Scam artists using the identity of our military personnel in dating scams

This is a common occurrence, but I think most people like me are unaware of it. Here is the scenario: a person is contacted by someone on a dating website, facebook, and etc. The person claims to be in the miliary currently serving in Afghanistan or Iraq and will be coming home soon. The couple continues to chat, and the "scam artist" will claim his/her undying love, send presents or gifts, call, email, text, ask for committment, etc. Then the scam artist will ask for some type of money; it could be for medical expenses for themselves or family, for t2 phone communications, for leave papers and expenses, anything you can think of- the point is that money in some fashion will be requested. The people requesting the money are not the real and true military personnel in Afg/Irag, but are scam artists that have taken the pictures from the real military personnel and are using them to instill trust, loyalty, and devotion with their victims. Please be cautious releasing your personal informaion and/or photos to anyone unless you have verified his/her identity. Military personnel have special email addresses that they can use to verify their identity.

For further reading on this topic please visit http://www.soldiersperspective.us/2010/05/13/... . This is a web link showing where there are hundreds of stories about this. Or you can also visit the facebook page,"stop the us army dating scam".
Other resources for scams similar to this but not dealing explicitly with miltary personnel can be found at the yahoo group-romance scams and the facebook page for romance scams as well.

Again, the military personnel are not involved in this, but are victims of identity theft. It saddens me to think that people out there will use the faces of our brave men and women in such a horrible way.

The case I am most familiar with involved the identity of a sailor. He claimed his name was Andrew Sanchez and he had been in the Navy for 10 years. He also claimed that he was from Lawrenceville, GA. He provided pictures of the real sailor in his military uniform showing Sanchez as the last name. He has a medium complextion, brown eyes, bald and best guess of age is between 28-36?? The scam artist has used the true sailor's photos in this scam.

Just be aware that things like this are happening every day out there on the internet, and if you know someone that is in a situation like this, tell them to visit the above links or do internet searches on romance scams. Thanks for listening.

I was recently contacted by someone on Facebook claiming to be with the US Army attached to UN Peacekeeping Mission in Darfar Sudan. He was very compelling in his approach. And after a few days od conversation he said he wanted to come for a short leave but didn't have access to his funds in the state to submit the application fee. Being aquinted with military procedure I knew this would never be the case. But I followed his instruction to obtain the application. The domain associated with the request is armyatwar.com . everyone needs to be aware that the military and any government entity will have a .gov domain. I navigated to the website and it is basically blank. I told the guy I knew he was a fraud but he continued to pester me until I told him that my boyfriend wanted to meet him!

Penny M wrote:

I was recently contacted by someone on Facebook claiming to be with the US Army attached to UN Peacekeeping Mission in Darfar Sudan. He was very compelling in his approach. And after a few days od conversation he said he wanted to come for a short leave but didn't have access to his funds in the state to submit the application fee. Being aquinted with military procedure I knew this would never be the case. But I followed his instruction to obtain the application. The domain associated with the request is armyatwar.com . everyone needs to be aware that the military and any government entity will have a .gov domain. I navigated to the website and it is basically blank. I told the guy I knew he was a fraud but he continued to pester me until I told him that my boyfriend wanted to meet him!

Penny, I got a message today from a guy claiming he's a US Army Officer currently serving in Darfur, Sudan with UN Peacekeepers. Because I'm not looking for romance, I simply wrote that I was not interested and would pray for him and his regiment and all those connected with the mission. Told a close friend, "If this guy is for real, the ALL need prayer." His grammar and word order were not of a person whose first language is English. I warned family and friends in my status update. If he responds, I'll follow up as you did but with a dummy e-mail address.

I encountered this situation through Facebook and it is just like it is explained here. Just be careful. I was lucky to have an Army officer give me a heads up on how to check this out. It all sounds the same!

i encountered the same situation,a "captain from the us army" befriended me,told me he is in iraq and wants to chat,so i did then he told me he fell in love w/ me and wanted to see me but couldn't because the army is very strict and so i told him,he should request for an R&R.To my surprise,he didn't know what is means.So i told him everyone who is in the military even their wives or girlfriends know what R&R means.But i played along w/ his scam then i deleted his ass out of my friends list on facebook and reported that his profile is bogus,facebook shut it down.

Velma Harper wrote:

I encountered this situation through Facebook and it is just like it is explained here. Just be careful. I was lucky to have an Army officer give me a heads up on how to check this out. It all sounds the same!

Was also contacted by a person claimng to be a director of a USA Regiment, presently in Darfur Sudan. I had to apply for leave for him, then in the forms they sent to me from infodept@armyatwar.com contained a trojan horse virus, but i filled it in, with incorrect information, send it back and then his leave was granted, if i pay $600 to release him! How did your guy looked, mine used the photo of David F Cooper, can find it on internet under that name.

Was also contacted by a David Cooper from the USA rmy ( diretor!) presently in Darfur Sudan, then i had to apply for leave for him, at infodept@armyatwar.com and they send a form with a virus on, i completed it with incorrect info and next his leave was granted if i pay $600 to release him. I am not that stupid. How did your guys look, this one photos he sed was of David Cooper ( can find it on internet).

