love scam

Hallo,

I almost sure that this is scam - just wanted to re-assure here. I was approached by a "woman" on okcupid. The correspondence was continued using e-mail.
"She" was writing from [email protected]

her mails requesting money (she pretended to be the US army soldier deployed in Syria):

"ok good i understand you want to meet me , can you write my colonel here for permission to go on leave so i can meet you"

"oh yes , you write him and tell him you want me to be with you in days but it will cost us some fund to do that .. i mean it will cost some money to do that"

"ok what you tell him is you are my man to be and that you want to see me fast in two days but it will cost u some money to get me my passcard because without the passcard i cant leave here and once you get it for me i will be able to leave .. "

"the pass card serves as permit for me to go out of the camp .. and its not always free if am getting out of camp on my own or on private move .. the colonel address is [email protected]... ask him how much it will cost you because i dont know how much .....will you write him now and my details are S2346SG Syria"

I contacted the colonel ([email protected]) and received the following e-mail (the heading of sender was: US ARMY TRANSIT DEPARTMENT) :

XXXXXXX,

Our sever detected activities from your email address requesting for leave for returning officer (S.Sgt. Ann Gilliam - S2346SG); You need to clearly state the name of the returning officer. Your email was screened and having undergone every security procedures, you've been added as a contact. Please note that subsequent mails might be encrypted and you'll have to contact the officer in question to receive the password in order to have access to reading the information on the mail. This is meant as a security precaution.

Spouse or family requesting for leave must be responsible for the purchasing of Leave pass for the returning officer. The pass serves as an exit permit for the returning officer for the leave period as requested for.

The statement is provided in compliance with the provision of the privacy act of 1974(PL97-606) US ARMY...............The purchase of Pass Card costs: 1,372GBP (One Thousand Three Hundred and Seventy Two Pounds Only), and such payments(s) must be made before the returning officer can be released on leave.

Leave Pass shall be issued within the next 24hrs, and returning officer will be able to leave base with 72hours of receiving the pass.


Best Regards,

Lt. Col. Peterson Schmidt
Mission Commander; trf100651a
US Army


PS: Find attached relevant document.

______________________________________________________________________

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:

This email may contain confidential security information that is legally privileged. This information is intended for the use of the named recipient(s). The authorized recipient of this information is prohibited from disclosing this information to any party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or action taken in reliance on the contents of this email is strictly prohibited. If you receive this e-mail message in error, please notify the sender immediately to arrange disposition of the information

There was pdf document attached with extraction of vacation policy signed by the same person: Peterson Schmidt


Later I was advised I should pay into the US Army's Laison officer's account as given below:

Account No: 31130658
Sort Code: 542154
Account Name: Ian Barnes
Natwest Bank


Can you please advise on that? And comment why the probable scammer does not ask to pay by WesternUnion or similar cash system and provides real account?

[AlanJones]

A definite scam - the military do not ask random people on the Internet to pay for leave for a soldier. Everything is done internally and the soldier earns leave for time served. The US military also do not use free email addresses (which is what hushmail.com is).

As to why they are using a bank account rather than Western Union, perhaps because they think it makes them look more legitimate.

Hi Ilyich23, glad you came here to scamwarners. The military scammers love to prey on the fact we civilians know little about what is required for their leave. They often come up with combinations of excuses and some of them leave us questioning while others sound plausible. Many will say they don't have access to their bank accounts or they want you to ask permission from their commanding officer, which sounds absurd but some people believe it. My guess is yours thinks giving the account will make it easy to believe them. Don't.
As you can tell by the language, the person isn't an American. And they love to send "official" looking paperwork or emails to add to their credibility and more "official" sounding people so you will also believe. Do not be fooled by this. I know I believed my scammer because some of the legal documents sent to me looked like they could be real and I didn't know any better.
Please make sure you stop contact with this person. They will try time and again to have you believe they are real. And the sole purpose to get money from you. Even if they say no, they don't want anything, they really do. It will just be a matter of time- some accident will happen, when they "come home" something will happen in customs. Remember- they are masterful liars.

I also recall that America has managed to get its own currency and banking system since gaining independence, so much so that the US military is unlikely to receive payments through a Nat West bank account in the UK and never in Pounds Sterling.

No government body would ever ask you to make a payment to them through the account of a private individual.

The scammer must have recruited a 'money mule' in the UK.

Thank you very much for responses.

Really I was confused by this UK bank account. Can you please explain what is "money mule" in this case?
It should be real person involved in the scam?

I was also sms-d from UK number. Does this mean they are located in the UK?

