Military personnel generals, lieutenants U.S. ARMY

I have learned that some American generals from U.S. army is being misused for various romances and lottery and other on facebook and yahoo, not to mention skype.
Will I ever find out where the right profile exists if I only know his fake profile?
It would be a relief to be able to warn those poor people whose identity is being misused ....

Chances are you will not find a real profile, and for good reason.

African scammers have been stealing and using photos of American military personnel for a few years now. The US military is well aware of this, and has issued several warnings. Scammers have saved copies of the published photos, and the real owners cannot do anything about those saved copies.

The vast majority of higher level military officers are well aware that their photos are being used. Many have been located and contacted by victims. Unfortunately, some have also been harassed (or had their families harassed) by victims who just weren't able to understand or accept that the real person was not involved in the scam, or who tried to transfer their feelings from the scammer to the real person in the photo.

As a result of the abuse and the position they have been put in, many of the real people will not have visible public profiles. If they do participate in social networking sites like facebook, they will often not share anything with people do not know. They do this for two reasons: to prevent scammers from stealing more photos; and to prevent invasion of their own privacy by victims or well-meaning friends and family members.

hi! Please help me regarding with this situation.

Last, July 4,2012 ; a man named "BRYAN JAMES" added me as a friend in my Facebook.. He also leave a message : "Am a man of good gesture very loving and caring... am new online it was my friend that introduce me to come over and meet responsible lady online, He met his new wife here and they are living happily together in the United State. I was frustrated by my ex wife and I almost lost my life.
MY ex wife left me with her daughter and ran off then tribulations starts I have been alone for 5years and I decided that am not going to marry again but I believe life still need to go on since am still alive and healthy..... I have lots to say when I meet the woman of my own Am man of good faith and I believe that is what has been helping me.
It will be the best to let me have your email address for further discussion and probably email you some of my recent pictures, I will love to get to know you more."

Then, by July 8,2012.. we chat in FB. He said that he is a US Army, he is assigned in SUdan. But He lived in Portland,Oregon,USA. until, he was telling me, if i can marry him.. the following day, we chat thru YM.. i ask him that we do video call chat, but he said to me, videocall is not allowed for security reasons because he is in the camp... then He said, if i really want to see Him, he will go here in my place and he instructed me that i will do leave application for him and send to the given email address: [email protected]
he said that, he will make the draft letter and i will send to their office.. THis is the Draft letter he made:
"I am (my complete name) here by applying for the casual leave for col Bryan James of Retirement
UN/US ARMY 009/16770/UNAMIL
I shall take all the charges as my responsibility because i want to have constant conversation with him as I am he's future wife.
I will be grateful if you can grant my application.
Thanks for your consideration.
Yours Faithful. Honey please send this letter through this Email [email protected] is our office mail address thanks for your cooperation."

WHen i received the letter, my mind was puzzled and have doubts. He always asking me if i already send the letter,,.i told him that "i did not send the letter because i dont like of the statement saying "I shall take all the charges as my responsibility..." .i told him that "what if something will happen to you, so i am reliable for everything?"" so thats the reason why i refuse to send the letter.. then second, i also ask him, "why is it that i will be the one to send a leave application letter in your behalf..that im not hte employee of US Army.. " Third,i told him that i only send the letter if it will revise/// \
Still, i revise the letter and i send it to the said email address..

Last night, i received an email for the response of the leave application for Col. Bryan James"..

United States Armed Forces
Attention: Ms. Jaquielou B. Balite,

Request for the final Retirement of (Lt Col) Bryan James from the camp fill out of the request form attachment and return it back. Will be process as soon as you comply with the instructions ,The Retirement application fee is $1900,Your Documents will be forwarded to United Nation Peace keeping operation center situated in ABUJA NIGERIA,(LOC1 S4 OFFICE), for Urgent attention.

