SAT Phone Scam

I started talking a Staff Sergeant Mark Jemison that stated he was in the Army. He was suppose to be in Afganistan for the next year. He actually sent me several gifts. A build a bear teddy bear in an officer uniform, a necklace from Tiffany's and some perfume. He immediately started professing his love to me. Told me we would be marry etc etc. I told him I didnt want to get married but he continue to call me his wife and one day he would be my husband. He said he was a widow. Wife died in car accident and he had a daughter. He also stated he grew up in France. His best friend went back there with his daughter. Then he started talking about a SAT phone that we could get so we can talk and not worry if the satellite was working. But because of terrorist he didnt have access to his accounts in Afganistan. There are some small clues that didn't add up. He said we were 8.0 hours difference. One day when I was waiting for him to come on to chat I looked up Afganistan and it stated there was a 11.5 hour time difference. I question him about it an he said it was different regions. When he started talking about the SAT phone and he wanted me to pay for it I told him I mention it to my niece who is an officer in the Army and is part of JAG (truthfully) he said she was trying to corrupt our relationship and how could I listen to her over my husband. How she made me change etc etc. I told him I would be believe family over someone I have been talking to a month always. She had my best interest. Just wondering if this is a scam. It sounds like it. But why would he send me gifts? Here are some of his emails


how are you doing xxx, i hope your day went well.i have been checking for you on messenger on and on and hoping to meet you online but when i was finally able to, your messenger was on idle like probably you are away from the computer.i will check for you online later in the day as well.
hope to talk to you soon.
mark jemison


how are you feeling today, hope fine.
i am very thankful to god and probably chemistry.com for letting us know each other because if not we wont be talking today or know about each other.i want to be that person in your life that will stand by you all day, be there for you in good and hard time, share dreams and passions with, building a home full of happiness, respect and love.
we might have some miles between us, but to me that is of no importance as what i believe is much important is that trust and believe in each other, and letting our mind and thinkings be the same, as the distance is just for a matter of time, and to me i think this is like a training we both will be going through, as you too might have to travel one day, and you will relax and know your man is a man of virtue and respect and will hold for you get back as we will have been able to understand ourselves and learn to control our feelings and have a happy home full of love together .you understand what am saying right.
i am so happy for you coming into my life and i will always make sure you are happy all time, and feel that special value of a lovely lady you truely are.
yours lovely,
mark jemison

Please post the email addresses; other potential victims may be searching for the address. If he's in the US military, he has an address ending in ".mil". If he claims to be in the US military and not have access to his accounts, he's lying.

If you're on the west coast of North America, his claimed time zone is consistent with West Africa, approximately Nigeria. I am in a state on the east coast, in time zone -5 (-4 in summer). The west coast is in -8 (-7 in summer). Time zone 0 (UTC) passes through the Bight of Benin; Nigeria is east of Benin. Afghanistan is in time zone +4:30.

Please drop this scammer. Don't tell him you mentioned him to your niece, don't tell him you posted here, just cut off communication completely. Anyone who professes love way too soon is probably a scammer.

I already mention him to my niece so its too late for that. I thought he might be a scammer. Thank you for verifying. He goes by Mark Jemison and his email is [email protected]. I have pictures as well - should I post?

He also wanted me to contact [email protected] to set up the SAT phone.

Hi deanloro and I'm thankful you became suspicious.
The forum is littered with these satellite phone type scams I'm dismayed to say. Indeed if you scroll to the top of this page to the search function and type the word satellite, many results will show on the screen. Also the @accountant address the scammer told you is simply a free email address from mail.com any one could use. It has nothing to do with the U.S military.

So glad I got suspicious and found this site. Thank you for all your help.

I'm glad you realize it is a scam now.
I did want to address this part, though:

A build a bear teddy bear in an officer uniform, a necklace from Tiffany's and some perfume. He immediately started professing his love to me.But why would he send me gifts?

Some scammers do send gifts (like everything else, the gift is actually part of the script--and teddy bears are at the top of the list of the items they send.) They do this to make the relationship seem more real, and to make you more likely to pay. If he starts asking you to spend money, and he hasn't spent any, you are more likely to see the relationship as fake, and refuse to pay...but if he has (supposedly) spent money on you, you are more likely to see this as a two-way relationship, and feel like you need to contribute money too.

In reality, though, the scammer spent less than 5 dollars, because he used an innocent person's credit card to buy those gifts. Some scammers will manage to get credit card numbers from other victims, while others simply buy them from a scammer who runs a phishing site, usually at a cost of 2 to 5 dollars per card. So he is actually stealing from others while he is trying to steal from you.

So I have stolen items? Thats horrible - what do I do?

Hello,

There not a lot you can do now. If you happened to have the packing slips with order numbers you could call the merchants and let them know you think the merchandise was purchased with stollen credit cards for them to look in to it. To be honest though they are probably not going to do anything about because depending on how they collected the credit card information they would be the ones holding the bag. Hopefully the persons whos credit card it was found the fraudulent charges and reported them.

Justin

I am so glad I finally found this site. The same guy with the same picture claiming to be Staff Sergeant Mark Jemison contacted me via FB. He claimed that he must have found me because I have U.S. Army in my profile. I am in fact retired medically from the Army. He fed me the same line that he was looking for a wife and wanted to be my husband. He also claimed to have lost his wife over 5yrs ago in an accident, however he did not say how, he just said he was ready to move on and that he had a daughter Jenny who is in Paris with his best friend Jon. This guy also claims to be in Afganistan and will complete his deployment in December. He suggested that he would come here to Oregon and meet me we could then fly to Paris to pick up his daughter unless Jon had returned to California then we could go there. He claims to have purchased a home in Carmichael California in 2009. The problem I have had is I can not find a record of him anywhere in California. I have not asked him yet but he also has the University of Oregon on his FB profile, I did study there but I believe that he is not truthful about that either. He also sent me a photo of a young girl who he claims is his daughter. He uses the same email that he used with you. I have not been sent gifts or anything, but I find it strange that he knows I'm in Oregon but has to ask me what time it is there. He also got mad when I asked him where he was at , he said I already told you in my email that I am on my last deployment in Afganistan. What he did not realize was that he did not tell me he must have been referring to someone else he was talking too. So I need to know what to do. Should I post the pictures that he sent me, and then stop contact. I dont want anyone else to be hurt by him.

Yes, please post the pictures (fakemarked of course) and the emails, and stop contact.

Hi medic6771 re: <The problem I have had is I can not find a record of him anywhere in California.>
And I'll bet you will not find a record of 'him' in California because the scam artist has never been there!

re: <He also got mad when I asked him where he was at , he said I already told you in my email that I am on my last deployment in Afganistan.>
These con artists hate the fact when intended targets start asking questions. The scammers like to keep their targets on the script that is carefully put in place to follow. This scammer became mad because it's afraid you are going to start asking questions it cannot and will not answer.

He gave me the same con. Since i am in California and know lots of people I was able to check records and did not find that he ever owned a home in California. I also have plenty of family in the military. My brother who is a major in the marines was in Afganistan. I told Mark this and he alled me a liar that my brother couldnt possibly be there cause he hd the records of who omes in and out. I did stop contact with him. He recently emailed m and said I was mean for saying he was a scam artist. I am sure he is back in business. Luckily I never sent money to him.