Soldier in Syria Scam?

by swerrNJ Thu Feb 22, 2018 12:52 pm

Has anyone heard of this would-be scammer:

MSgt. Cage Herrera

Met on Instagram. His screen name: herreracage007
Some of his bio includes: 0331 USMC MS E-8
He hasn't asked for actual money, but did ask for an iTunes card for his birthday which was supposedly the other day (says DOB is 02/20/1980). I refused. He has asked for my home address (not given to him) in order to mail me a gift (flower...). I would only give a work address which is a PO Box. He came back to say FedEx can't ship from there to here to a PO Box. That's not true. I looked it up.

Supposedly doesn't have military email, but sent me an APO/FPO address I could write to him at. I can't tell if this is legit so I wrote a brief letter and will wait to see if it gets returned to me. Address he gave me (can anyone confirm?):

APO/FPO AMEMB, Unit 70200 Box (D), APO AE 09892-0200

Any insight is appreciated.

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Thu Feb 22, 2018 12:37 pm

Re: Soldier in Syria Scam?

by PadmeSkywalker Thu Feb 22, 2018 3:29 pm

The instagram is a typical scammer profile. No US soldier is going to ask you to send an iTunes gift card and a real soldier would have a military email address. Scammers request iTunes cards because they are easy to use or sell for cash and do not require them to give you an actual name to send it to (like they would if asking you to send money via a bank account). The photo you posted belongs to a soldier whose photos have been stolen for scams before. Based on the other photos I've seen of him online, I doubt he was anywhere near Afghanistan (or at least he wasn't taking selfies while there).

Your best bet is to block this person entirely.