I think it's a scam, need help, getting scared

I begun contacting this US soldier or is currently serving in Khartoum, Sudan, in late April through the chat site meetME.com. I had just been left by my husband of 21 years with my best friend so was really down and emotionally vulnerable. He contacted me then straightaway claimed his love for me. He said that for us to be able to continue our relationship and talk to one another over the emails, i have to send money via moneygram or Western Union (foolishly i did and i sent roughly $840) to do this registration for engagement and courtship. I had recieved an email from his "colonels" office saying that it is a new system created to improve the communications with US soldiers and whoever they are courting.

I have just recently contacted the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) help desk and the guy i was talking to said that there was no such form to their knowledge.

He has sent me photos of him with all the same name badges but im not sure if it is just fake pictures of the same guy. He sent me photos of his room, which had army jackets hanging up and it was a mess. (thought the army liked to have things kept neat and tidy) He sent me pictures of his 2 kids, one was 2 photos of his son (who i have also been talking to through yahoo) but the photos were of him posing with three girls bowling. I wouldnt think a high christian father like he said he was would allow his son to do that. he also sent me a pic of his daughter and a short video of her saying hello to him which lasted a couple of seconds.

The contacting continued then his 4 year old daughter in the US had gotten sick and he could not pay for the medical bills. I sent 300 dollars to help him out. After this he told me that he may take his daugher to India to find a doctor there to help with his daughter. He claimed that his daughter had sickle cell anaemia. he even sent me a pic of her in a hospital foyer with an IV drip and tube around her nose.

He had asked me to create chat profiles for his "friends" who are with him which i did for him. One such friend he gave me his details as Raymond Odierno and sent me a picture of him aswell to use for his profile. He then later changed the name to William Odierno and said that it was a mistake and his name wasnt Raymond. the only problem is that my daughter recognised the picture as Raymond. T. Odierno who is the Chief of Staff for the army and is married with children, so why would he need a chat site profile?

I had recieved a few emails from his office with one that was signed by the Chief of Staff, Peter. J. Schoomaker in which my daughter said that is wrong as he was the Chief of Staff back in 2003 to 2007.

I eventually broke off the relationship in which he then claimed that we now had to pay for termination fees for the registration of the engagment/courtship forms. I foolishly again sent him money (roughly $1900). He then said that the forms are now being processed. Then a week later he informed me that his Colonel has been redeployed to Canada and a new one has came in who states that we missed the oppurtunity with the approved termination forms and we now have to pay a further 3000 to them. The soldier then said that we should go halves and that he pays 1500 and i pay the other half plus send the care package which i had to register and pay 300 to be able to send it over.

I have been sent pictures of him being currently injured with a wound to the head but the picture showed his wound on the back of his head but the people in the background were not in any uniform. i have spoken to him twice over the phone with one time having a siren go off and him having to go due to the siren being a call out to go fight or serve, whatever. I didnt hear very many people running though only a few voices and footsteps in the background.

I have been told by the AKO to cease all contact which i have been doing so and he now has been sending me emails titled like "I'm not worried, you should be" or "Be careful" and in the emails saying that i have been ignoring him and that i should reply immediately and i should be careful and that he has given me a time limit to reply.

Just last night he tried to call my phone which was turned off and he left a voicemail message which i could barely understand but he was saying that Baby, i dont know why you are not replying, blah blah blah (couldnt understand him) valamuse valamuse ( probably not the correct spelling, but sound it out). The thing is that he claims he is from Boston but his voice does not sound American at all and sound foreign. My daughter believes it sounds more like an African voice and not American.

Please help as i am not sure what to do and he is beginning to scare me and my 2 girls as we dont have much money and want to know if this really is a scam. My daughter is especially scared as he has also got our home address.

The bad news is that it is 100% scam. You are not, and have never been, talking to an American soldier. You have been talking to an African man who is using photos he stole of an American soldier off the internet, and photos of children he also took from the internet. He doesn't know anyone in any of the photos. Unfortunately, the money you lost is gone and there is no way to retrieve it.


For future reference: In a real relationship with a soldier:
1) You would NOT request anything for the soldier. The US military is a closed organization with a defined chain of command, and an online relationship has NO part in it.
2) You would not pay for anything. There is no charge for leave; soldiers do not have to buy satellite phones, and there is no such thing as registration for engagement and courtship, let alone fees for it! Those are all scammer inventions.
3) You would not be receiving messages from the soldier's superior officers, and certainly not from Generals. These people have busy schedules and extensive duties--but they don't include ANY kind of correspondence with women their direct reports are "dating" or "engaged to."
4) The children of soldiers get medical benefits from the military. They don't need you to send money. And they certainly wouldn't be shipping their children off to another country for medical treatment.
5) soldiers who are single parents are required to provide care plans for their children that address how all major issues will be handled in their absence. Nowhere on that care plan will you see "I'll ask for money from a random woman I met online." They HAVE to plan for emergencies, period.