Make use of the below payment information to transfer the application fee through western union money transfer OR money gramm option.
WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER OR MONEY GRAMM OPTION
Name of Receiver:.... James Smith
City:.........................Abuja
country:...................Nigeria
Text Question:..........Blue
Answer:.................... white
Amount of:...............$1,900
Send the scanned copy of the slip receipt confirmation from western union to us immidiately you done with the payment, Your application for the license final Retirement of (Lt Col) Bryan James UNA MIL base in southern Darfur, Sudan will be discussed and considered after meeting the above instructions.
NOTE: The cost of this certificate amount is refundable to the applicant to the official arrival of (Lt Col) Bryan James UNA MIL. UNA-MIL authorities assume responsibility for the processing and release all rights in two weeks on arrival at their destination.
Acknowledged receipt of this email
General Robert.A.West
Department of the US ARMY Vacation Division.
US Army Command
Peacekeeping Operations Center

When i received this email, Im wondering why it is said "FINAL RETIREMENT"??? and I was surprised bec. there is a fee of $1900. Just lately, i chat again with Him (Bryan james) , i told him please explain to me about your leave application.. He replied to me [b]""What they are trying to let you understand is do you want me to be there with you for short a period or do you want to process my retirement
Have you make the payment honey?" I was surprised when he was asking me if i already make the payment... so, i ask him again " I will be the one to make the payment??'" he replied:: "Yeah honey but later they will refund it to us back with my leave bonous and my travel allowance will be pay into your account as my future wife".. By his statement::: i already have doubts.. so i search and google his name.. and this is where i lead to your website.. and i also read the forums..(bubble50) and its the same situation with me..
at the same time,I am still chatting with mr, bryan james.. Then, i told him, that he just fool me.. he shuld go and never email me again.. then he was angry,,, and telling me :: "You are coursing me because of $950 our office said you should pay:"[/b]

I'm sorry the scammer has wasted your time apyangjacky. You would be doing yourself a huge favour by ceasing all contact with immedite effect and you should just walk away from it. The scammer has no feelings for you whatsoever. The only thing the trickster likes is the money it's trying to fleece from you. The crook became upset because you started asking questions and you did not follow the script. Scammers hate it when the target starts asking questions! The armyatwarzone.com address will be a fake set up by the scammer to fool people. Thanks to you, others will now find your report and are less likely to get their fingers burnt.

The errors in his English are typical of West African scammers. Military leave does not work the way he describes, and neither the military nor real businesses ask for money by Western Union or MoneyGram.

Please post the full headers of email you sent to armyatwarzone.com and the reply. I'd like to get the domain shut down; as it's an email-only domain, that's what's needed to prove that it's being used for scam. The message you sent doesn't have Received: headers, but it does have a Message-Id, which will be useful.