I also have many pictures of this "lady" but the standard check (google pictures) does not give any evidence. Can you please advise if it is possible to check where these pictures come from.

Thank you.

[AlanJones]

A money mule is someone that receives payments for a scammer and then forwards them on to them. Often they are victims of a scam themselves, but sometimes they are complicit.

Having a text from UK number means nothing - anyone can buy a UK Pay As You Go SIM and send it overseas. I have access to mobile phones from 2 different countries that I don't live in and can send text from both of them.

The pictures may well have been taken from a Social Media site that Google doesn't index. If you can post them here then Google will find them and it may help other victims avoid being scammed.

You can also use Tin Eye to check whether the pictures appear somewhere else. Be sure to fakemark the pictures. There's a way to do this on Upload Eater (http://scamwarners.com), or you can use the Gimp.

Apart from anything else there isn't any official US troop deployment in Syria and, even if there were US military personnel there unofficially, she'd be in very serious trouble advertising the fact on the internet.

To my knowledge there are no Western military forces in Syria and they'd only attract terrorist attack from any one of a number of groups operating in the country. It's amazing how ignorant scammers are and they seem to prefer to locate their fake characters in war zones for dramatic effect.

Just to clarify/expand on the mule question:

A mule is esentially a money launderer. He or she receives stolen money and/or merchandise purchased with stolen money and then forwards it to the next party, who may the criminal himself, or another link in the chain. In this particular case, the scammer convinces you to send money to the mule, and the mule picks up/ accepts the money and forwards it to the scammer or an accomplice.

Often they are victims of a scam themselves, but sometimes they are complicit.

It is very common for scammers to use victims as mules. There are 2 common scenarios that account for the majority of mules:
1) job scam: The scammer posts a bogus ad for a job. The job may have many titles, including (but not limited to) payment processer, personal assistant, manager, secret shopper. Ultimately, no matter what the title, the victim is told that he is hired, and that his responsibility is to receive money, either in his bank account or via a money transfer service. For many of these "jobs," a bizarre explanation is given as to why the company or individual can't just receive the money directly (the receiver can't access the money directly, international banking restrictions, saving money on taxes.) Eastern European cybercriminal gangs often recruit mules on a large scale, and may have plausible looking company websites to support these "jobs." The gangs may actually "rent out" mules to other criminals. If the "job" is a "mystery shopper" the victim is told that he is evaluating a money transfer system, and that he is to receive and forward money in order to evaluate the money transfer service.
2) Another romance scam. While the scammer is playing a female solder with you, he is likely running several other scams under a variety of (male and female) identities. He may be using a different story with another victim, for example, he may claim to be an independent contractor overseas who owns his business. While he is requesting leave money from you, he may be talling another victim that he has had a problem with his business, and he meeds some quick cash. He may tell her that he is collecting some debts that he is owed for previous work, and he just needs her to forward it for him (again with some bizarre explanation as to why he can't just receive it directly.) Again, the explanation of why she needs to forward the money may vary, but ultimately it is enough to convince a hooked victim (who thinks she is in a relationship, and wants to believe him anyway) that what she is doing is perfectly legal and aboveboard.
Note that in all cases the mule may be either sex, but we do see females targeted more with romance scams, primarily because the typical male scammer character storyline simply works better.

In either case, the victim typically does not realize that he/she is dealing with stolen money. You will see a lot of mule scams posted on this forum, especially in the job scams section.

Knowing mules are fully aware that they are receiving stolen money, but they simply don't care. Sometimes a victim turns into a knowing mule, other times, the mule was aware from day one. Essentially a knowing mule is transferring the money in exchange for a flat fee or a percentage of the stolen money. He/she is both legally and ethically an accomplice to the scammers. Many of these mules will eventually be arrested for money laundering, fraud, and other crimes.

Glad you realized it was a scam and came here...stay safe

Thank you for all your answers. They are very helpful and I appreciate this.

Let me ask you another question. I know the first thing if you realise you deal with scammer is to stop any communication with him. And I did this. But the story continued. Maybe you have experience in it and can advise. If not it could be worth to share with new technics used by scammers.

I was approached by the "lady" again. Not getting money from me directly she proposed me to meet with some guy live and take money from him for her. Again just to pay for "her" vacation. Do you know what this could mean? Are they trying to use me as mule?

Are they trying to use me as mule?

Yep. They have decided that if you aren't going to send them your own money, at leas they can try to use you to help them steal from others.

It's nothing you want to get mixed up in. Just block them and move on.