The good news is that he is NOT coming to see you. He is not coming anywhere near you, and his threats are nothing more than bluster to try to get more money from you. You can (and should) ignore him completely, and not worry about any threats. He is a cowardly thief who hides behind fake names and a computer. He knows that chances of him getting arrested and punished for his crime are very low. Chances are he doesn't have a visa to come to the US--but if he did come to the US, there would be a record of his travel, his passport would be reviewed, and he would be caught on various cameras at the airport and beyond. If he showed up at your home, he would be very visible, and he would be arrested. He knows that, and it is a risk he is not going to take.

Thank you so much for the reply Dotti, I also forgot to mention that i am an Australian. Also i forgot to say that he asked me quite forcefully to create a new chat account with an Australian chat site so that he can meet other Australian women. I put my foot down and said no. So the main thing for me to do is just to continue ignoring him or do i delete all his contacts. I was just confused as he was sending me pictures of him, friends, kids and him injured, some pics though did look professionally done and at the beginning of our contact he asked me how much i knew about the US army which looking at it now i believe he was just checking to see if he could feed me lies like the one with the current Chief of Staff Raymond. T. Odierno and other emails from his "Colonel" and the signature from Peter. J. Schoomaker who was Chief of Staff back in 2003-2007.

Thank you for your reply again, his threats and demanding that i contact him just scare me and my daughters, plus it doesnt help that he tries to call my mobile from a private number which i now ignore or private calls on my mobile.

I guess I could have paid attention to your location!

But the exact same scenario holds true for travel to Australia--it's not going to happen.

You might want to check with your cellphone company to see if it is possible to block calls from specific countries--if you can it will help you a lot.

In the end, he will stop once he concludes that he is NOT going to get any more money, but if you can get him completely blocked, he will reach that conclusion sooner.

Wished it were hello under happier circumstances L.
You may also be interested in a previous post of viewtopic.php?f=2&t=72137
Sad to say the first sentence of your (above) post simply screamed scam. Sorry to hear you've had your time wasted by the fraudulent liar.
re: not sure what to do and he is beginning to scare me and my 2 girls as we dont have much money and want to know if this really is a scam. My daughter is especially scared as he has also got our home address
You need not be worried and no reason for you to be scared.
Scammers ask for addresses etcetera to make the scam sound more believable and to put the target at ease before the scam is discovered. I too have given a scam syndicate all my personal details several years ago and have had no adverse effects happened and do not expect any.
In regards to the scammer calling your mobile, can you go to the phone settings and block certain numbers yourself? You should be able to go Settings/ security, then select call barring service. If not, simply visit your local phone shop and they may help? Perhaps block incoming calls from overseas. But allow numbers you know and trust. You could always change it back after.
The grubby old scammer is simply trying to put the frighteners on you. There really is no need to become scared or too concerned. Just get yourself off that damned so called internet dating site - they are a waste of bloody time!

Thank you so much for all your support and answers. It has made us all feel so much better. I had made i seperate, new email account to talk to him through and was wondering if i should deactivate it or leave it. Thankfully i only gave him my mobile number so i can easily fix that with blocking all overseas as you had suggested.

It may be a hello through these circumstances but it's a hello none the less so HELLO back to you Jolly_roger

I have unfortunately a small little niggle at the back of my mind which always questions, but what if he is a real person? By the sounds of what you are all saying i will do my absolute best to ignore those feelings. It was funny as i remembered that his apparent "daughters" birthday was on the 6th of July and he sent me no reminders or said anything about her birthday, hmm suspicous much, thought someone would remember his sick daughters birthday and mention it. He had mentioned his "sons" when that came around on June the 15th but that was because i remebered the date.

I should of listened to my daughter when she became suspicious as she didnt think that it would cost money to talk to a soldier through emails. Plus the money i had sent i was given a third party address where a "sergeant" picked up the payment.

Thank you all again, glad to see that there are still people who know how to be nice on the internet and i am NEVER going anywhere near a chat site ever again.

Cheers to you all from Down under

I was just looking back through my old emails from him way back in the beginning, and i found some info that i thought i might share.

He said that he was a sergeant major (he had sent a pic of "him" and another guy posing infront of the military police dogs sign with his name on it) and gave me an AKO number but im not sure if this is real or not or just a fake number and picture of whoevers identity he has used to authenticate himself. Then later on he said that he now is a Captain with a different number given to me for that one.

