41 Comments Add your own

• 1. Pat  |  June 7th, 2009 at 10:22 am

  i have been a victim to this scammer saying they are a captain in the american army but have not lost as much as the other lady but we need to make people aware alot more than before about these scammers and what they can do to us vunerable ladies .

• 2. Louise  |  June 19th, 2009 at 8:33 am

  I would like to know more about these scams. I am worried about my mother who is chatting/emailing with a man who claims to be a high rank american soldier, now in iraq, and who has a son, who she also has been chatting with. So far they dont want any money but I got a gut feeling that this is a scam.

  I would love it if someone could post more info on how they do these scams, with examples if you can, so I can show my mom, she will not believe me otherwise..

• 3. Shimrit  |  June 19th, 2009 at 9:06 am

  Different scammers work differently but the most common one seems to be asking for money so that they can use some kind of special phone service to contact the women from the field. See my related post about the Iraq soldier scam. Tell your mother to be wary of any attempts to get money out of her, though. Scammers are always coming up with different stories to get money out of kind, generous people and sometimes they spend a few months “working” the victim before making a move. If this guy is indeed a scammer as you suspect, sooner or later he or his son will ask for money. It could be anything - phone service, sudden operation needing funds, a car accident involving them or a close family member, etc.

  I don’t know what dating site she is on, obviously, but if she is on a reputable dating site that has a customer service team in place, then you should advise her to contact the customer service team if the guy ever asks for money and ask whether they think it’s genuine. Dating site companies don’t like admitting they have scammers dating on their sites, but they can instantly check whether someone has been corresponding with more than one woman with the same sob story (which is what scammers usually do).
  Customer service teams generally remove the scammer and, often, would warn the person affected (though sometimes just giving generic advice such as “never send money to anyone”, which you should view as a sign the guy was indeed a scammer).

  Unfortunately, a lot of scammers try to get people off the dating site ASAP so there is no record of their “work”. In such a case it might be harder to prove. Also, some dating sites, especially the free ones, have very poor moderation in place, meaning you cannot rely on them for support.

  The key element here is the request for money. If the guy asks for money, he is a scammer, or at the very least, a gold digger to be avoided.

• 4. C  |  July 16th, 2009 at 11:10 pm

  All a woman (or man) needs to keep in mind is when a virtual stranger asks you for money he/she only sees you as a walking wallet. No person who is legitimately interested in a relationship with another would ask for money so soon - they’d be worried about what that person would think and that they might blow it with them. The only time you should give/lend monies is when you’re in an actual committed relationship.

• 5. Sarah  |  August 30th, 2009 at 9:29 am

  I hope you publish this , i was e-mail a guy who procalimed to be a Sgt Jeff Miller from the us army , he wanted me to send him money so he could come home on voccational leave but lucky i know the military and they told me to keep well away , there is a lot of this at the moment , always Iraq , always American soldiers , always pictures , then the sting . Beware and they lady whose mum was e-mailing the american ? ….they are rednecks apparently the americans are aware but dont seem to be doing a thing . If any ohne has heard from Sgt Miller beware !

• 6. Christina  |  September 5th, 2009 at 11:39 am

  I want to know where to report them, I always know immediately. I have been contacted by one. And I chatting to him…even made him call me, cause I don’t call men…He has african accent, told me his name was Major Lindo, I am sarcastic person….hehehe hard to hid the contempt in my voice…Asked him is that your first name or rank…No one introduces themselves, but their rank…even has picture of soldier (not major) in uniform..I have forwarded to army email…but want to send the police to his house…tells me he station at Washington DC no base and the number is for Georgia.

  Oh btw, wants to take me to the world cup….hehehe

  And where can I report this person, he hasnt asked me for money yet (and pretends to have loads himself) Cant wait until he does, will pretend I am going too…hehehehe

• 7. Sarah  |  September 21st, 2009 at 7:37 pm

  I also got scammed by SGT Jeff Miller.

