Am I being scammed?

Hi

I have been exchanging emails with a man who says he is stationed in Kabul with the military. I met him on Military Cupid. All has been going well, he tells me his wife died of cancer 4 yrs ago and has a son studying in south africa. He has declared his love for me, and I have fallen for him too. He emails me from an aol account and has sent me photo's of himself in uniform and in civvies they look genuine. I asked him to ask his son to email me so that we could make some sort of bond but have not had an email from him so far.

It has been going well until he tells me he wants to talk to me more but he uses his friends internet so his limited, he sent me a link to this site ts2.pl and asked me if I could help him pay for his own internet connection at 440 usd, I told him I cant afford that, I'm a single working mum, now he says he can share with his friend. This will cost around 170 usd and he is going to email the details so I can help pay. He says he cant pay himself cos he cannot get as his bank in Kabul, and he has no family in the states that could help him.

His english is very good, I also speak to him on messenger, he appears to be an intelligent man.

I know what you are going to say that I am being scammed, I feel quite foolish and gullible, but I have a nagging feeling he may be genuine, Im not very good with computers and was lucky to find this site. Please can anyone advise how I can check if he's the real deal.

I appreciate every single reply. Thanks Joan

Welcome here Jhawc24.

Yes, this shows all the signs of a scam. Could you post the first one or two emails he has send you? I'm pretty sure that when we do a search for some phrazes in those emails we find several examples of other scam emails. These scammers like to use pre-written scripts, and it's not difficult to find parts of these scripts on other scam warning sites. If possible could you post the full headers too? Then we can try to trace the scammer. Most likely he's living in West Africa. If you don't know how to get the headers, just ask.

this is the very first email:
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Hello,
How are u today and how is everything over there?..hope u are ok and hope everything is fine with u there?...
Am so happy to read from you and pls do forgive me for getting back to you so late as i was on patrol and i never get the chance to get online and moreover my access to internet is limited but i will say i wouldnt want to miss a chance in knowing you more...
Pls do feel free to ask me anything u wish to know about me as it will be my pleasure to tell you..hope to read from u again soonest..
Have a nice and wonderful day and take care..
From Kabul
Jerry

and this is his second email, I have had 60 all together since mid May:
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Hello
How are you doing dear and how is work,hope is not too stressful?...Now you have really gotten me hooked on reading from you cause I have being waiting to get access to the computer all day just to read from you cause you sound quite interesting and a loveable woman.
I am once again sorry that I am getting to write back this late but we are just getting back to base now and this is the first opportunity I am getting to write you back.
I would sure love to know everything about you,be your friend and see where it leads... so I guess i need to tell you more about me too.About me?Well,I am not good talking about me but I can modestly say I enjoy helping people whenever I get the chance. I like the outdoors . I would like to date someone who also loves the outdoors . I am a romantic guy that loves doing things that pleases my lady...........It is more fun to have a woman with me than being by myself. . Life is too short not to have someone to share it with.............
I have being in the army for 20 years now and loved every day of it,with the lows and highs,nothing beats the feeling of being useful to your country but now I am ready to retire and move on with my life,felt it was time to start taking care of me for a change and spend the rest of my life doing the things I have always wanted.
I want someone that does the little things from time to time. For example, a note on my pillow, a phone call just to say they were thinking about me. She has to have a romantic side to her. Candle light, soft music, dancing. Someone that shows affection in public. I see myself as a wonderful guy without enough free time to find the woman of my dreams. I keep hoping she will walk into my life and everything will fall into place the way it is meant to be.
I want to spend quality time with a lady that is the most wonderful in the world to me. I want to be her best friend and her mine. I want to listen to her voice as she tells me about her day and her to be interested in mine. I want the woman that will be even as a first true love to me.I have values of honesty and sexual morality that is defined in the Holy book. It is important to me and the person I speak with that the love of God is an important fact that we must understand, respect and worship.........
Spent some years on a ranch which has kindled my interest in the country life,I have always enjoyed the tranquility and the peace of the country side,would sure love to re experience that all over again with a wonderful woman by my side,like i said in my profile, I am not looking for someone to fit into my mold or to fit in someone's mold, but rather for 2 people to come together and be better and stronger as a team working side by side than the individual parts.Im looking for someone that is ready to be loved, ready to share a life full of dreams and memories.I'd like to meet my soulmate. Someone that is past past relationships, and ready to enjoy life.
Spiritually, I feel we are all searching for a reason why we are here. The answer to that quest is sometimes partly realized with the passing of time. But in the end, lucky are those who feel they reached the answer that satisfies them long enough to enjoy the better part of their lives.. I do believe that faith is the issue, not religion. I believe our purpose in life is to know, love and serve God. In His wonderful way He allows us to do that through His people, humanity, which includes family, community, country and even the people of the world. When we love and serve them, we love and serve Him and this is what brings us true happiness; not the things in life we can have, especially materialistic, but what we can give. I believe than I am a strong person because I am here to serve.
Well enough about me, your turn, what are you like spiritually not talking religion, just whats in your soul, what makes you happy what makes you sad,what do you do for fun tell me everything and anything you would like me to know if there is any questions you would like to ask,me feel free. I will do my best to answer each and every one for you.
I am making this long cause we are due for a patrol soon and I dont know when I'll be able to write you again but please do write me soon to tell me more about you cause I am feeling good about this.
Love always
Jerry

