There seems to be scammers on this site posing as members of the military who are claim to be on deployment. I spent several days chatting with someone who seemed very real and plausible at first and then after a while the conversations turned to him asking me to send him a cell phone and boots to an address in Nigeria. He had told me he was deployed in Libya, which is on the other side of the continent from Nigeria. The address also had someone else's name as the person the package was to be delivered to. When I asked why the package was to be sent to someone other than him, he replied that the person in question was in charge of getting packages to soldiers. I was a military wife years ago and my ex had done a 6 month deployment in Iraq in 1993. When he was there every package that was sent to him was either sent to an APO or FPO address with his own name as the recipient. So this made me nervous because I had already noticed that the FB page that the person had given me had very little personal information on it and was excessively limited on information. So I started to research online for information about the name he had given me. When I did every search brought up topics on Nigerian Dating scams. So I then started to research how to tell if the person you were talking to might be a scammer. I found a blog written by a person in the military that was warning people how to weed out the scammers. He said a fool proof way to get rid of a scammer was to ask them to give you their military email address because all true military personnel have one and if they say the don't you would know they were lying. So I took that advice and I have not had one response from the guy I was talking to since. Now, made he was offended, I don't know, but it seems fishy if you ask me. So please be careful and use the tip from the blog before you give out any personal information to someone claiming to be a member of the military on this site. I hope this helps someone keep from getting emotionally involved with a scammer who is only looking to cash in on an unsuspecting person who is genuinely looking for love.

If you hear something once or twice, you might dismiss it. Maybe it's real maybe it's not. But I have heard this at least ten times this week and frankly I'm pissed. I had heard about people pretending to be service members or vets but it was no more prevalent than doctor's, lawyers, missionaries.... Now it seems like misrepresentation as military personelle is the worst. There have been faked profiles since there have been chatrooms even before there were dating sites but they were relatively easy to spot. Now that the websites are more accurately targeted (not better) the fakes are more difficult to weed out.

I hate a liar just as much as the next person but my brothers and sisters in arms put or are still putting their lives on the line FOR YOU and YOUR FREEDOM. If you read this, it's talking about YOU. Male or female equally.

This is something that you should know. If the person claims to be actively serving then yes they will have a military email but since dating sites and social networking is targeted heavily by hackers we are instructed not to use it for those purposes. Security. Also in mainstream news channels CNN for me, the message was passed not to divulge any unnecessary details about missions or deployments.

We are talking about NATIONAL SECURITY here. Realize that is more important than if Billy is cute or not.

Also for that reason our military email addresses are deactivated when we separate from service. I thought that I'd be able to contact all my friends that were still serving but I was wrong. Whoever told you that had their heart in the right place but that isn't supposed to be used that way. As far as I know that could be a punishable offense for service members.

Misdirection. If someone has you go through two or three different contacts in a short timespan they are probably fake. If they are asking you to send things to a non APO-FPO address and you didn't know them personally before they went on a mission, fake. But don't just skip ALL military because you encounter one fake or hear about it from someone else. We are people too.

Thanks for the info. There are so many here. Just left them without any word.

Nothing personal ladies, I urge you to question the guys you are interested in and the real ones will too because we have nothing to hide but know that we can't exactly dump our mission details here or on any social networking sites. It just doesn't make sense. Even three letter agencies can't talk about their jobs. What you see on the news is what you're allowed to see for a reason. Even writing this I have to tip toe around terminology. Anyway, it's a difficult profession and that's why everyone doesn't do it. Expose the fakes but show the real soldiers sailors airmen and marines some love.

Thank you for the valuable information and your military service. I was not trying to make it harder for real military personnel to find someone. I was just trying to help people not get scammed. I didn't know that service members were told to not give out their email addresses. Can you give any insight into what someone who legitimately wants to date service members can ask for from a service member so they will know they are who they say they are. This information would help both service members and those who want to date them.

I will repeat myself again....
invite them to participate in the forums....if they are a scammer they will refuse...if they are game enough to come in here they will not last the day....guaranteed....

You are very welcome. As I said it's nothing personal and you do have a legitimate gripe. This is a real problem. As for proof of who they say they are, the only thing that I know for sure will work is ask the person to write you an actual letter. If you get one, you'll know it. Active duty personel can't live far from a military base unless they are married, are an officer or high ranking individual. If they are deployed its APO-FPO no exceptions. There is a tendency for service members to move around but if they can't stay in one place long enough for a return letter from you to go to the same address they are fake. I have been out since 2006 so I can't tell you what current changes have occurred since then but watch CNN. If you see it there I'd say there's a good possibility that it's real. Ever since the whole snowden wiki disaster there has been a huge clampdown on electronic communications. My best guess is that you can't use military email adresses for personal purposes at all. That would make the most sense to me, but I don't know. Hopefully this helps on both sides because we sacrifice a great deal of our lives to come home to be with friends and family but many of US end up alone too.

Oh yeah, btw I'm pissed off at the scammers not you incase that was unclear. I'm not mad at you so no hard feelings.

Yeah; I get those scammers posing as military too. Being military myself; I can tell right away they aren't legit. I recall one guy wearing Sergeant stripes and saying he was a General. I don't have to be an American and damn well know the difference between a General and a Sergeant in an American uniform.

Again thanks for the info. I'm glad you not angry with me.

Great idea, but why do you say they wouldn't last the day? The guy I was talking to was very convincing. He was not reading from a script like some do. He seemed very real and answered most of my questions with what seemed like good answers. If he had not asked my for really expensive things when I offered to send him a care package that was intended to be filled with things like baked goods and toiletries and then gave me an address that I was almost positive was not military then I'd still be talking with him. The only reason I was suspicious of the address is because I'm a former military wife and was aware that packages sent to the deployed all go to APO-FPO addresses. If I was someone who never had any dealings with the military I may not have even questioned him. To be honest I had to look up where Nigeria was vs. Libya and I wouldn't have done that if it wasn't for the fact that the non APO-FPO address was a red flag for me.

I know I've experience a guy who claim he was station at Fort Brag and lives in Los Angels but is out of the country right now he first also claim to be a Capt then change his rank to Sgt. He want me to send 270 to his CO for we be able to talk on his radio phone. How dumb does he think I am? When I called him on him he got angry with me and ask me what I knew about the Military? When I told him my ex was in the navy and I also use to date a Lt. Col in the Army he got real quite with me and I have not heard from him since.. I end up blocking him along a few other scammers.

If you feel you are running into those that are fake/Scammers then please report them through the system that is in place.

Below your e-mail's on the right hand side you will see Report Abuse/Spam click on that link and follow the instructions for Admin to check out the user. Please do not post in the forums names of other members due to we do have a report system to use.

Once you have reported them, it will ask you if you want to block that member I would advise to block them as well.

With that said the forums are not for reporting scammers due to we have a Report System in place. Therefore this thread is being locked down.

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Kristi