PUT THEM ON HERE TO EDUCATE AND WARN. DELETE HIM AND BLOCK HIM NOW PLEASE.
hi i want ask .. how do soldiers get their salaries? i have a chat from okcupid he asked me to send money to buy a camera. i sent it last week via WU.. he talked with me last week that his friend in Nigeria who happens to be a soldier too already took the money and will give it to him when he gets back to camp. I have doubts before but i still sent it so i will see if it is a scam. I want to know if they cannot do Skype or video calls? he told me has plans to visit me. now i am waiting if he will still talk to me. He told me that their salary is directly sent to their accounts so he cant purchase the cam. tha’ts why i was eager to know if he is fake or not. He told me he is in LIBYA now.
Even if the scammers find this page and learn from it, they can NEVER make up a .MIL email address. A buddy just graduated from basic training and got his official email address that he will have for his entire career. The scammers will never have that!
I managed to get the “herbert Raymond” profile closed on Facebook, but there are 3! new ones, called “Herbert mcMaster”, again, with stolen pictures from internet! Reported those as well! Skype however, isn’t responding at all! I don’t know what their policy is, in checking “stolen-identity-claims”, but sofar, none of those profiles are deleted. So ladies, be aware about anyone, contacting you on skype, claiming to be “Brigadier General mcMaster (who now actually is Major General mcMaster): The real mcMaster ISN’T in Afghanistan anymore, he returned to the States as of the beginning of June!!!! So the scammers probably won’t be able to use him anymore to scam woman out of their money.
The scammers are getting more and more educated though! Instead of poor english, they actually start to communicate in better English! Whatever you do, DON´t tell the scammer, how you found out he IS a scammer, that will only be an option for them, to perfect their scam with another man or woman. If you tell the scammer, what doens´t seem right to you in his scam, he will correct that and use the `better and improved` version of that on the next victim! Let them in the dark!!!! and only tell the man and woman on this forum how you busted their ass, so people over here are warned and know what to look for!
To Margaret: I can return the THANK YOU !!! You’re doing a great job, helping all these woman over here with your comments! 🙂 … as I’m trying to also! Thanks! I had 5 fake facebookprofiles on “the Real McMaster” and Yes, the one with the Wikipedia-link, was the profile, he added me on as a friend! (That one is closed now!!!) …LOL I managed to have 4 of them closed, but 1 is still active! he there goes by “just” Herbert Raymond (but also a stolen internetphoto of the real McMaster) I reported that one as well! Looking further on skype, I found 22 ! fake skypeprofiles.. so I’m trying to get these closed as well! (but this takes time!). That said: I translated the English article as written above into Dutch, added the comments Robert Mc Laughlin gave in his posts) and posted it on my own business website. Today I sent a communique over to local and national Dutch TVnetworks, asking them to air the scams, stating, that I don’t have the resourses to do so by myself. (other than post a warning on my personal facebookpage and my businessfacebookpage and now on my businesswebsite! ). I committed myself to fight these guys, by getting all the info I gathered over the last month, to blow their covers!!!! Thank God I found out in time, before there was a lot of heartache! I busted my scammer within 2 weeks! As a therapist, I see enough people struggling with everyday life! Don’t want to get a whole new group of clients, who also are heartbroken and bankrupt, because of these scammers! So the humane thing to do for me, is to collect as many info as I can, and help out women and men in need of info! If I can only reach 1… that will give me enough satisfaction! I hope the TVnetworks air the scam!!! That would be the cherry on the cake for me!! Fighting crime, one at a time!! Hoping to restore the Army’s good name in the process!! It is a shame that their good names are dragged through the mud like this! I hate injustice!! So, consider me as a “partner in crime”:-)
To Karen: Your scammer is way out of date – where’s he been ? No Military left in Iraq and that phone scam is very old also. I only have family on Skype, and I like it that way. I can tell a scammer before he finishes writing his first line to me. You’ll find all emails from Nigeria, and close surrounding countries. Our real soldiers don’t have time for this stuff. Maybe 1 percent may be real if even that much. I think most of the real soldiers already know and have heard about this crap so only communicate with their real family. Most have wives and girlfriends waiting at home already. If you get contacted by a soldier, think scammer first. For real, a real soldier will not ever ask you for any money for any reason. Civilians don’t get involved with leaves or phones, or any other Military business. Read these posts on this site. We women who have already been scammed, know what we’re talking about. I have studied these dirt bags for over a year and a half now. Had every scam method presented to me at one time or another. The best method I found was delete and block. Gone, gone, gone.
