Lying About Being a Soldier on Dating Site Is New Low
By now the world is on to the fact that people lie on their online dating profiles. And that's fine. Sometimes. I think there are two types of lies one can tell on such a platform: Little white ones that, really, won't have too much of a bearing on a future relationship; and big fat ones that blatantly state that a person is a completely different human from who they really are. Those are the bad ones. Saying you're a soldier stationed overseas when really you're a filthy, scamming piece of crap would go into that category.
Apparently the practice of dudes posing as United States soldiers stationed overseas on dating services is still alive and well in the creepy, anonymous world of Internet. And the really messed up part is that it's not just so they can up their cred, it's so they can rob the crap out of poor lonely women who simply want to date a soldier.
See, the people who are lying about being in the military are actually con artists who pledge their "love" to women back in America ... and then milk them out of tons and tons of cash. Some of the thieves are even going as far as to steal the identity of real, live soldiers fighting for our country in order to make their story more solid. You know, in case their love interest decided to do a Google search for them or something.
Last month, the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID) warned Americans to be wary of "scams promising true love, but only end up breaking hearts and bank accounts." A similar warning was issued last May, but, according to the CID:
[They] continue to receive hundreds of reports of various scams involving persons pretending to be U.S. Soldiers serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. The victims are most often unsuspecting women, 30 to 55 years old, who think they are romantically involved on the Internet with an American Soldier, when in fact they are being cyber-robbed by perpetrators thousands of miles away.
In the year 2011, lying about who you are has never been easier. Grab a random photo from here, someone's photo from there, boom, you can create an entire phony Facebook profile (did anyone see the movie Catfish?), but lying about being a US soldier really just takes things to a whole new low. It's not only unbelievably insulting to the real US soldiers, it's insulting to the women and men brave enough to fall in love with them.
With all the ways the Internet is helping people lie about who they are, you'd think it would, at the same time, offer more ways to prevent this stuff. Maybe next year.
How gross is this?
Image via The U.S. Army/Flickr
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Melissa042807
It's totally gross. But if we can be completely honest, can we address that giving personal information and money to someone you've never met in person is pretty dang stupid? If you meet a guy online and he starts asking you for money before you've met in person, or even soon after that, that is what we call a RED FLAG and it is a sign that you need to run away. Far, far away.
Kritika
Tooootally agree ^. Lets start taking accountability for ourselves and then these dummies wouldn't have a market...
Tanya Keith
RhondaVeggie
Annette Broadbent
Susan L Hollis
I was one of those ladies that was Scammed back in February, i'm a single mother and i lost $1050 and i had to take out a loan to get the money, i still cry about what a fool i was, but i;ve done alot of checking up now, and i can tell a Scammer from a person that is real about themselves. i will never give up on finding a Military man, a Scammer did that to me not a soldier and i will never think any less of out soldier's. to me they are my hero's that sacrifice so much for us all, i have nothing but respect for our soldier's.
Melissa042807
And can I just say, I've dated a couple of military guys, and at the end of the day, they're guys. I have nothing but appreciation and respect for the service they give to our country, but they're human beings like the rest of us. It seems like there is this glowing aura around men in uniform, but it's an illusion. They're human. They screw up. They make mistakes. And the demands of their careers can cause a lot of marital stress.
You marry the guy. Not the uniform. Keep it in perspective.
Marci
I got a friend request on facebook from a guy. I looked at his profile and he seemed ok. He said he was in Air Force, and there were pictures to back that up.
I am in several military mom groups, so I thought nothing of it...I accepted his request.
A day or so later he popped up on my chat for an IM conversation, while I was talking to him, he informed me that he was looking for love. He asked if I was married and had any kids. I confirmed that I not only had kids, but grand kids too, and reminded him that my profile stated that I am intact married. He said he just wanted to hear me say it...
I thought that odd, so I looked at his profile again. At that time I realized he had put afganistan as his home town. I started using military terminology. He became confused and didn't really understand, so I asked how long his deployment was. His answer...3 years! I called B.S. telling him that no one gets a deployment for that long. His reply..."youre silly". I then told him I thought he was lying to me, which wasn't cool. No reply. So, I asked if he was aware that listing his place of deployment as his home town was against OPSEC rules? Again his reply..." funny u"
at that point I told him farewell. I have no room in my life for liars!
this is messed up. Hope he doesn't prey on others who don't really know the military rules or how things work. Does anyone know if there is there a place to report this man?
Tanya Keith
Kritika
So Annette are you continuing to talk to them just for craps and giggles?