• 8. Latest Victim  |  September 29th, 2009 at 2:43 pm

  Just spent thousands of hard-earned dollars on this scam, supposedly on a leave request for a widowed officer, with a young son, serving in Afghanistan on a tour of duty. Just wanted to warn all those out there that the moment you are asked to spend any money whatsoever, run!! Forget the charming comments, poems, raw emotional output, and endless appeals to your heart, etc. They have been honing their acts for quite awhile. Let them finish their tour of duty; they signed up for it.

• 9. Penny  |  October 23rd, 2009 at 8:28 pm

  I am feeling a little confused as I am involved with an American soldier who is in Afghanistan and he asked me to pay the money for his leave but i did not know about this until i got the forms to sign. I then told him i couldnt pay that money which he was upset about first of all then he was fine and we have continued contact. Does anyone know if the phone company “TL5 CONNECTION” exists? I have had correspondences from them but don’t know what to think?

• 10. Lisa  |  October 27th, 2009 at 1:37 am

  Sarah please contact me regarding sgt jeff miller please put name in subject line (stcmom11@aol.com)

• 11. Alison  |  November 1st, 2009 at 9:07 am

  I am being scammed by a Jeff Miller at this very moment also but luckily realised from the start as i saw the warning in Take A Break magazine, i am just playing him at the moment and have no intention of sending money , gifts or anything else he has requested.

• 12. Lisa  |  November 9th, 2009 at 1:20 am

  I am chatting with a widowed soldier serving in Afghanistan, he has 2 children living now alone in the States. Hard to believe. He did not aska for money yet.

• 13. Janet  |  November 10th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

  The Sgt. Jeff Miller hoax continues. Received an email from “him” today. You can always tell the liars and cheaters. They are so ignorant they show their hand immediately. Aside from blocking them from contact with you on a site, is there somewhere to turn their sorry sick butts in?

• 14. Alison  |  December 1st, 2009 at 8:43 pm

  Hi Janet , I really wish there was , but no one seems very interested.
  We just need to get the warning out there as they try every trick in the book to make you feel sorry for them with the aim of catching vulnerable women.
  Alison

• 15. Marge  |  December 13th, 2009 at 4:25 am

  A friend of mine joined facebook and got to know Sgt. John Russel, a US soldier based in Iraq. From what I know she had given all her savings to him (stupidly). Anyone else happen to know this person?

• 16. Lorraine Walker  |  December 13th, 2009 at 10:09 am

  no this is very real unfortunately

• 17. shirly  |  December 14th, 2009 at 4:15 pm

  i was talking to a sgt mark miller, for a while saying he was a amercian in iraq had a daughter aaged 11 and lost his wife through child birth.. he sent me pics of him which were red hot but ther was some think about the way he spoked in his emails they did not sound amercian, and then he ask me to get a militry phone so we could talk, but i would not saying that too near to xmans and ca nnot afford it, then emails stopped dead si i think he was a scammer also i have photos is there any where we can put the photos up to ward other people to stear clear.

  shirls

• 18. Alison  |  January 13th, 2010 at 10:27 pm

  I am more than happy to forward my pics of this scammer if anyone wishes to email me alison2_99@yahoo.com

• 19. jen  |  January 16th, 2010 at 5:53 pm

  my sis was scammed also at the beg of 2010. she me phoned on the thurs and asked if we could lend her 4 thou pounds!we said no, it sounded like a scam..but she was adamant said it wasnt , she had his picture (told her anyone can send a picture of another person.she had his commanders name/e mail/all this paperwork .. etc etc. longstory short she sent the money by bank transfer ..(well my mom sent it)she had to get a loan. they wouldnt listen to us.we live in the uk.and if i ever get my hands on him, well ??? we contacted american embassy in london to see if they could give any advice..not alot they could to trace it..bet he had a lovely xmas…i hope others learn from some of the things being talked about on here..jenn

• 20. Margaret R  |  January 17th, 2010 at 10:29 pm

  I have been chatting to American soldier to work out what the scam is. He is having a ‘diplomat’ deliver me a parcel tomorrow (4.7m US Dollars - anyone like a share). He has NOT asked for money. Flight is on time. What is the scam? Only contact details he has is an old PAYG Mobile. Urgent help!
  Margaret

• 21. Shimrit  |  January 18th, 2010 at 10:01 am

  Margaret: How long have you been chatting to him? Sooner or later the requests for money do come, but they have been getting better at working people slowly.