To Mariette : Good work! I checked Facebook but saw none on him. It did bring up Wikipedia which had a huge write up/profile on the real Herbert Raymond McMaster. A very well decorated soldier with many awards. Most likely where this scum bag scammer got his info. I also contacted the friends listed on my scammers that were on Facebook. I also got only one response from a lady who thanked me. I think there was no response because they are fake friends posted by the scammer to make it look real. Some can have real Facebook sites and still be scammers as my Mike Odjegba was one. His fake email ID was RichardRickyRivera. You should check out what he writes about himself on his profile on Facebook. Says he is honest and caring, I almost choked laughing. I don’t make friends with total strangers. I know how scammers operate. I got a leave form one time, but someone else had beaten him to me before, so I already knew it was phony and told him so. He finally just left.
I was able to get 4 of the 5 facebookaccounts closed on Herbert Raymond McMaster. There still is one up, as I’m writing this (thank God, only 1 “friend” there, and I warned her in a private mail). The facebook account were he had 16 friends, was closed! I tried to warn each “friend” on there as well, but somehow, they didn’t respond. They (some of them had 400 + friends from all over the USA, so their profiles probably were real) probably didn’t believe me, when I told them this guy wasn’t the real deal, but a scammer.
So Shield your friendslist!!!! If you happen to add a scammer, don’t let him/her get acces to your friendslist!!! (although they may be able to target the friends that respond to a post you put online) Put a warning on your facebookaccount, to warn your friends about these scams!!! The more people we get informed, the best we can limit ways of finding new targets for the scammers!
It took Facebook 2 weeks to get these profiles closed. So no telling if the scammer was able to target any of the 16 persons he got friends with! I did all I could to warn them!
Skype is a whole different story: the scammers have 22 !!! fake profiles over there! Any shape or form to spell the name Herbert Raymond McMaster. 2 have internetphoto’s that show the real Major General, the rest of them show poor language in their descriptions! I’m trying to get those profiles closed as well, but sofar Skype hasn’t responded to the one I reported 2 weeks ago!
I’m putting a communique together to send to local and national TV-stations, to have them air this problem! Sofar another friend of mine had been targeted. HE was sent a leave-form, to fill out. No moneyasking!
Have been chatting to a man who says he is Snr Sgt Dave Rellinger of the US Army and stationed in Iraq. Have been sent about 6 pics of him.
Long story but got an email today asking for money to be sent to purchase a phone so I could communicate with him. Told me internet was banned etc.
Haven’t been sucked in as checked the IP address days ago and it’s Lagos Nigeria.
To YRD – He was or is a scammer. His story was leading into what ever he was going to ask for. If he was talking about wanting to come to the States then he most likely would have gotten around to claiming he needed help with the plane fare. Amazing how they fly around from this country and that country okay until they meets us -then suddenly they need financial help. I’ve had many finally ask for plane fare. One just recently claimed he flew from Washington D.C. in the States to a place in Canada. Then he claimed to take a job with Unicef and then flew ( and guess where ) Abuja, Nigeria, to work there. Now he hates it there and needs help with a ticket to the States. It is basically the same story with most of them, only with a different email ID. Of course your the only person in the whole wide world they have to turn to….This one was using Jamescole28@yahoo.com. I just deleted and blocked.
