If you think real people don’t get caught in dating scams, think again. Lovefraud heard from a woman who thought she met the soldier pictured above online. Actually, she met a group of scammers from Ghana. Here’s what she wrote:
According to a USAA Fraud Investigator 15 women scattered across the US (I was one of them) were recently scammed by a group from Ghana. I am not trying to get my money back, etc. In fact, I am being forced to file for bankruptcy.
What I am trying to do is help the Active Duty Army Master Sergeant who is in ALL the pictures these scammers still use! I saw a recent one posted under two i had added to one scam website. In fact, it could have been his recent retirement party. I just feel horrible that they continue to steal this same soldier’s pictures and want to know how I can get on some sites so these scammers can not CONTINUE.
Patsy,
sorry to hear of your encounter with the spath.
That is a great question: What to do with all these emotions?
Emotions are there to help us learn.
Take the time to examine each emotion. Find out what it is and where it comes from. What is that emotion trying to tell you?
You may find that you have something to learn from this experience. Embrace it as a difficult but important learning tool.
Betrayal is such a hard thing. And it is complicated. Skylar is right, there are lessons to be learned from your emotions. It is still very painful, though.
Allowing yourself to feel your feelings instead of suppressing them, can be helpful.
Nobody ever intends for something like this to happen to them.
Why me? is a very natural question and feeling. If you keep at it, the answers will come.
No matter what others might say, it is not foolish or stupid to allow yourself to love someone. There is no shame in it. Try to avoid people who make you feel bad or ashamed for finding yourself in this situation.
It will take awhile to process. Allow yourself the necessary time. It might take longer than you think, but it does get better. Hang in there.
And…. you have lots of company. Lots of people have gone through what you are experiencing. Sad, huh?
patsy: all my troubles started while MINE was in Kuwait, then on
to Iraq and THEN Afghanistan. I can completely relate to you.
All VERY verifiable service. We have been friends just about
13 years now. The trouble started when he got home from Afghn
and FORGOT to tell me he had been married for six years….
My advice is: FORGET ABOUT IT.
It was fake. They are scammers and losers and con artists
just looking for someone to mooch off when they get home.
They disgrace the service they give.
Coming from a military family, like I have,
I think I am very qualified to say that.
Hang in there and let it go….
They aren’t worth it.
Sorry but it’s the truth.
I will pray for you.
Dupey
I have been in contact with someone claiming to be him for several months and goes by Ricky James. He says he is in the Army Reserve and stationed in Iraq. I have yet to determine if it is actually him. I am still collecting information to determine the source and location. The email address the person is using has an IP address in Ghana. As soon as I do I will turn the person in to anyone I can and post it.
Through research I found the man in the photo is 1st Sgt. Stuart James of Headquarters, Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, N.C. – see http://www.army.mil/article/22889/D_Day_at_Fort_Bragg__N_C_/
He has a MySpace account but his account has been made private. My guess is because his phots were stolen.
A report I was reading in a UK paper last week said one in three (UK) relationships now start online and one in six (UK) marriages are of couples who met online. So, it works for some. But my God there’s a need to be careful.
Be careful now he is in skype James Velder and location is Kabul, Afganistan. He show hisself in cam. mail address is jamesvelder1111@gmail.com. i was stupid, that before not control his photos. Then he start ask money, i understand, that the from africa comes scam go higher level. Than god, i am no so stupid that send my money somewhere africa to nigger. me can scam in love (we all want found love) but never with money. if game came money, be very careful!
my partners mum has had these pictures send to her by three different men all claiming to be him.
these names and places are all different luckily she has not send any money to these people.
first one who is on facebook and flirtomatic is using geoge casey on facebook and geogecasey on flirtomatic.
second one is on facebook and facebook app flirt using frederick hattfield it appears as frederick h on the flirt app on facebook and hattfield frederick as his profile name.
the third is just on flirtomatic as crucollalfred.
we have two off the email addresses geogecasey@yahoo.com and the other is fredtric@yahoo.com .
we will try and get more information on the crucollalfred and will inform you all as soon as we find out all we know is that he is 52 is from crewe cheshire uk.
geoge casey is saying he is a 52 year old staff sargent for the special airborn currently in afganistan and is from tulsa oaklahoma in the states. he has send pics of him and a child and has said the child has had an accident and had an operation on his foot so he needs money for medical bills as he can not access his money from the camp.
frederick hattfield is saying he is 56 years old from miami florida but currently living in south africa. he has also said he is a manager of an it company left to him by his late father. he has said he has 2 children.
geoge casey has now admitted he is not actually geoge casey but is eric kutin aged 26 from ghana. he started this as it is a easy way to make money.
we found this out by sending him all the information we have found and we just told him to tell us the truth and he did as far as we know.
OK. I just got a friend request from this hunk on Easter Sunday (2015).Photos were just blurred enough that I couldn’t make out the name tag that I knew was present. Wondered why he didn’t answer questions about patches or other non-classified military information. I’ve worked with Army helicopter pilots for 10 years, so I use a lot of military terminology. My first thought with the text messages was that he could be looking for a legitimate “pen pal”. Started getting suspicious when he asked if we could see if we could develop a relationship. Then laughed at the situation when he wrote today asking me to help him with his gold business!
I am so sorry the REAL military hero is still being abused.
I will pass this info along to Army CID, even though I did not fall for the scam. Maybe they can keep tracking down the per
I get one to two friend requests from these fake military profiles a month, and I report them to facebook and the profile is taken down immediately.
I never thought of forwarding them to the military. Maybe Facebook does, or should report them?
Gaucho Gal – the military actually knows about this man’s identity being stolen. His photos are the most widely used among scammers. I’ve had at least 4 or 5 women contact me about these same photos.
Surprise to see the picture of a person I was scammed by going by the name of Daniel Oldenquist. This person is General Stuart James, and for some reason his pictures are frequently used by scammers. I’ve seen his pictures paired up on linE with close to a dozen false names. The scammer contacted me on Pinterest and it seemed innocent enough to converse with someone from the military on Pinterest. But this was not true. The conversation over several weeks got more personal and getting Good Morning texts and graphics was quite lovely. Then there was hints about needing money. I did more research online and found that Daniel was Stuart from probably 15 years ago. Bottom line I was one day from sending $12,000.00 to this scammer. Unbelievable! Because I was really buying his sad story. I ended up texting him about what I found out and told him a few choice things. He immediately disappeared. Don’t accept any conversation from people on Pinterest. ..they can say who they are from anywhere and all lies!