• 22. Margaret R  |  January 18th, 2010 at 10:24 pm

  Hi 8 months since first contact but had 4 or 5 months without contact. Today the courier (Diplomat)asked for £2500 to get the package out of Customs or Diplomatic something. I rang police and after speaking to 7 or 8 one confirmed they would arrest him if I went down to London (from Gtr Manchester) and handed him the money. Also had to report it first to local police station. Decided to block messenger and e-mails. Sim taken out of mobile and my fingers crossed. Margaret

• 23. Kate  |  January 27th, 2010 at 6:25 pm

  Hello All, I had a similar experience talking to a Sgt. Benson Martins on a dating site. He wanted me to join yahoo to do chatting (in the controlroom when the general wasn’t there!!!). He was dead keen to marry me straight away and wanted me to help him desert the army and fill some leave forms in. And he was even more keen to speak on the phone to me. I have a sim-only phone anyway, so I thought it won’t do any harm to give him my number. I received a sms today from the alleged “US ARMY Military Telephone Service”. That chat would have cost me 115.40 whatever currency, it didn’t specify. I couldn’t resist going online again to chat to my brave soldier today and confronted the scammers. They kind of admitted that they have tried to convince me.
  Unfortunately there is no way to get our hands onto these people. There should be some way of tracing them, but they are very clever. So please, all of you out there, listen to your inner voice and if something sounds strange or slightly odd, report it to this site, which I think is great.
  Fortunately the scammer didn’t scam any money out of me and he had to work really hard to no avail.
  I have saved the picture of the gorgeous American serviceman I have been sent though! Never give too much personal information out to somebody you don’t know. Don’t give them your bank or credit card details. And never send them money for leave or anything else.

  Kate

• 24. stephen  |  February 4th, 2010 at 12:26 am

  Hi, I have got a 61 year old friend called Jane, she has falled for this guy who calls himself ‘kelly’ says he is in the US army serving in Irag. He claims to have a 11 year old son. Jane has not seen a moving picture of either of them. She started this online ‘relationship’ almost a year ago. She has already sent £5,000 to a diplomatt recieve a parcel from kelly last August, which ofcourse did not arrive becasue the diplomatt was in an accident with internal bleeding. Kelly also claims to own a 5 bed house in Alaska and a farm in Ghana. I have just found out that Jane foolishly sends him £50.00 a week , as part of her share of the farm when he gets married to her! He has been promising to visit the UK to get married since June 2009, but never appeared. He has told her all kinds of stories such as, a bomb has gone off and left him in hospital in New York. The planes could not fly to UK due to the ice on the run way. He cannot send her any money because his bank and branch is in Alaska! But he claims he loves her and won’t let her down “honey”. Jane is still convinced he is genuine!! I do not want to see her financially ruined and heart broken. But she won’t listen. If anyone knows of this cheater or have heard similar tales please get in touch. By the way kelly says the parcel is still at Heathrow Airport, but cannot be claimed until he signs for it. He has totally brainwashed her and before long it could be Jane in hospital with a mental breakdown. Please help as I don’t want to see other vulnerable people abused like this. Thanks stephen

• 25. Jeanette  |  February 4th, 2010 at 3:53 am

  Ts2 line scam/military dating scam

  This scam(er) uses many different names.
  Jeffery Perez Connell
  Mack James
  Perez Connell,
  Jeffery Connell
  Connell Perez
  Connell Jeffery
  Ricky Gibbs,
  Ricky D. Gibbs

  Please do not send any money to any of these guy on this list. They are the same person AND they will take what ever they can get from you! PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY to them!

• 26. Shimrit  |  February 4th, 2010 at 9:51 am

  Hi Stephen.

