Romance/leave permit scam?

Hello, My name is Brenda. About two months ago, I was contacted by man named Sgt Victor Campbell on facebook. He complimented me and told me how beautiful I was. We continued to write on facebook for about a week, then he suggested I get a yahoo messenger account to we can chat. I did and we began to chat online and write emails from yahoo. He claims to be in the US army in Pretoria, South Africa. After about a month and half of romancing me, sending me poems, he said he wants to come see me. But I must apply for a leave permit for him.Here is a copy of that email:
Below is the sample letter for you to fill and send to the Leave unit via email as instructed..
Let me know if you have any questions..

Love you ..



COL; John Stanley
LEAVE UNIT (PRETORIA)
SOUTH AFRICA.
[email protected]

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

My name is........... I am a citizen of the United States Of America . I reside at ( ................
I wish to apply for a " Leave Permit " on behalf of ' rank and Full names... ,who is currently serving in South Africa. I feel he needs a break now to relieve him of alot of Stress, which has build up in him in order to serve the country better in his duties.

I request you to kindly grant him the leave. I assure you that all protocol will be observed.


Thank You

Sincerely :
His email address is [email protected]. Please tell me if this is a scam or real. A friend of mine sent me your link after researching Army leave protocols. I am suspicious of this now, as I have read some stories on your website. Please help me!!
Thank you, Brenda

I'm very happy you asked. It is not genuine I'm afraid!
Please, please, please read the post viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6528
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12191 has very intersting reading too.

re: he said he wants to come see me. But I must apply for a leave permit for him.

That is another scammer lie and is totally false, as you will see when you look at the above threads.
I'm sorry to give bad news to you, but it's better you know the truth, because the scam artist certainly will only lie!

Welcome brndatresure and I'm very sorry you have come here under these circumstances. The links provided by jolly roger describe in some detail exactly why this is a scam, but the two main points are

1 - Military personnel must apply for their own leave, through official military procedures. Nobody else can do this for them.
2 - US military would never use a free email provider for any business. Although "representative.com" sounds official, this is a free email service just like yahoo, gmail, etc.

Please stop corresponding with this person immediately - it's all untrue I'm afraid, they are only after your money and will say anything to try and get it from you.