SGT Michael Edwards....SCAM SCAM SCAM

Hi guys

What a great site you have and although I was gutted at first when I stumbled across it I am so happy that I did because it made realise that this guy was trying to scam me. I started chatting to him on Be Naughty and chatting to him for the past 2 weeks on Windows LIve IM. He is using the name of SGT Michael Edwards.
He sent me so called pictures of him in Iraq but these are obviously of some other guy called Edwards who is completely innocent. There were a few things at first that made me think this isn't right - like a guy from California that has never heard of the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin - but I chose to ignore them. Reading other posts on here and notes from the admin guys it seems really strange now that I didn't think before how it seemed like I was talking to a foreign guy, yet when he emailed me his english was perfect. I did think, I just chose to ignore it. There were lots of warning signs but I chose to ignore them. My first suspisions were really raised when last Sunday we were chatting online and he said how he was broke, he didn't have any money and didn't get paid till 15th Feb. I didn't offer to send money but I did offer to send a parcel with some things for himself to keep him going until he got paid. He said he would find out if that would be possible with his captain. If he was really in the military he would have known straight away and would have given me the address straight away. Then on Tuesday 1st Feb, a few days ago he asked me if I would request leave for him. I am going on holiday in a few weeks and he said he wanted to join me. So I sent the email apparently to his Lieutenant General and below is the reply I got back. The warning bells were going off straight away but I didn't want to believe it. I said to him that night I wasn't happy about the money and that I would have to think about it. I then spent some time yesterday searching online for proof that this was a scam and came across your site. I fronted him online yesterday afternoon and told him I knew that it was a scam. I even forwarded him the link to the page which has his photo on it saying that he was a scammer and emailed him his own photo that he sent me. Anyway I hope this helps other people and want to thank you guys again for such a brilliant site. Its sad really that you have to have sites like these when all people are looking for is someone to share their life with. I do feel like an idiot but I also feel good that I realised in time and didn't send any money. I also feel good that at least I confronted him about it before I blocked and deleted him. Below is the email that I got back from his supposed General. There was also PDF attached in the way of a form to complete that would give him my name, address, phone number, mobile phone number etc


In regards to your mail, I am pleased to tell you that you can now proceed with the Vocational leave application of your fiance ''Sgt Michael Edwards''. You should also be aware that, during this transit process, you are going to remit some amount of money to one of our finance agent in the IRAQ/USA/UK. This will be refunded to you as soon as your fiance's safe arrival is confirmed to Sharm el Sheikh Egypt.

I have attached to this email a copy of the policies and instructions for a vocational leave request and also a copy of the money back guarantee form, Please find the attachment, print, fill and submit the attached money back guarantee form through this medium (via Email)

I'm expecting you to fill the form and send back the completed copy to me by email. You will be advised to make the payment of 650.00 GBP to one of our Finance agent in United Kingdom. This will facilitate the payment for bringing another soldier who has the same Skills and training with "Sgt Michael Edwards". You will have to make this Payment through Money Gram.

Once you provide us with this information you are no longer anonymous to us. (We) protect your privacy. We do not insist you to provide extra personal information than necessary.

All information collected will not be used for any illegal activity. The information is what we are going to use in registration of your name with the Military Transit Department.

Regards


Lt Gen Lloyd Austin
Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

I AM SO GLAD I SAW THIS AND EVEN FOUND THIS SITE. I BELIEVE I WAS CHATTING WITH THIS PERSON STARTING ON FEB 14 HOW UNLUCKY FOR ME. IT WAS FUNNY BUT I DID ASK GOD FOR A SIGN AND YOU WERE IT. I HAD TOLD HIM IN THE BEGINING THAT I HAD ALREADY HAD A SOLIDER TRY TO SCAM ME YOU WOULD THINK THAT WOULD HAVE STOP HIM. BUT HE TRYED TO GET MONEY FROM ME. I WOULD ASK HIM QUESTION TO SEE IF ANY FLAGS WENT UP AND THEY DID. HE HAD NO PICS OF HIS SON. WHO DOESNT HAVE PICTURES OF THERE KIDS WHEN THEY ARE SO FAR AWAY. HE SAID HE HATED BASEBALL AND BASKETBALL COULDNT THINK OF A TEAM BUT HIS PROFILE HAD THAT HE WAS INTO SPORTS. BASEBALL IS A ALL AMERICAN SPORT WHEN I EMAILED HIM HE NEVER SAID ANYTHING ABOUT THEM AND I ALSO PUT QUESTION IN THERE. WE ONLY SPOKE FOR A WEEK TODAY WAS THE LAST OF HIM ITS TO BAD THEY CAN NOT BE CAUGHT.

It's actually not a good idea to let them know that you've twigged them; every time a scammer gets told that, he gets a bit smarter and a bit better at scamming. Also, showing them the resources arrayed against them can give them ideas.

Better by far to just drop the matter and walk away, block their emails and never reply to them again.

Um i think he may have struck again. Does anyone have a photo so i can see if its really him?

