this is a complaint I tried to send to the US Army today....

I was speaking online with a Sgt. Mateo Kelvin stationed in Afghanistan. It appears there is something very fishy going on. Please see the documents I have posted below when Sgt. Kelvin asked if I would ask for a leave for him so that he and I could meet. This is the first e mail I received. When I saw typos I was concerned and then I did a google search and discovered that Commander Petraeus retired in August 2011!! Needless to say the concern became even greater as to what these people are trying to do to anyone writing to soldiers.

My e mail to them: sent to [email protected]

Hello Commander. My name is Deleted real name. ~Bubbles. I would like to request leave for Sgt. Mateo Kelvin. I hope that you will be able to grant a leave for him at this time. I know he is a valuable asset to the Army. Please respond as soon as you can. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Many thanks.
Deleted real name. ~Bubbles

This is their response to me:

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY 3RD INFANTRY DIVISION AFGHANISTAN
Dear Deleted real name. ~Bubbles,
Congratulations, We got your request for a leave request on behalf of the military personnel Sgt. Mateo Kelvin of Kandahar Military Base Afghanistan.
This is to notify you that your email was received and we do implore you to check and read through the attached documents with this message and email us back if you Accepted or Not with the Terms and Policies for the leave process, so the processing will start immediately you get back to us. Once again congratulations on this rare achievement.
We hope to serve you well in our course.
Your regards….
Administrative Officer ........Sgt. Chris
Public-Relation-Officer.......Sgt. Scott M
Gen Commander ......Gen David Petraeus

This is my response to their e mail:

Administrative Officer ........Sgt. Chris
Public-Relation-Officer.......Sgt. Scott M
Gen Commander ......Gen David Petraeus
Good morning gentlemen. Thank you for granting the leave for Sgt. Mateo Kelvin. Please, however, help me understand the sentence that reads as follows:
"Spouse or fiancee requesting a vocation leave on behalf of a deployed officer will pay all necessary charges accordingly."
I am not certain I follow that statement well. Could you please explain exactly what this means that I am to pay for??? Other than this particular question, I understand the policies and regulations of the US Army regarding Sgt. Mateo Kelvin's leave. Thank you for all you do for our country gentlemen.
Deleted real name. ~Bubbles

This is their response to me:

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY 3RD INFANTRY DIVISION AFGHANISTAN
Dear Deleted real name. ~Bubbles,
Madam, We are glad to read from you, now that you read and understand the policies and about the charges you asked, the charges are for the processing, depature documents and for the repalcement of Sgt. Mateo Kelvin with another soldier and the money will be so small and its strictly refundable as soon as his safety arrival was confirmed and We do this to know how serious the beneficiaries are serious about what they requested for.
Moreover, he still have 4years and some months to spend here but his leave was approved because he have done alot for the US Army and he is very good to us, Now you must understand what you asked from us and We will be expecting your quick response to this letter so the processing will be started or cancelled asap.
We hope to serve you well in our course.
Your regards….
Administrative Officer ........Sgt. Chris
Public-Relation-Officer.......Sgt. Scott M
Gen Commander ......Gen David Petraeus

-------------------

NOTICE THE MISSPELLED WORDS, THE GRAMMAR...VERY DISTURBING INDEED. I FELT IT MY DUTY TO REPORT THIS TO SOMEONE. I HOPE THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO FIND WHO IS BEHIND THIS.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Deleted real name. ~Bubbles

Welcome pkidspets,

Unfortunately, we don't need the errors to tell us this is a scam. What the specific errors do tell us, though, is that your scammer fits the typical profile associated with this type of scam. You can find an overview of how this scam works here. The errors are not typos at all, but are typical English mistakes of an African author. The person who has been writing you is a young African man.

The "policies" that you understand do not exist. They are an invention of African scammers. In the real US army, someone from outside the army CANNOT apply for leave for a soldier. If you were communicating with a real US soldier, you would not be making any requests for him for phone, leave, or anything else.

The US Army has no part in this scam, and unfortunately, they cannot control it. The perpetrators are in another country, far out of their jurisdiction, and are hiding behind fake names and profiles.

The scammer, who is most likely in Africa or Malaysia (there is a large cell of Nigerian romance scammers in Malaysia), has stolen photos of a real soldier off the internet--usually from the scammer's own social networking page (e.g. Facebook or Myspace), but sometimes even from other websites honoring soldiers or news sites. The real person in the photos (if he is alive--scammers have even used photos of soldiers who were killed in action) may or may not now know that his photos are being used, but unfortunately, he can't do anything about it because the scammer (or several scammers) has saved copies of the photos to his own computer or flash drive, so even if he removes them from where they are posted, the scammer will still have them.

The "military" address is a free email address, just like any yahoo address and gmail address, that is either controlled by your scammer or an accomplice. He opened it in about 2 minutes, using fake information.

The best thing you can do is cut off all contact with this scammer immediately. Do not confront the scammer--it will do more harm than good. No matter how romantic his words are, they are just scripts he uses (mostly copied from the internet) with all of his victims--he feels nothing for you. He sees you as a source of money, and nothing else, and he won't hesitate to continue to lie as he has nothing to lose by lying. We also ask that you never point out a scammer's errors in language or anything he writes--when you do, he will use that information to correct them, and make his scam more believable the next time.

Just block him from your facebook, messenger, etc. and post his information here--email addresses, phone numbers he used, and if possible, early emails he sent to you--these are scripts that he will reuse on other victims so posting them can save others.

Thank you Dotti. This is a very SICK world we live in. The email he is using to chat and e mail is [email protected]. I will keep this site aware of anything else I see or hear. I want others to be aware.

Pam

Dotti, how can I send two attachments that the fake Army scam sent to me showing their US Army association. They are JPEGs and I will be glad to send to you.

Hello pkidspets!

You can go here to find out how to post the jpegs in this thread which would be great!

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3219

Justin