To trace a chat you need to know the exact time the guy is on and what his logon name is, then get that info to the police, but if they are outside the USA, which they are,not much can be done.
thought I’d tell you what “my Guy”‘s story was…met on okcupid…he was off on a trip with his son for a week in Germany mountain climbing..great pics too. then he was off working with the UN building communities in Libya…sent tons for pics from there as well…..now hes not coming back and he’ll have to stay longer than anticipated…..I’ve been wondering about him…something just doesn’t seem right today he forwarded a letter to me that he wrote asking to come back to the states…it was the worse written letter ever…I new something wasn’t right. when I “googled” some of the text on the letter I was brought to scamming sites like this……He never asked for Money…I imagine that was next.
Ladies listen to what Margaret tells you please it’s the truth I run a site with ladies all been through same thing been scammed. This site is fantastic for information and listen to MSG Robert Mcloghlin these people are here to help you and they know what there talking about. I go after these scumbags big time they tried it with me on facebook. I did not lose money just my heart broken. But I have revenge I shut there profiles down and try to help the soldiers they have abused.
Thanks Robert – I never thought about reporting to the Internet provider. I can trace emails when they are sent, but I have not discovered yet, how to trace a chat. I have had many scammers just contact me on Yahoo mail and just start chatting without sending any email that I could trace, so therefore I am not sure of their location. I also am not sure of how they obtained my email ID to contact me in the first place except that it must be being past around from scammer to scammer. When I have asked them, all have lied saying from some dating site that i am not even on. I delete and block them, but i am interested in knowing if there is a way to trace a chat.
I BELIEVE ALL BUT WALTER BRUSTON STILL HAS A FACEBOOK PAGE UP. YOU CAN CHECK THESE AND SEE. EDWARDS AND DIMITRIOS HAVE FAKE FRIENDS LISTED AND I KNOW AS I INVESTIGATED THE PAGE’S . MIKE ODJEGBA IS THE ONLY ONE WHO’S PAGE IS REAL. THAT IS THE PICTURE OF THE REAL SCAMMER. HE CONFESSED .
TARA – YOU HAVE 99 PERCENT CHANCE THE fACEBOOK SITE YOU FOUND WAS ALSO SET UP BY THE SCAMMER TO LOOK REAL. THATS WHAT THEY DO. THATS HOW I GOT TRAPPED MYSELF. ANYONE CAN OPEN A FACEBOOK ACCOUNT USING ANY NAME AND PICTURES THEY WANT. I HAD FOUR DONE TO ME LIKE THIS. ALL TURNED OUT TO BE SCAMMERS. TRUST ME YOU WOULD BE INFURIATED EVEN MORE TO SEE THEM LAUGHING BEHIND THESE COMPUTERS AT US. NAMES OF SCAMMERS USED ON FACEBOOK THAT CONTACTED ME ARE RICHARD EDWARDS , MIKE ODJEGBA, JAMES DIMITRIOS,AND MY ORIGINAL ONE WALTER BRUSTON. THEY LOVE IT WHEN YOU ADD THEM TO YOUR FACEBOOK AS A FRIEND BECAUSE THEN THEY GET ACCESS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY AS POTENTIAL VICTIMS. NEVER OKAY FRIEND ON THEIR IF YOU HAVE NEVER MET THEM. BIG TRAP.
To Tara : This site is a good start. Go to your google browser and type in- Romancescams, as it gives you a lot of info on how to report and to whom. They even have a place to post the pictures used.
For Everyone : I would just like to add that for those who are tracing ip numbers, Yahoo Corporate Office is located in Sunnyvale, California. If you trace an ip number located close to the top of the header it will list an ip tracing to Yahoo and say Sunnyvale. That is not where your scammer is located. I simply scroll all the way to the bottom of the header and take the first ip at the bottom. Usually about an inch up from the bottom, or close proximity. I then go to google browser and type in ip (then a space) then the number . That brings you up all kinds of ways to trace.
Contacting authorities is best for informational purposes but won;t change anything. You know, I bet you can trace their IP and find out their Internet provider and then report to THEM, and they may block the scammer for good!