Online Dating Scammers Use Military IDs

It never ceases to amaze me how easily we can be drawn into the things we're told by strangers on the Internet. Just this week I had a case of a vulnerable teen who fell in love with a girl who he met through an online site. The lies she spun were amazing, and she caused the boy much angst. He feared she was fighting for her life in a hospital somewhere in Europe, after being stabbed by some thugs.

None of it was true however. It took close to a day and half of some pretty heavy searching to uncover enough untruth to confront her. Without the use of photo recognition software, we might still be guessing at the truth. It took some work, but finally I was able to determine that the photos she'd posted on Facebook – allegedly of her brother – were actually the lead singer of a punk band in London.

Not long ago a close friend decided to try Match.com as an avenue back into the dating pool. It didn't take long before she received an email from a gentleman who claimed to be working on an offshore drilling rig in Oregon. He had ties to her home state and said he'd be moving back within a month or two. The photograph he posted was of a tall, handsome, rugged man gently stroking his dog.

She fell for it and immediately emailed back. It wasn't until a few days had passed and she received no reply that she consulted me. One look at the email she had received from "Harry" and I knew he was an impostor. The grammar and spelling told me the truth. The fact that he didn't even use her name was also telling. The email was addressed to "sweetheart."

Eventually she heard from him again. Despite the fact that he claimed to hold a master's degree in engineering from a school in London, he could barely put together a sentence. My friend so wanted to believe that he was real, that it took some convincing that he was likely some scammer from a foreign country. Telltale signs included the poor English, the fact that he wanted to jump immediately to instant messaging (she declined, but did email him directly), the story about working on an oil rig (a very common, overused claim by scammers), and that he never used her name or responded to any of her direct questions (a sign that he was cutting and pasting the same message to others).

One of the emails she sent him bounced back. A quick read of the error message indicated that his Yahoo account had been stalled due to heavy use. He was likely sending multiple messages out to women across the country. Scammers will quickly suggest moving to instant messaging or their direct email because it's easier, and quicker, to proceed with the scam outside of the dating site.

According to a recent article in The Huffington Post, there is a new rash of scammers claiming to be U.S. military. Read more here.