Hi, Jhawc24 & welcome here.

The English alone says that it is a West African scammer. Without quoting specifics (we do not want to educate them, if they come here!), there is no doubt that the writer does not have correct English (US or British) as his first language.

Also, Here is the sticky pertaining to such scams, in particular:

Important Note: Even in Afghanistan and Iraq, military personnel are NOT REQUIRED to subscribe to outside services to communicate with friends and family.

Sadly for you, he is a scammer. Thank you for posting the information - it will help others from being scammed by him!

Thanks for posting this Jhawc.

This scammer is smart and hides his IP, so i couldn't trace him. But as Crispy duck said, his emails read like all the others i've seen from West African scammers. And of course the fact that the scammer's character falls in love with the victim very fast, and they are asking for financial help gives the scam away.

The UK and US military supply free internet connection for their troops.

It's not as if troops can walk into an internet cafe or call up an Afghan internet company to ask them to install a dish on their compound hut. He couldn't get a paid for internet subscription in Afghanistan if he tried.

The military would probably arrest any soldier trying to do what he says, even if it were possible, as the only possible purpose would be to communicate with the enemy. It's like the requesting money for cell phones and to obtain leave. The military angle gives the scammer the opportunity to exploit our troops and people's emotional sympathy, but they have the problem that troops have little reason to need money, so they make up crap that doesn't make sense.

The internet idea is novel to me and quite amusing. If he's contacting you on the internet he can just keep doing what he's doing. It seems to work fine.

Don't allow your imagination to cloud the fact that this is nothing more than a lying scammer trying to manipulate your emotions and steal your money. This person is trash who exploits the troops to steal people's money. There are much better ways you could show support to the troops. In the UK there is a national memorial arboretum and there's maybe something similar in the USA. If you told him you'd made a donation to it he'd react like a slug having salt poured on him, which wouldn't be the reaction of a true soldier.

Hi everyone,

I'm really grateful for everyone's help on here, I'm upset that he has preyed on my kind nature and like a fool I fell for it. It wasn't until he starting asking for money that my alarm bells starting ringing. I'm glad that there are forums like this out there, as I would have more than sent the money.

I think I will ignore all his emails now and block him on messenger ... and in case anyone googles his name it's Jerry McKenzie or MacKenzie and I hope they find this link.

Thank you for everyone's help, Joan

Hi Joan

I am glad you avoided being scammed by doing some searching, certainly not a sign of a foolish woman, you were clever enough to find us and to avoid being scammed by a professional liar.

If you have any questions please ask

Welcome Jhaw,

I have taken the liberty of editing your personal information out of the emails you posted--any time your email is posted anywhere online, it is harvested by bots and will increase the amount of spam (and scams) sent to you.

First of all, to echo what the others have said, there is absolutely not doubt whatsoever that this is a scammer. I'm going to give you a few key points--you can watch for similar signs in future correspondence (you will likely be approached with more scams in the future).

-As Crispy said, the English alone tells us that this is an African, not an American. We can't point out the mistakes here as the scammer may learn from them, but I'm always willing to help people to learn to identify English issues by PM. Though I have no doubt he has copied some of the ideas in his email, the two emails you posted don't appear to contain anything that was copied word-for-word. I know this because there are no error-free sections.

-As Gomer already pointed out, if he has already managed to send you 60 emails in less than 2 months, clearly his internet access is fine.

