I am a deployed soldier getting scammed.

Well I am not getting scammed, but they are using my photos and my information. Lets just say I found out when my girlfriend of 2 years was wondering what the heck I was doing on a dating website and lets just say she wasnt very happy. And What can I say? Its my photos and information about me on the dating website so its looking pretty bad for me right now. Ive been deployed for 10 months and this is the last kind of bs I need on my plate right now

Same thing happened to another guy in my platoon about a week ago and they were using his photos from last deployment.

The website is a knock off of www.plentyoffish.com. It is called http://www.fish-dating.com and I checked into it a little and its a "instant website" a website that is pre platformed up to be whatever you want. The website is http://www.instantsitez.com I dont think a major dating site is going to be using that to create a website.

Here is the profile they made of me. http://www.fish-dating.com/profile/1467265

This just goes to show you that not only are they ruining there victims lifes, they are also ruining the lives of people that they stole the information from. Because now I have alot of explaining to do and its looking pretty bad for me.

Welcome to ScamWarners TheRealDanny, your story is sad because as you have found out, scammers injure people in multiple ways.

I am going to ask our site killers to look at the fish-dating.com site. From my brief investigation, it has been online for less than a year. It may be a site set up by a scammer group to catch victims and or steal identity information.

I respect and applaud you for your service. Sadly, scammers will steal photos form any open site online. Social networking is a huge target.

Will you post up the email address the scammer is using to pretend to be you. The link requires log in and I prefer not to do that especially since it will show the connection to ScamWarners if I click the link.

Let us know how this works out for you. If you would like to PM me with more details, please feel free.

By posting up information it can help others who might be tricked by the scammer using your information. I encourage you to seek support within your unit command. Also we will try to support you as a victim.

Hi TheRealDanny!
I'm really sorry that you have been victimized in this way.
Thanks for serving your country and I hope that you come home safely.

Hey thanks for the quick replys, the more I look at that site the more I can see how much stuff they steal from plentyoffish.com, they used alot of there old information from before they redid plentyoffish.com. plus I have been looking at alot of the users and alot of them are not from the united states, I even saw some people from Pakistan and India on there.

I have tried to message him but I only found this last night when my Girlfriend asked me why I was looking for other woman and the person has not messaged me back and I doubt he will because I pretty much was pissed off and told him to take the pictures and information down. It doesnt appear that I can get a email from him but later tonight if I have time I will create a account of a female and see what information I can draw out of the person. 2 months from coming home and I might not have a girlfriend to come home to and she thinks im a horrible person. I hate scammers!

Thanks Bubbles and Helen Halper! Ill add more information if I can draw it out if the person.

Welcome Danny,

I would also recommend pointing your girlfriend to the informational topic on scammers posing as US soldiers. Reading some of that may help her to better understand what is going on.

Thanks Dotti!, Ill send her a link to the page and hopefully that will clear some things up for her.

So I created a profile in http://www.fish-dating.com and got a female friends picture and put it up there along with some false information. Within 10 minutes of bieng online I got a instant message from a man. Here is the transcript.
(I will BOLD the parts that I think are noteworthy.

The top of the conversation is cut off but he asked me what I like to do.
I am LOOKIN4LOVE

Lookin4Love: well
Lookin4Love: i love the out doors
Lookin4Love: tell me about you
benjamin191: like what?
Lookin4Love: well what you like to do, what you like in a girl
Lookin4Love: hehe im pretty new to this site and i havent really talked to many people, but i like going to the beach, i like my red sports car and i like spending money lol
Lookin4Love: typical girl stuff
benjamin191: i like you
Lookin4Love:
Lookin4Love: where are you from hun
benjamin191: i like playing soccer going out with my friends
benjamin191: iam in new jersey
Lookin4Love: awesome! im actually headed up to jersey in 2 weekends! what part are you at?
Lookin4Love: i have family there that wants me to visit
benjamin191: but my parents have some ophanage in africa so they sent me there
Lookin4Love: Oh so you are in Africa now?
benjamin191: yea
Lookin4Love: Oh thats awesome! Ive always wanted to go to Africa, see some wild animals
benjamin191: so give ur personal contact
benjamin191: then i will invite u to africa
benjamin191: sweety are u der

His phone number is benjamin191: +2330540796567


This site is a 100% gaurantee spawning ground for scammers. I cant believe how disgusting that place is. I still have not recieved a email back from the profile someone made of me.

Unfortunately, you will find that can happen even with the "legitimate" dating sites.

Some scammers literally sit online waiting for new targets to sign up--they want to catch new users as soon as they create accounts. The longer you have been on the dating sites, the more likely you are to be aware of scams, so the scammers are trying to (a) beat the other scammers to the new user and (b) get the new user hooked into their story before they have a chance to learn about scammers and how they work. They will often try to get their targets to close their accounts for the same reason.