  Unfortunately, there is not much anyone can do while your friend is so brainwashed by this guy. You could try going to the police, but you would probably need copies of the emails they exchanged. Maybe someone in the fraud department can help. I assume they are no longer communicating on the dating site where they met? If you can get her to have even the smallest doubt that this man is genuine, you may be able to get her to contact her dating site and ask about this guy. They will usually have access to his account so should be able to tell her he’s dodgy by looking at his behaviour pattern on the site. Usually, though, dating site companies don’t like to admit they have scammers dating on their site, so they may just remove his account from there without confirming or denying in any other way.

  Have you tried showing her this page and the related pages on my site? It’s full of similar stories of women who got conned or got away before being conned.

• 27. Sarah  |  February 7th, 2010 at 2:43 pm

  I have been speaking to a so called US soldier in Iraq - Sgt. Johnson Miller. I was doubtful from the first contact as he was clearly copying stuff off the internet and trying to pass off song lyrics as his own thoughts. The best bit was he had idea about the time difference between the UK and Iraq! When i challenged him he went all sulky and claimed I had hurt HIS feelings. I kept him interested because I wanted to see how far he would go. When he told me he had been awarded $5 million dollars that he wanted me to look after, I told him I had reported him to the dating site - Parship and would do all i could to tell others of his scam. Surprise surprise he disappeared immediately.

• 28. Barbara  |  February 8th, 2010 at 10:51 am

  I was contacted by a David Burgess who said he was a Colnel in thw US Armey, the photos he sent had been tampered with (spotted by my police offer son) my whole family started to delve into who the photos where, They where not of a David Burgess, they where of a very famous US General called John Abizaid, so if any one is chstting with a David Burgess, check out the photo

• 29. Chez  |  February 10th, 2010 at 2:58 pm

  Hi I am right in the middle of what I beleive is now a scam. Similar story US military man staioned in Afghanistan, widowed, 2 kids, wife killed in car crash. He says he is German and a Chief Warrant Office and Orthopedic surgeon. Sent a package via Diplomat, it got to Ghana, requests came for money to help to clear it - which I stupidly sent. the package then went to London and got stopped again. Another request for money, which I sent. Next thing call to say he is on route to Glasow with said package. I went to meet him and he supposedly did not get through customs as when the package was scanned it contained a huge amount of US dollars. It got sent back. The guy I have been chatting to on IM asked me to finance the required documents to get it out of customs in London and I said no. I told him to do it himself when he came back to the UK on 30th Jan. He came back and the next thing he is on route to Ghana to get the documents ( dont know why he had to go there ) he arrives back in the UK last Saturday and has a meeting with the customs folks and lo & behold yet more money is needed and he asks me to help and I say I cannot. Up until yesterday -9th Feb - he was on the IM, sending txt messages and calling me. Now nothing. For the last 24hrs all has gone silent and the mobile is supposedly switched of. No idea what has gone on but would seem like its a major and complicated scam involving a supposed officer, a supposed diplomat and a supposed shipping company……I dont know how to check out the ID he sent me - its a US military ID, nor do I know how to check out his address in the UK. I do have lots of pics of him so if anyone would like to see them please email me at chezis21@gmail.com

• 30. Chez  |  February 11th, 2010 at 1:48 pm

  Update….well turns out he is genunine. Got his package out of London himself got his doucments and paid the money into the bank and now he is heading here to see me this weekend to pay me back the money I already sent.

  Who would have thought that there are actualy genuine people doing this!

• 31. Shimrit  |  February 11th, 2010 at 3:08 pm

  Chez - I’m still not convinced… Be careful.

• 32. chez  |  February 12th, 2010 at 7:39 pm

  Hi Shimrit, I am now pretty certain that he is genuine. He had to pay out 1000s to get his documents for his package and the shipping company helped him to do it. He is flying to Glasgow tomorrow morning to meet me and to pay me what I laid out…..will post an update soon.