My friend was contacted by a Chris England. He wooed her for a couple of weeks before asking for money. He has a picture of an actual soldier. He is very convincing. We had never heard of this scam until he asked her for money and I started researching it.

I had been chatting with a man,Of the name Of DeanJohnson I am so hurt I have been talking to him fore a long time. the point is the soldiwe in the pic wasnt the man i was chattin with I wanted it to be now I have a broken heary.It was a soldier in the pic. He was very nice looking. I even cot sent a pic of a little boy he said was his son. He is someones son.
y life got turned upside down. I feel inlove with him or the thought of him. The man in the pic probaly has a family out there and they are using his identy to hurt people.I want to find the soldier in the photo so i can let him know what is ,Being don to him as well that is if he is still alive. My heart is broken. I dont want him or his family to be hurt. If someone knowa anything about how I find out who he is my email is.brenda_pulf@yahoo.com.

I was contracted by a man named David Douglas in Darfur Sudan in the army and I was told that I needed to paid a certain amount of money so he could come meet me I was told that he didn`t have access to his money were he was

Last week, I was contacted by someone know as David Cooper in facebook. We have been chatting on MSN for nearly 1 week , and he wanted to come and visit me. I was so happy that I started to apply for his leave.

Unaware of the scam, I even filled up the form with all my personal details in it. When I received the reply from Info Office [infodept@armyatwar.com], asking me to pay USD950, suddenly it striked me, this might be a scam. I googled and realised it was all fake.
Now I have given my full information, I hope no harm will come to me... I felt so cheated..

This is so despicable! I posted about this on my blog which has a link to the Facebook page dedicated to raise awareness of this scam.

http://www.onlinedatingranking.net/beware-of-...

wow i know from the very beginning that the guy who send his credentials to my friend here in philippines is a scammer.take note:any chat mate that asks for money cos he had n o access for his salary in iraq or any other country occupied by the military personnels or the US soldiers are all fake and the work of the scammers online.these people are criminals and are too lazy to work for themselves.
what a shame asking money from others!
may you will be caught or arrested by it.

I was approached by a man on facebook. Claimed to be in Iraq and applying for retirement since he was in later 40's. He fell in love instantly with me. He even wanted me to email his orphaned daughter. she communicated with sweet emails. He seemed to avoid some of my questions. he never really asked "about" me. He had several pics of himself and his daughter. His daughter looked Asian, whn I asked about it, he said she looked like her dead mother. Every time I tryed to force an issue that didn't make since....like his daughter being 15 in the 12th grade...he would pick a fight with me and sign off. Thanks so much to the person who sent me this website. Now I can put this all away as not being "real". One good thing...he never asked my for money. He gave the impression that he had money.

I was approached by a Michael Tucker, says he was a col. in the US Army, on facebook so beware ladies.

Does anyone know of a dave navarro? Very sweet, random contact on facebook and now telling me to set up a secure call connection but payable for min 4 weeks at 300 usd?!!

Everyone be aware i think Capt Stanley Cliff a Triage nurse in Afganistan who forgets sometimes and comes up as Bob Jernkings is also a scammer he has just asked me to subscribe to telecomm. scam .. I'm not stupid .. he will be waiting a long time
does anyone else know this man

As someone that is currently deployed and service my country, this is not the first time I have heard of these scams. There was a big write up of a British woman that fell for a similiar story and was taken for alot of money. If the military does send someone to a shit hole of a country they will pay to get that person out. At no point should a member ever need a civilian to pay for a plane ticket from a wat zone or Africa. These scams piss me off due to the fact that insugents use our name to scam money from people and then make the military look like shit. It is alright because they are suffering losses more then the CF are. Hope that this doesnt conflict any thoughts that is contrasted toward those that are servicing.

well follow up on Capt stanley cliff I asked him to send me a e mail from his .mil address and he got all cross "how could I not trust him, I can not send it, not safe the taliban see everything" so I told him I would check his IP address "You can do that" yes I said and then all of a sudden he went very quiet and said "I am sleeping" oh dear think he realised game was up. Anyway have checked his address and guess what came back LAGOS NIGERIA have e mailed him this and just waiting for him to respond.... Oh yes cant wait to see what he says next
Everyone be aware Bobjernkings@yahoo.com and capt.stanleycliff@yahoo.com are the same and are both scammers and he can talk the talk!

I was approached by someone claiming to be Ltc Robert Wittig in Feb, this year. Just broke up few days ago lol cause I wasn't sending 950$ to western union in Nigeria. I reported scam to FBI, US Army, U.S. Army Special Operations Command and also UN Africa Mission as scammer claimed to be posted to UN in Darfur. Sadly the scamm warning now apears on google right under the info on real Ltd R. W. best i could do to protect vulnerable women. Sad for real man all the same but better save than sorry. For some women these sort of scams may be traumatic enough to realy damage their mental health. Oh I just so wish i could plant lots of stink operations to stop these ******