At times, joining a dating site can be like jumping into a shark pool--the scammers are all swimming around waiting for new prey.

That is so true, its funny though, because I have not met ONE person on that site that isnt from Africa, but they all come up with different stories as to why there profiles say they are in the united states.

Danny,

After looking at the site more I believe it is set up by and for scammers. The site is less than a year old and it makes the following claims:

With over 10 million members it’s easy to see why Fish Dating is the premier online dating website for finding love.

Fish Dating is responsible for creating 800,000 relationships per year proving that it IS possible to find love online.

It has quickly become a leader in the internet dating industry because of its advanced features and matching systems, and most of all, because it’s 100% FREE – there are no charges, ever.

Never before has it been easier to connect single men and single women in an environment where serious singles can flirt, date, fall in love, and create meaningful long lasting relationships.

Some features offered by Fish Dating include free personality tests, a free instant messenger service and private chat, weekly matches sent to your email, thousands of local personal ads, advanced search options, singles events and parties organized by Fish Dating members in your area, and much more! In addition, Fish Dating is an international dating website serving single men and single women worldwide.

Whether you’re seeking Christian or Catholic singles, Jewish singles, Senior dating, Black dating, or Asian dating, Fish Dating has millions of on line personals for members to browse through, and potentially find a date.

The bolding is in the original from the site.

Thank you for posting what happened to you here. Hopefully your girlfriend will see what has happened to you.

Please be careful what kind of personal information you post on the internet. Scammers definitely troll social networking sites to find information they can use to scam victims. We had someone else tell how their friend's photos were used by a scammer. Sadly there are victims on both ends.

I agree, I hate scammers too.

Yeah I found that very suspicious to bubbles, claims like that are usually not true.

So I found my profile on ANOTHER dating website,.

http://www.profilenetwork.net/dating/members.php?task=Save&gender=&age_from=18&age_to=100&city=&state=&photo_only=1&username=dannythedonk
My girlfriend took it upon herself to investigate and apparantly I am on a few more as well. This website is called http://www.profilenetwork.net and is obviously a scam website as well. How many are there? I want to do anything i can to get these websites off the internet! I hate knowing my pictures are bieng thrown around like that.

Well the hits just keep in coming, I am also on www.mckayandrews.com, notice its also made by the same people that made fish-dating.com...

a link to a fake profile of me http://www.mckayandrews.com/dating/members.php?task=Save&gender=&age_from=18&age_to=100&city=&state=&country=US&photo_only=1&username=dannythedonk

so i just found a dating site with a profile created for my boyfriend. needless to say i was furious. i was about to end the relationship over it, but he was so sincere in telling me he had no idea how it came to exist. luckily for us, i decided to research it a bit. i am sickened to find what is happening. especially to military personnel. he is former marines. is there anything we can do to combat things like this? it is absolutely disgusting. i'm so sorry to hear about what you are going through danny. hopefully she will see that this is a sick game that is claiming many innocent victims. good luck to you.

Welcome to ScamWarners brandee. I am sorry this happened to you and your boyfriend. More and more people are finding that their pictures are being used by scammers. One of the things people can do is be careful what they post on the internet, particularly when it is open to all viewers.

Scammers often troll through social networking sites looking for pictures they can use to scam. Exposing the scam and fraud is pretty much all that can be done. Once something is on the internet, it is out "forever" as there is no way to retrieve photos.

Be careful what you post on the internet. It is not just your friends who will see it, or who will share it. I am glad you were able to verify what your boyfriend told you. I wonder how many relationships are breaking up each day because of these kinds of situations.

This is another cost to what scammers do.

You may be able to get the pictures removed from the site they are posted on, though one of the sites Danny found is a site which sells "profiles" to populate dating web sites. This is insidious and destructive in so many ways. I am glad it was a happier ending for you and your BF.

Hi Danny
I just want to say I am so sorry you have had to go through this, and I hope it all works out for you.
I am just coming to terms with having been scammed for the last 4 months by a guy I thought was working for the army.
he sent me several photo's, and we talked every day, and I quickly fell for him, and he had me hooked,
he managed to scam me out of some money and a phone before I had to admit that something was not right,
I now know the the guy in the photo's I have is a victim too.. and not who i am talking to at all
its hard, and the emotional pain is hard to deal with.
just wanted to say i understand and my heart goes out to you.
all the best
sheila

Welcome to ScamWarners SHEILA, great to see you here.

We invite and encourage you to post information about the scammers you have encountered. It will help others too.