• 33. gillian  |  February 16th, 2010 at 2:30 pm

  have been chatted to by a colonel david burgess (sam) of usa army for two weeks. He asked for money for his suitcase which is in Accra airport - i was told he was retiring end of month to london. I have loads of pictures to prove this.didnt realise it till today that its a scam. i sent no money. First time on the dating internet and could be the last.!!!!

• 34. gillian  |  February 16th, 2010 at 2:36 pm

  it should read after colonel david burgess name (scam) not `sam` - sorry typing error. thanks.

• 35. chez  |  February 20th, 2010 at 5:31 am

  Here is an update to my story. The man I met online is who he says he is and is not a scammer. I met him last weekend as planned and he is genuine and real. He has paid me back the money and we are now seeing each other. I am so relieved that things have turned out so positive and realise that I am one of the lucky ones when I read the hundreds of stories on the net of woman and men been scammed.

• 36. Renee  |  February 21st, 2010 at 7:21 pm

  hi,

  I’m currently in a scam at the moment with an american solider who is based in Iraq. His name is

  Sgt Douglas Milner

  He is chasing me for 50 pounds to start off with to establish phone communication with him.

  This is a copy of the email I received from his solicitor

  Hello Renee,

  I arrived safely in Africa, Nigeria.

  PAYMENT DETAIL (Western union transfer)

  Name: Blessing Owolabi
  State: Lagos
  Country: Nigeria
  Zip Code
  State: 01
  Country: 234
  Security Question: To establish contact with.
  Security Answer: Douglas

  Please send the mtcn number details after payment as to confirm your payment and your telephone number details as to complete all necessary processing within 24hours.

  Best regards.

  Yours Faithfully,

  Barrister Roberts Collins ESQ.

  This person is starting to become demanding as he has being asking for money for a while and I have not paid up. His emails are crap for someones who’s first language is English.

  He also sends me poems - but when you search you can find them on the internet.

  Just wanted to share… please be careful!

  Renee

• 37. myriam  |  February 25th, 2010 at 2:22 pm

  Please, if someone is asking any money or any other sort of thing (like diplomats and parcels) RUN!!! tell them you will take legal advice before you say anything and tell them tou´ll return…They will disappear..It hurts but only for a while…

• 38. Kendra  |  March 8th, 2010 at 4:21 am

  I have also been contacted by:
  Sgt. Benson Martins,

  I started to notice something was strange when his answers werent matching his previous statements. Then he told me a sad story about being a windower and having a 13 year old daughter. It never got to the point where he asked for money b/c I have a friend in army intel—and I had her run the name. Of course it didn’t show anything….and neither did googling his name. I lucked onto this site, and I am so glad that I did.
  I’m kind of scared b/c he knows my name and my state. I didn’t realize my yahoo IM posted my full name until he typed it earlier. I hope he can not get into my accounts. I’ll be watching things just in case and waring the other women on the site.

• 39. Kendra  |  March 8th, 2010 at 4:24 am

  Oh and this is the e-mail that he asked me to e-mail asking or his leave. He asked me to include my adress, name, occupation, work adress, and let him know everything b/c he would need it for the interview to request leave.
  I was lucky enough to notice the strange ending and contacted my friend.
  usarmydeptofdefense@usa.com

  Military e-mails and websites don’t end in usa.com

• 40. Shimrit  |  March 8th, 2010 at 9:14 am

  Kendra, I’m glad you found my site and also that the alarm bells went off in your heard to go looking and asking questions in the first place!
  Thank you for sharing this useful information with us.

  It might be worth contacting your bank and telling them to watch out for unusual activity on the account. They may be able to help you with more security measure on your accounts.

• 41. christine  |  March 9th, 2010 at 7:45 pm

  hi i have been chatting to a jerry moore a colonel in afgan for 6 weeks, i felt so good with his emails and endless love. but then came the luggage was stuck in Accra and could i send 5500 pound and he will give to me when he came home as he due to retire. i fell broken inside. but this is the only time i was happy i was skint and had not money to help. i went back on the date line yesterday for the first time and was not on there 5 min before a Colonel Robert Burgess was chatting to me. same story widowed with a son, i wish we could stop this so no more people get hurt.

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