I didnt think that they could change ranks like that?

You are correct L, it does not work that way. One is not a Sergeant Major and then suddenly becomes a Captain. It only happens in the fairytale world of a scammers imagination. Maybe it was like a scam syndicate whereby different members were writing and they got their story muddled up? It's quite possible. Scammers use pics of real service people to make the scam more believable. If you drop the image/s into tineye, it's possible a result may be found?

Sargeant Major is an enlisted rank, Captain is a commissioned rank. That's a very significant change and there is a whole process and very specific circumstances required to make that change. He wouldn't just suddenly change ranks.


If you can post the name and email addresses this scammer used (that means all email addresses used in this scam, as they are all fakes) and the first email or two he sent you (just remove your name/email address), it will help others to avoid being scammed. It will also likely allow us to show you some other things that will help to put your mind at ease, and if he is using the same bogus identity on other women, they may find this and come forward as well.

You can post photos by following the link in my signature line, or if you want, you can email them to me in the address below (remove the spaces) and I can post them. As JR mentioned, searching them in tineye or google might lead you to their source.

You know that the person isn't anything to do with the US army.

You know that he is a criminal and a liar, cheat and thief.

His only interest is for you to believe his lies so that he can exploit you and steal your money.

He cannot and will not hurt you, unless you allow him to, as he is a professional online internet scammer.

Further contact with him will only allow him to harm you more.

Thank you everyone again this all has made me and my daughters feel so much better knowing all this information. There were just some things that made him seem so real and that is what made me think the questions but what if he is a real soldier, but with what you had said about the ranks and switching between the two. He said he was the seageant major of police dogs and sent me photos of him working with the attack dogs. Pretty convincing right but now my mind is at ease knowing this scam and i shall continue to ignore him.

Question if you delete/deactivate an email account, when someone will try to email that address will it say that it is non existing?

The play is how long until he gives up on trying to make contact with me?

If you delete an email address, mail sent to it will bounce. But you don't need to do that. Just ignore everything he sends you. You may be able to filter his emails to trash.

He may come back from a different address, claiming to be the FBI and saying that failing to pay for the soldier's medical bills is a crime for which you will be prosecuted. Ignore that too.

He may also try to come at you with a recovery scam, in which he poses as an investigator or someone from law enforcement who can supposedly get your money back. This is just another scam and another attempt to get your money.

RE: Dogs--if he referred to them as "police dogs," he also gave himself away there.

In many countries, military dogs are referred to as police dogs. In the US military, they are referred to as Military Working Dogs. NO American soldier who deals with dogs in his work would ever mix up this terminology. But of course the scammer is not American, so he doesn't understand this.

I want to reinforce what other members have written.

What you're dealing with is undoubtedly a scam of vicious proportions, playing on the goodness of your heart. These pieces of s*** know exactly what to say to women in your situation and that is why this scam is particularly nasty. It leaves you not only financially, but also emotionally ruined.

Members of any military in the world do not have time to leisurely chat with women online, nor do their commanding officers write e-mails from free e-mail providers.

Hey all, I have not heard anything from him in a couple of days but this morning i recieved this following email:

You know there is a device to know if someone is reading your mail. You have failed to reply me. I guess you are testing what i can do?
I have mailed you a couple of times and you can't tell me you havent been reading or dont have time to reply. I guess the bottom line is 'you think i can't do anything'?
Whoever told you not to answer and behave this have gone by this wrong. I will reach your daughters on facebook, your place of work. An hear what they have to say. If later find out you are doing this on purpose. Removed (BW) i promise you , you won't like what i will do.
I knew you will behave like this , so i made some moves before you . I told you not to behave like this but you turned deaf ears.
What ever i do now , know that is not my fault and it is your as you have failed to reply after i warned you. .

1"


He answers his emails with the number 1.

Dotti he has never called the dogs "police dogs" but what worries my daughters most is that he DOES have a facebook profile with one photo for his pofile which he had sent me.
Plus the threat about contacting my work, i had told him many times that i do not have a job. Plus the time at which he sent the email is wrong as he NEVER used to send them at the time he did no matter what?

Please is this a usual, standard threat that others have recieved just like it. The making moves before me and saying what he does next has now made me fearful again.

Also the emails I would recieve from his Colonel would always be addressed as the email address:

[email protected]

I have also recieved information that I should send all information about the care package I was going to send him to the address:

[email protected]

I am not sure what you mean by these "free email addresses"

I had first attempted to send the care package before and I recieved none of the above information to contact before I send it. Last time it was just send an email to his Colonels office then send the package away. I was to send it through EMS or fedEx. Luckily it failed and the package came back. In the care package he asked for toiletries and other things including an iPad.