Hi Tat2dchicky !
Welcome to Scamwarners.
It sounds like you are also dealing with a possible scammer just now. There are many different scammers, using different names, email addresses and photos. If you have been sent photos go here: http://www.tineye.com and it's likely that you'll find that they've been stolen from the web. Please post up a couple of emails, along with the headers, and we should be able to tell what country your emails are coming from. Need help with headers? Go here: http://www.ip-adress.com/faq/view_email_header/

It's actually not a good idea to let them know that you've twigged them; every time a scammer gets told that, he gets a bit smarter and a bit better at scamming. Also, showing them the resources arrayed against them can give them ideas.

Better by far to just drop the matter and walk away, block their emails and never reply to them again.

It may not be a good idea as far as you're concerned but I dealt with it the way I dealt with it at the time. You are entitled to your opinion as I am entitled to mine. Different people deal with different scammers in different ways. I was upset and wanted this sorry excuse for a human being to realise that I may have fell for his sweet talking ways but I certainly wasn't stupid. I wanted him to realise with just a few hours searching on the internet what info I could actually come up with. It was HIM that was trying to scam ME. Now I was telling HIM what I felt. End of. Maybe it would have been better to drop the matter and walk away but I wanted to violate him just a little bit, so he felt a little bit of how I felt violated! That was my decision and I stick by it.

I told my story on here to try and help and warn others, not to be criticised in the way I dealt with it.

I am sorry you felt criticized by the comments. I understand you wanted to hurt the scammer because of what he had done to you.

Scammers don't have any emotional investment is the people they are scamming. It is purely for the money they hope to obtain from the victim. You are a victim and you are entitled to your feelings. Some times we get kind of abrupt because we read these accounts day after day and we don't always take into account what you felt you needed to do.

You had no way of knowing when you were dealing with the scammer alone that we encourage people not to send scammers here. It is a natural response to want them to be humiliated by being known as a scammer. Sadly, they feel no humiliation from telling them what low life scum they are. They hear it every day many many times. That is an "occupational hazard" to them.

We are glad you were brave and bold enough to tell your story. It has and it will help others.

Again, I am sorry you were hurt here and by the scammer. Our members are important to us. My best to you and I thank you for posting. I hope you will continue to post information about scams. It does help in the healing process.

This guy is now targeting the Uk through girls date for free and facebook and plentyoffish

other names are sgtpederson and derek_willy48
Please read my post he conned me and will conn others beware

I was also talking to this guy on messenger....he said he found me off a dating website. I was a bit sus as, so i had a friend talk to him. at first she thought he was the real deal but when he didnt answer my emails or messages we realised that he was a scammer. so i think im one of the lucky ones. he sent me pics, and he even has a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/prof ... 2541591366.

I too have been in contact with "Sgt. Michael Edwards. He friended me on facebook. He said I was someone he would like to get to know. Was from Daytona Beach, Florida; a widower with 15 yr. old daughter (Melissa) who's in private school in London. Told him Ii was married but I could be his friend. He sent me Bible verses for about a year. Then recently he wanted me to fill form for military leave. I knew it was a scam. Yesterday Ihe asked for money for food items he needed to get his strength back from an accident. Told him I would send him money. This is the info he gave me: Send by Western Union to Kayode Dairo address: 16 Bakulina St Kharkiv, Ukraine 61166 The email he uses is: [email protected]

@ kii123

check
http://www.romancescam.com/forum/viewto ... 01#p241901
and
http://www.romancescam.com/forum/viewto ... 42#p241942

I just got done talking to a Micheal Edward, well he says that is his name. talked to him for a few mins then he asked me for money, for him to get home says he is in the military and that he needs to get home. so I played a long with him, asking him how much and where to send it to. He says that the only trusted agent is in Africa, and when I told him that I would send him the money ( not really just wanted to see the info he gave me to send it) this is what he gave me name-akogun wole john.. country-nigeria..state-ekiti.. city-ikere. I asked him why i was not sending it to his name and he said that it was the trusted agent that I was sending it to. So I googled a fake reference number for western union and gave it to him so that he thought that I sent him the money. How stupid does the guy think we are, like I didn't know he was scamming me. he is using yahoo id [email protected] and has a picture of an american soldier, in Iraq posted as his picture.

I too have come accross the infamous SGT Michael Edwards - I work for the military and do secirity so I could tell right away things did not match up - he never asked for money but when he disappeard for two days and I didnt hear a word - he sent me two photos of him in a sand storm form a phone camera - ok, Ive seen enough from our own people on the base that I knew they looked legit. But I told him since he was able to send those please take a photo of yourself with my name written on it holding it up by your face so I could see you were the person I was chatting to. I got every excuse in the book as to why didnt I believe and trust him. He was upset at me - ha,ha! He even went so far as to say he would scan him govt id badge and send that to prove who he was - anyone in the military knows that is a big NO NO! Match.com should scam their people a little bit better. First red flag was he didnt have a profile photo,
Second - he didnt want to chat via the match website - rather get off on yahoo so no records kept.
Third - his profile was gone as fast as it was on the website - poof /couldnt pull up again.
Fourth - telling me he was getting out soon and looking for a love to settle down with.
Fifth - I work with military all day long and I can assure you they mostly do 4 hrs on and 4 hrs off. They are tired and arent on dating website trying to make a love connection.
Women beware! Ask for that photo with your name on a piece of paper and their face together...