Protect yourself from bogus soldiers trying online scams
Love is a battlefield according to singer Pat Benatar – and if you have a passion for men or women in uniform, make sure you don’t fall victim to a bogus love cheat trying to con you out of cash.
The scam goes like this – a woman usually spots a photo of a guy online that she likes or is contacted by someone from a military dating site.
They talk online for a while and build a relationship and everything seems too good to be true – which means it usually is.
After a while, the guy suggests that you can talk privately to him by satellite telephone – but he explains that due to security, setting up the call involves you in some sort of registration that involves passing personal details.
Stop right there!
If you receive an email or message like this, then the person at the other end is unlikely to be a genuine serviceman is ‘phishing’ for bank or credit details.
The next step is the satellite call involves a cost of around $500 and the bogus guy at the other end makes excuses why he can’t pay because he is posted abroad and asks you to settle the bill and he will pay you back sometime later.
This is why however much you trust someone you should never, ever give your personal banking information out to someone you do not know.
Dating forums are full of similar stories from women who have lost thousands of pounds to this sick swindlers preying on sometimes vulnerable people simply looking for some romance in their lives.
Some have unfortunately paid up for the satellite calls and then the con artists has then asked them to pay for flights so he can come and see them on his next leave.
Watch out for any scammers – especially if the firm ‘Ts2 Satellite Provider’ or the elusive Sgt Jeff Miller, a name often used in the ruse, crop up.
Safety first
Every Love Services profile is manually checked out as far as reasonably possible to protect registered members from this kind of scam.
* Do not send any cash under any circumstances to any other Love Services member
* Contact us straight away with the profile details of the person involved if you feel in anyway the member is bogus
Our intention is to help service people and their friends have a safe and trusting environment to meet online and loveservices will immediately act on any report of a suspected scammer.
Hello,
I never thought I would be a victim, just proves how wrong you can be, I have been in an abusive marriage for many years, getting worse since the children grew up & left. No conversation with my husband who was going deaf any way, but was a reclusive type as well, he had a behaviour problem, so I never wanted to go out with him even he had, for fear of being shown up, outside I was different. No one outside knew. But I was lacking love, same old story really, a friend said to join a dating agency, I did & for along while was schooled by what I thought was a55 year old English man, love words etc. came in fast & furious,then he said he had to go abroad to work, he had his own building company, our correspondence got more & Texts& intense phone calls etc. as well, then he had an accident on site & as he was in charge he was to blame, he asked me for money to get home so he could go out & pay compensation to the injured man..like a stupid fool I did. I cant explain it to myself even now l know is I feel so mad at myself for falling for this it was so expertly done too. He had stolen a genuine English man’s identity I even went on line to check,. What an idiot I have been I feel so ashamed of what I did. I actually feel like killing myself right no but won’t, I am laying in bed as I write this its 12.40pm on a Saturday & unheard of for me to ever lay in but I am in despair, am I the only mad woman to have done this? I cant even believe I did it… please help me realise I am not alone it might make me be able to come to terms with what I have done. Needless to say no one else knows I am too ashamed.