I think I am another scam victim

my "situation" has almost reached the point of being amusing.

my friend (who is a professional photographer) could not find any retouches to the photos he sent the other evening though she also warned how easily date stamps can be altered/added.

my soldier boy told me last night that the major is planning to send him to a civilian iraqi prison. a situation even in my naiviety find very difficult to believe.

He is telling you civilian prison because he will continue to email you from jail trying to get you to send money to him. Good that you recognize that he is trying to get to your money.

If a scammer modified the background, changed parts of a photo, or superimposed an image on the photo, the edits would be easier to pick up. Unfortunately, adding a date stamp to a photo literally requires nothing more than typing text on the photo in a believable font. Use a photo software that adds a top layer, merge the layers, and you are done in about a minute.The edit would in fact be nearly undetectable, even to an experienced editor's eye.

Only in the imagination of a scammer would the US military send an American soldier to an Iraqi prison...

The US military doesn't even place soldiers in civilian American prisons! For a petty crime, an American soldier would be placed in the stockade--for a more severe, a US military prison.

It's very clear that you are not in contact with an American soldier, and that story is too outlandish for any American. My bet is still on African scammer--they have the total lack of understanding of the US military required to think that a story like that has any chance of being plausible.

It would really help if you would post some of the scammer's emails here. If you aren't comfortable with that at this point, but would like to confirm or deny that this is indeed an African romance scammer, you can also forward some of those emails and photos to the email address in my signature.

just tried the trackeronline web site but it was off no use to me. told me his email address did not have a valid ip address but it told me the same about my email address.

have tried the 10 photos he/she/it has sent me on tineye but none of them came up in any of the databases.

finally worked out how to get his ip address and it is ghana. so told him/her not to contact me again otherwise I will get in touch with the australian federal police. have also emailed the dating site in which initial contact was made and yahoo messenger alerting them.

This is good news Moonlady, congratulations on finding how to read the headers. It is a very useful skill. Thank you for helping to expose this scammer.

Sadly, if he gets kicked off of the site you reported him on, he will either set up a different profile or move to a different site. Scammers don't quit easily, sadly.

update and honestly I am finding this whole situation amusing now.

since I sent him an email other day outing him, he has been telling me that I am wrong and he will prove it by going online (yahoo messenger) and using web cam. so far that has not happened but he claims today is the day. mind you he also wants me to agree to send money to ghana when he uses the web cam. seems to think sunday evening in sydney with a public holiday tomorrow I am going to somehow be able to find a post office open to transfer the money at LOL. and no I am not sending money (honestly I have in the past), but am now a much wiser person.

will be interesting to see if he does come online and if he tries to use excuses not to turn on web cam. will update when I know the latest act in this farce LOL

moonlady, please remember that this is a criminal that you are corresponding with. It is not wise to continue contact with him, now that you realise that he is a scammer. Please cease writing to him, and block him on Messenger. You may like to change your email address also, so that he will no longer be able to reach you with his lies and clever persuasions.

some interesting news. my "soldier boy" just told me he can change the ip address for his emails. and he did change it for one email to originating in germany.

however he can offer no explanation for his ip address showing ghana when he claims to be in iraq.

and I did not tell him I was checking the ip address, he worked that out himself.

as for ceasing contact with him, will speak to telstra this week and find out if it is possible to change email addresses.

would appreciate if someone could explain a few things to me because I am still a bit naive when it comes to the world of scammers.

firstly does the american army ever freeze soldiers banks accounts? he claimed the major did this because the men were spending too much time in local bars, which I thought weird in a muslim country. but that was at the beginning of this experience before I knew about scammers.

are the soldiers allowed to web cam when on tours of duty in iraq? he now claims security at the base camp forbids him from using web cam, even though he can use email, internet and messenger, and has sent me photos of himself at the camp.

what is the normal punishment meted out to soldiers who lose uniforms?

Moonlady,

I am sorry to have to do this, but I am going to be quite blunt here.

You are doing exactly what this scammer wants, allowing yourself to be manipulated by him. You are not controlling the situation, he is, because he has kept you listening to him. You need to cut off all contact with this scammer NOW! I know you are looking into changing emails, but until then, ignore his emails, and block him from your messenger. If he calls you on the phone, block or refuse to answer his calls. If you accidentally answer, hang up. As long as you are listening to the crap he is feeding you, he is still scamming you. Because you have sent him money, you are a good maga (their word for victim) and he is not going to let go easily.

No, the US army does not freeze soldiers' bank accounts for spending money the wrong way. The US army does not regulate morality, period--if the soldiers have access to bars and want to spend every penny ther, the army does not care, as long as they show up for duty sober and on time. If they don't show up for duty on time, or show up drunk, their bank accounts still won't be frozen--they will face disciplinary action. This is another bizarre fairy tale spun by a scammer who doesn't know or care how the army works. The only reason a soldier's bank account would be frozen is in the case of criminal activity--and the major wouldn't do that, it would go through the military's legal system. Even in this case it is only allowable under certain circumstances.

There are places where webcam use is restricted, but generally in those places, soldiers can't use yahoo or other public chat programs either--they are only allowed to chat through the army's chat system (which is free but for security reasons is generally restricted to family members, so if he really were in a high-security area, he would never have been able to start chatting with you in the first place). If he is somewhere he can use chat, chances are he can use webcam. The reality is, the scammer can't get on webcam because he is not the person in the photos, period.

If he lost a uniform that wasn't due for replacement (the US military has a standard schedule for replacement of uniforms) he would have to buy a new one. He might face minor disciplinary action if he does not have it when he needs it for a specific function, but he's certainly not going to prison for it.

As for the IP thing--he knows you are checking out his story, and invariably the subject of IP will come up, so he is trying to feed you a story to explain it.

There is absolutely no doubt that this is an African scammer. Like all scammers, he will continue to hang on and say anything, tell any lie he can think of, just for the chance to steal more money.

thanks for clearing up some niggles that I have had.

the australian federal police do not handle scam queries but referred me to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commision and have just completed their online form. I will keep the email so if in the future anybody else in Australia falls victim to a scammer wants to report it the info is there to share with them.

I know this will possibly sound pathetic but before finding this web site I did look on a few others and some of the people said they had been threatened on the phone and in person. I live alone (with my 2 dogs) and do not want to amger this "person" enough that he/she/it will send a family member or friend living in NSW to my door with nasty intentions.

Hello moonlady, I can understand your concern abut being paid a visit. That is unlikely as you would then know that the scammer is not who is in the picture, and the family member is not like the person in the picture.

I want to reiterate what Dotti said above. Stop all contact with this scammer. Whether you realize it or not, you are believing the reality the scammer has been painting for you. It is a fantasy. He hopes that if he can keep you talking to him in any way, and you will give in to what he wants. More of your money.

You know that he is lying to you. He may have been able to make his IP look like he is in Germany, but I'll bet that he has not kept that up. He is trying to trick you into sending money. Do you really want to be in a "relationship" with someone who is lying to you?

I strongly encourage you to listen to Dotti and stop all communication with this scammer!

all communication has now ceased. at the moment I am reclaiming my life. am sure you will all understand what I mean.