WOW! This has never happened to me before. ( and like the rest of you I was falling for this guy) I was on a dating site answering some emails when I got an IM...No picture. I responded by telling him I don't chat without a pic...He said his pic was pending and that if I had a Yahoo acct, he could send me one there. He introduced himself as "BRIAN JAMES", US Army. in Afganistan....Looking for the love of his life as he was soon coming home to CA to retire after serving his country for 20 years. I didn't have a yahoo acct, so I had him send a picture to another email address and this guy was very attractive in a rouged way, with a killer body!...army fatigues and all. Said it was much easier if I opened a yahoo acct to IM....so I did. I wanted to know as much about him as i could. He told me his parents both died when he was 22....That he had a sister who got married and moved to Italy.....
He started asking for things after a couple days...we only chatted once a day and maybe a couple emails. The minute I thought he was going in a sexual direction, I told him not to go there, because I wouldn't have anything to do with that online...that we would have to meet and see where it goes....BUT, He did ask for pictures of me anyway, AND he wanted to see pics of my kids.....(That brought up a red flag)...He would say weird things like "How are MY kids today?".....He told me he loved kids and that he took care of a lot of kids there.....
As time and days go on, I'm thinking, maybe this guy is sincere because there is no sex involved what so ever in our conversations.... Then he asks what I could do to make his last days there a little happier...What could I do to make him smile....So I asked him what he wanted....He said a care package....(Fair enough, That's a good thing, right?) I asked him what he wanted in it....he requested, cookies, candy, v-neck t-shirts, white and black, a WATCH,.....and anything else my heart desires....
A few days earlier, he was saying that he wanted to get on the commander's good side because he had lost his SAMSUNG GALLAXY....and he wanted to be sent home with the first batch of soldiers and giving his commander this gift would make him have a better chance!!!
Anyway, I may be a hopeless romantic, but I'm not that stupid....(although, now I wonder).. There was another person involved in this ...(the Carrier)...the guy who had just happened to be in CA picking up care packages....I packed a good one with lots of candy, cookies, stuffed animals and toy cars (for the refugee kids)...a Santa hat 2 packages of Calvin Kline v-neck shirts, socks, some deoderant..... (of course, no watch or Samsung note)...Whew! I was given the email of this carrier and I was told to let him know when it was ready because he was leaving the next couple of days....After the day that he was supposed to pick it up (and I gave him my #) he emails me and says he had an emergancy and had to leave early...that I would have to go to the post office and mail it. and he gave me a P.O. Box address in Ghana....
Meanwhile, Brian James who informed me that he is SGT. Brian James, is a good actor, because he got all pissed off that "FELIX AGYEMANG" the carrier man left without the care package....
But of course, this is all part of the plan..... He begs me to mail it....says it shouldn't cost much at all....that he want's to leave his name there and give stuff to the kids for XMAS......OK, so that got me soft.....so I spent over a $100 and mailed it....so I'm in for $200, between the contents and mailing...I had to fill out a customs form....
About a week later, I get an email from Felix saying that the care package had arrived, but there is a duty to be paid and of course he can't pay it.....he wanted me to wire him another $110..... Now I know this is like pennies to some of you.....but, it's Xmas time and I'm a single mom......
During this time, Brian is madly in love with me....tells me how I'm the chosen one and how he trusts me....He even goes so far as to tell me about a woman who took $10,000 from his account because he thought she was a good person and she needed his help....
This guy Brian is supposed to be coming home to CA Jan 2..... This guy even created a face Book acct to chat with me before i was able to open the Yahoo one.....I would love to find out who this pic really belongs to.... to let him know at least how he is being used while his life is on the line for those people and us.....very sad.
I told him I would not be sending any more $.....He was very sad about that...so sad that he became distant...especially when i started making reference to him not being "real"....There were many clues....#1. the way he wrote.....(not educated in the least)....his grammar, spelling, phrasing.....like that of a foreigner...when I asked him about it, he said it was just the terms they used there!!! #2. He didn't remember our previous conversations.....he would ask me the same questions.....#3. As soon as I started asking too many questions, he was all of the sudden tired and had to go!
There were many things that made him sound sincere as well....but not enough to keep me from investigating. He even wanted me to take a picture with Santa ! AND I DID!
I haven't heard from him in 3 days....I told him if he's real, he has my # and he can call when he gets back.
The thing that worries me, is my address is on the customs paper and they have my cell # and he saw pics of my family on face book....do I have to worry about any of this? Can I send u a picture of this soldier? I am ever so grateful for this site......Thank you

It can be tricky to break up a romance that really only exists in your mind. If you'd ever met the real scumbag you're dealing with, it wouldn't be a problem. The care package you spent your money and time preparing was merely the 'tester' and 'come on'. He wouldn't have bothered about it. It was the electronics goodies and eventually cash he was aiming for.

From that moment everything that happened would result in a bill or expense he'd expect you to pay, as if US soldiers don't get paid and expect their loved ones to act as their funding agent. It's daft when you think about it because a person they'd only just met online would be the last person they'd ask for money, especially if they were really trying to impress you. They have friends and colleagues and I'm sure they can get loans if needed.

Your contact details and photos won't be a risk other than that you're likely to get more scammers coming your way using contact information you have supplied and maybe the same one with a new identity. That's the way they work I'm sorry to say.

Thank you Terrance...at least I have some sort of closure and I can chalk this up as an experience to learn much from.....

