WASHINGTON (July 22, 2010) -- Shelly is a smart, successful business owner, but a brief liaison with a man claiming to be a servicemember nearly cost her everything.
Shelly was thrilled to meet a handsome Marine on a dating website she frequented. Although her contact with the military was limited, she was deeply patriotic and had a great admiration for servicemembers.
After just a few days, the man began professing his love for her via e-mail and instant messaging. He said he was deployed to Iraq, and was looking for love after he had lost his wife in a car crash about two years prior. His 5-year-old boy was staying with his sister while he was deployed, he told her.
Shelly was enthralled but, as a single mom, remained cautious. She began to notice some idiosyncrasies: his birth date on one website didn't match another and the picture with dark hair and eyes she originally saw didn't match the blond-haired, blue-eyed man on a different profile.
About three days into their relationship, the man told her his bank account had been hacked into and $37,000 had been taken. He couldn't check his bank account from Iraq, he claimed, asking her for some money to get by. Suspicious, Shelly asked him for his military address and phone number.
"I'm so disappointed you don't believe me," he said, and gave her a number that connected her to a fax machine. Fed up, Shelly called him out. Angry and defensive, he blew up at her and threatened to "get her" and "go public with who you are".
"What bothers me is he has my information," said Shelly, a successful media professional from the West Coast whose name has been changed to protect her privacy. "He knows I have a son, knows the name of my company and my address".
The man never admitted it was a scam, but unable to verify he was who he said, Shelly walked away. She'd like to report him but is scared of what he'll do. And the worst part, she said, is his profile is still on that site.
"It's so awful that he impersonates a military man," she said. "I have deep respect for the military, and he's using these guys to scam people".
Shelly is not alone in her Internet-based scare. Many people, from various backgrounds and in locations around the world, are falling victim to a wave of military-related Internet romance scams.
Special agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command recently warned the American public of this scam. "We are seeing a number of scams being perpetrated on the Internet, especially on social, dating-type websites where females are the main target," Chris Grey, Army CID's spokesman, said in an Army News article.
These cyber criminals, posing as military members, prey on patriotic women seeking love online, as well as others with a soft spot for military members. In many cases, they say they're deployed, whether to Iraq or Afghanistan, and claim to need money for everything from leave papers to a flight back home.
They may pose as an Air Force lieutenant or an Army general, and even a fake profile of retired Gen. Richard A. Cody, former vice chief of staff of the Army, has popped up on several dating sites.
U.S. Army
