So you have been chatting online with a US soldier but are aware of the numerous scams out there so ask him to prove he is who he says he is, so he emails you a copy of his Military Identity Card.
First of all well done for being cautious.
However when he sends a copy of a passport or military ID do you even know what you are looking at?
Thanks to Tee we can share what can only be classed as the worst scammers attempt to photoshop together a military ID I have ever seen and I’ve seen some pretty dismal attempts. Seriously there are primary school kids who could do a better job.
I’m not going to tell you the 18 things wrong with this ID because I’m not here to teach scammers their trade but I am sure you can spot at least 6 issues with it:
Please note, US military ID has a number of complicated security features, including a chip and pin system … see anything secure or complicated with this?
We come to the best part … this military ID comes with a money back guarantee ROFLMAO
April 19th, 2011 at 7:53 pm
YEssss Sally I love it, this is pathetic not to give away to much information because SCAMMERS do troll this site and I don’t want to help them figure out what they did wrong.
Great Sally my husband is a US Service Member Funny though his id looks NOTHING LIKE this it cannot be duplicated.I Love IT Finally Found Something Scammers cant DUPLICATE LOSERS! LOL
June 1st, 2011 at 3:16 am
Here is an easy way to dig deeper, but very effective. I know facebook has been a pain sometimes, but, in this situation, it is beneficial.
So, ask the “soldier” if he has a facebook account (most of them do) and look at his pictures. Once you “friend” the facebook account, go look at his contacts also. Most of them should be military. If there are only a few, well, somewhere you might find something that doesn’t make sense.
To go even further, look at the pictures of him and his friends and try to find that guy on the soldiers friend list. It’s called, guilt by association.
Hope this helps!!
Bryan (ex-Sergeant, US Army)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7U95mp_1lk
June 2nd, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Hi Bryan
Great tip there thank you very much.
August 12th, 2011 at 3:59 pm
I recently was contacted by a ‘soldier’ that instantly fell in love with me, then proceeded to tell me he needed a new computer and phone. I immediately noticed discrepincies on the photos, even before he asked so I was extremely cautious. First of all, he claimed his name was Daniel Robin, but what little I could see on the profile photo in full uniform, the letters ‘el’ could be seen. I confronted him on the military NEVER putting a real soldiers FIRST name on their uniform, the fact that he refused to give me his APO or FPO address to ‘send care packages’. (At this point I knew he was a scammer). That I would be sending the money to ‘his friend Tina who is also in the Army and is coming to Iraq Monday’ got me. He also told me it would cost me $3000 so I could ‘apply for his leave to come see me’. Yeah right dude, NO ONE ELSE can apply for a soldiers’ leave except the soldier and the military DOES NOT charge for it. Lots of suspicion and 1 confrontation later and he deleted himself off my Facebook, but not before I emailed everyone on his friends list letting them know he was a scammer if they didn’t know already. (if they weren’t part of it). I also saved and printed out all the emails and IM’s we had back and forth and contacted the DOD. I feel like an idiot for confronting the scammer with the suspicions because I may have inadvertantly given him more info to work with on the next victim, but it was before I read the article about deleting them immediately. What this idiot didn’t realize? Both of my parents were military so although I’m not an expert, I do know a little bit. It sickens me to know that these scum of the earth are using names and photos of REAL soldiers that are either active duty or have been killed in action. All I wanted was a nice military guy to write to, instead, I got a scammer. I just thank God for giving me the wherewithall to check things out before getting TOO involved. Be careful out there please. If I could shoot every one of them for using our brave soldiers this way, I would. And if anyone knows of the REAL Daniel Robin or Robin Daniel, please let them know to put their profile PRIVATE and NOT to use a military photo as a profile pic! Even if your profile is set to private, the profile pic can be copied!!
August 12th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Thanks so much Sally for this great information! You can NEVER be too careful! Also a big thanks to Bryan also. I had never thought about that! Great idea!