At least the reports people make here mean that by posting their details on the forum, other people who Google can come here and find out what they've been doing and what they really are. That way you help save other victims and also make it more difficult for your scammer to operate.

It's not a lot of satisfaction, but it's some. What's happened to you financially and emotionally hurts but we've known others lose everything. A loss of $100,000 may be nothing to some and a $100 can be a tragedy to others. When some people have been hooked for a long time the emotional damage that can affect whole families can be worst of all.

I know, I consider myself very lucky....There isn't anything else we can do?

There is more than can be done, if you have time and the desire - helping, advising and educating others and/or, if you have the wish, baiting scammers which takes many different forms, but may not be your thing.

If you still use social sites you're likely to come across more scammers and you now know what to watch out for, and you'll get better at spotting them. Simply by posting their details here you'll be doing a service. If you do it on a regular basis it's best to use a made up identity. The threat from scammers is small, but if you upset them often enough and badly enough, they will threaten you, as baiters discover. I've received many inventive ones. With a family you may prefer just to advise others, which is more than enough.

The people who advise here aren't specially clever, they've just learned by experience and decided to do something about it, in whatever way they can.

There is more than can be done, if you have time and the desire - helping, advising and educating others and/or, if you have the wish, baiting scammers which takes many different forms, but may not be your thing.

If you still use social sites you're likely to come across more scammers and you now know what to watch out for, and you'll get better at spotting them. Simply by posting their details here you'll be doing a service. If you do it on a regular basis it's best to use a made up identity. The threat from scammers is small, but if you upset them often enough and badly enough, they will threaten you, as baiters discover. I've received many inventive ones. With a family you may prefer just to advise others, which is more than enough.

The people who advise here aren't specially clever, they've just learned by experience and decided to do something about it, in whatever way they can.

I have agree with you 100 %, whatever someone can do about this like informing or educating that is great. Strange but from different countries the scammers are working differently, the Nigerian scammers do it completly different from the asian scammers, this kind they even used their own pictures but they still get you if you don't know how and what they are doing they will just still get hurt. it is not always question of money but the pain, and that could be really bad and can take you a long time to heal. Some country like the Philippines if you don't know it , it is very dangerous to go there but the ladies no matter where she stay she will tell you, come on it is not dangerous here...Never beleive, read about the country where you are going before you go. If can can permit myself just some little advices...If only people can just listen to them it could save their butt or thei wallet or even their heart.

1) NEVER SEND MONEY TO SOMEONE YOU MET FROM THE NET AND NO MATTER THEIR SOB STORIES
2) NEVER CHAT WITH SOMEONE IF HE OR SHE DOESN'T HAVE A WEBCAM
And probably one of the most important
3) LISTEN TO YOU OWN INSIDE FEELING

I will come back about the asian scammers, the way they do it and all the lies they can make and all their sob stories...

I posted my story before 3 years ago to an other anti-scam site but someone said to me i should do it here also, more you tell people more it could help. But i don,t have all the papers any more, should i still post again, i still have a lots of informations like all the A.K.A she used and still use on some dating site, a lots of pictures etc..

You are doing a great job..

If there is enough information that we can follow up and confirm she is a scammer (e.g. still active under the same details, or the evidence is published and accessible) then go ahead and post the details used in a new topic in the romance scams section.. If it's not possible to confirm the name/email address tie to a scammer, the basic information can be posted (e.g. how the scam progressed, etc.) without publishing personal details like name, phone number, and email address used by the scammer.

As far as this goes, just to clarify for people reading :

2) NEVER CHAT WITH SOMEONE IF HE OR SHE DOESN'T HAVE A WEBCAM

It's a good point, but with one word of warning for readers: The rule does not work both ways.
-If someone is declaring their love for you, and still refuses to talk on webcam (or says he/she can't for some reason), or if they are pushing you to get on webcam without doing the same, it should be considered a very strong indicator of a scam.

BUT

-If you DO see webcam, you should NOT assume it means the person is real and safe. Webcam can be faked, and scammers are doing this more frequently. Plus, scammers in certain regions (for examples, scammers in Philippines) routinely use webcams.