Am I being scammed ?

[Jessy]

Hi ladies,
I have a pressing matter.I have been chatting to this supposedly army man for a bour a week now.I live in England while he was stationed in Afaghanistan until a few hours ago when he said he and his troopes have to go some where else.his been talking alot about Nigeria.Iam aware of all the scums that go on but he seems like a good christian man.We chatted for a long time last night but before that he mentioned that they (troops) have to leave fof Migeria in about for hours at that time(around 1 oclock british time)This morning at 8:30(he im  me that hr is in Nigeria but he forgot to pack anything in form of toiletries and apparently they are not allowed to have money on them in the army in case they use it wrongly

I want to help him one off, but iam scared it could be some one else maybe a nigerian posing as a army man

Also he sent me detail of in nigerian names to send money in because apparently  he doesnt have an Id.
Anyone with american army experience pls help. Or otherwise
If he is who he is I dont mind helping him one off but iam scared to be scummed
Thanks for your help in advance

[Ann]

Jessy, yes, that's a scam - and this "(fake) soldier ending up in Nigeria and needing your money" scam seems to be a pretty common one (see below). Don't send him any money - unless you have money you feel like throwing away.

Check this blog out - and make sure you read the comments section. One post in particular tells you how to determine if this guy is actually in the US army.

http://mywingmandiana.military.com/6072/duped-fake-soldier/

I'm a US Army veteran of over 26 years. 19 of those years were spent overseas in Europe, Okinawa, and Vietnam...there is practically no way a bonafide service member would be asking civilians for money. All branches of the servics offer monetary assistance to all members when needed for an emergency. If you run into this situation, ask the service member what unit he belongs to, and contact his commander to verify his existance. You can probable verify units by using http://www.military.com. Please don't let the bad apples spoil your relationships with soldiers, sailors, marines, & airman that really need your support.

If I were you, I'd not have anything more to do with him and I'd block him on my IM service and any other means of communication you two have been using. Report him to the website that brought you together if you can.


Are you hiv positive? I'm asking because this is a forum for women living with hiv. If you are, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? (like how you're doing hiv-wise, not necessarily personal details)

Ann

PS - some of the posts in the comment section on that blog have replies, but you need to click on the "1 reply" or "3 replies" link next to the brown reply button below the post in order to see them. Some of the more recent ones have additional information as how to report these scammers.

Although the original blog post was posted a little over a year ago, some of the comments are quite recent - from the past month or so. This means it's an on-going scam.

[Jessy]

Hi Ann
Thanks for the prompt reply...Yes Iam hiv pos and well on meds.I have two children both negative.I have was in a pos -neg relationship for 1yr but the guy didnt seem to want to make up his mind about my status.basically he pretended that he was very scared of getting infected but was jappy to have uprotected sex(wrong i know)
This amry man I met on Poz personals and his still on...he contacted menot the other way round.
Is there any way I can prove who he is?He didnt ask for money but he told me his lil goings on so I felf kinda guilty that I was chatting to him and he didnt get time to fully pack

Apparently his pos too

He has told me all the batallions and that his a capt
I really can believe that scammers can pose as war hers

Initially he seemed unsure of me so he said he wanted my number to clarify who i was

[Ann]

Jessy, DON'T give him your number!!!

If he were truly hiv positive and in the army, he would NOT be deployed on active duty overseas. We've had several guys here who had to go home to desk jobs if they wanted to stay in the army after an hiv diagnosis. You can only be poz in the army if you're diagnosed while serving in the army. You can't enlist if you're already poz.

He's scamming you. (Did you read the blog post I linked you to above?)

Once you've posted one more time, I can help you get this reported to the appropriate person at POZ personals (different department to mine). I can contact you via the Personal Message function, which you cannot access until you've posted here on the public three times.

Welcome to the forums!

Ann

[Jessy]

Hi
He really didnt ask for money...he told me that he had forgotten his personal stuff so naturally i thought maybe i cld offer to help.I would hate to get him deleted if his who he says he is.He was really ok with checking him out.sadly I already gave him my number and he called me one but the accent didnt sound heavly American of which i questioned,his reply was cos he has moved around alot.He mentioned that he doesnt shoot guns on reserve or some thing...his served since he was 22yrs....coming to 15yrs of service.I really like him...I was just wondering if he is fake scam or not?I checked oit his Ip address which wasnt fruitful,his email location is sunnyvale CA.All he said was "go and verify me and come back once you have found the truth"he seemed really hurt.
Please dont get him deleted if his not fake.
Ann do they check such cases out to be sure before they take any action ?

[Ann]

Jessy, there aren't any US troops currently deployed in Nigeria.

US troops who are hiv positive ARE NOT DEPLOYED OVERSEAS regardless of their capacity.

US troops have access to money when they need it.

US troops on active duty on foreign deployments have to be ready to redeploy at a moment's notice, at all times. There's no way he "didn't have time to pack".

HE IS SCAMMING YOU.

That's the way some of these guys operate - they suck you in slowly and try to make you feel guilty if you question their veracity or intentions. If you continue to play along with him, he'll eventually hit you up for the big money.

Yes, any reports of scammers are thoroughly checked out before action is taken.

It's as plain as the nose on your face - HE IS SCAMMING YOU. Get out now before you regret it.

[Jessy]

Hi Ann,
Thanks alot for your responses.The persons account is bioman12 on poz personals
I would really be interested to know what comes out of the investigation.please can some one let me know the out come.
For now no penny has crossed hands.

Thanks again

[klassykitty]

Jessy,

I live in the USA.  Everything that Ann told you is true, they also have ID.  No American Army personnel would "forget" anything when they pack, including and especially their ID.  If for some reason they did forget it's very doubtful that they would ask a stranger for money.

The person may not have asked for money out right, but they were asking in a round-about-way. 

Unfortunately most people would have just sent the money in and not questioned it.  Luckily enough you had the sense to at least question it.

Welcome to our forums.

Michelle

[Jessy]

Thanks Michelle
Some thing wasnt quite right so I chose to ask and am glad I did. The scum made me pray for him on chat...! Can you imagine? but thats as far as I went.His profile has sense disappeared from poz.

Thanks all to the good work you put into this.

Jessy

[Ann]

Jessy, sorry for the late reply. The person over at poz personals who looked into him said that he's tried it on with a few people (both men and women). He's gone (banned) now.

I'm glad you came to us before you got in any deeper. Chalk it up to a learning experience and put it behind you.

Hope to hear more from you soon.

Ann

[Jessy]

Thanks Ann

[Michelle25]

New to this site and realise that this post is old but i want u to know that u are being scammed. i am married to a Nigerian (who is not like that ) and its common enough for nigerians (but any walk of life can do it) im sure he has family that can help. why talk panadol for someone elses headache. if u send money once u will send it again, take the money and treat urself xxxxxxx