-

he cant pay himself cos he cannot get as his bank in Kabul

This would not be true of an American Soldier. The US military does not place soldiers in situations in which they cannot access their own money. In addition, even if he couldn't access his bank account, the real TS2 accepts paypal--he wouldn't have to get anywhere near his bank to make a payment.

has sent me photo's of himself in uniform and in civvies they look genuine.

The photos are genuine--he's just not in them. He has copied the photos, most likely from a social networking site like facebook or myspace.

-He has no family and his only son is in Africa.
Though this makes a nice sob story, it is actually quite unusual for someone who is not elderly to have absolutely no living family. Even if there are no siblings or parents, they are generally going to be cousins, etc. But what about friends? I'm not sure how old this man is pretending to be, but if the son is old enough to be alone in Africa, the "father" would have to be over 35--he would have American friends who could help him, and I would expect him to go to those friends rather than a woman he has known for 6 weeks! The son in Africa is setting the stage for a future crisis in which money will have to be sent to Africa.

TS2 is a legitimate site. However, the scammer is only using it to support his story. In reality, you would never be dealing with TS2, as the scammer would give you an email address to contact, and that address is not connected to the real company.

If you are comfortable posting a few more of his emails, particularly the early ones and the ones around the money request (with your own details removed), please post them so more of his script is available to future potential victims. Also, if you were given a contact email for "TS2" please post it and any emails received from the fake TS2.

Please drop all contact with this scammer immediately. Block him from your messenger and do not reply to any emails or phone calls. If you allow him to remain in contact, he will continue to lie to you, and he will attempt to win you back, as he still holds out hope that he can convince you to send money.

Jhawc24,
You are lucky you have found this site early enough to prevent any financial losses. You do not need to feel bad about yourself, you have been manipulated by skilled criminal. That's what they do for living and they can be very convincing. Thanks for sites like this one. It's gerat help to all of us.

This is another email where he sent me a poem, I am still waiting for the email with the details of how to send him money, as soon as I get it I will post it on here.

Honey,
My Hand is getting much better now but that doesnt give me an excuse to sleep as i need to get my ass out there hunting the Taliban Insurgence...
Here is a poem for you Angel...
I was on the Internet one night.
And came across someone so nice.
We introduced ourselves and talked about certain things.
But never did I know that this could be.
How could it be that you're so far but yet near.
When constantly, I'm wishing you were here.
Why is it that the treasures you long for most,
Are always so far, but never too close?
I thank God for sending you my way.
And to see you soon is what I pray.
Everthing I do, I can't do without thinking of you.
All I can do is hope my wish come true.
I can't figure out what to do.
All I seem to think about is you.
Before I go to bed and when I wake up too.
That's how I know these feelings are true.
Sometimes I'm scared to open up to you.
Wondering if this is really true.
It's funny how one night we're online.
Then the next, you whisper in my ear
"Goodnight Angel''

Love from Kabul....
Jerry

Thank You for posting this information Jhawc24.

It will alert and save others losing money and having their heart broken by this callous scammer.

As the others have rightly commented, you have shown very good investigating skills and I am proud of you.

My very best advice to you now is to totally ignore this scammer. Cease all contact.

If you have any questions of concerns please post - we will help you all we can.

As you can see from the search results below, this poem was simply copied from online--note how some of the search results show that it has been associated with scams in the past.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22How+could+it+be+that+you%27re+so+far+but+yet+near%22&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=vUz&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&ei=ILonTLq5IsH-8AbFh-TyDw&start=0&sa=N&filter=0

Thank you everyone, ok this email I have just recieved regarding sending money, however there is no address so not sure how I am (supposedly) to send money. Up to now him asking me for money as been by messenger and not by email:

My Love,
How are u doing today and how is everything over there?..hope u are ok?...was out there today and couldnt get u out of my head...i had to sneak back here to send u this cox u are in my heart every minute.
I love you so much Angel..thanks for coming into my life..u are my dream come through and i promise never to let u go out of my life cox u are my happiness.
Honey,this is the Information of the ISP branch in China, u can send the money to them and get back to me with the senders Info so i can forward it to them and they can connect my internet.

First Name: YAOHUA
Last Name: HUANG
City: BEIJING
Country: CHINA


Thanks so much for your help...i really appreciate it...i promise to make it up to you honey..
Love you with all my life Honey.,..pls take good care of yourself and the kids for me.
Love from your Naughty Babe
Jerry