Scammers pretending to be members of the military are wooing women on Internet dating and social-networking sites, but they aren’t looking for love – they are looking for money.
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Command has received hundreds of complaints in the last year about the scam artists who uses real military photos of both the living and deceased to create fake profiles.
The Command reports that con artists, some known to work out of cyber cafes in Africa, build relationships with women and then start asking for money for Internet use, phones, leave papers, travel money, etc. Once the victim sends money, they never hear from the man again.
If you feel you may have been a victim of such a scam, report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center: ic3.gov / 800-251-3221 and the Federal Trade Commission: ftc.gov / 1-877-438-4338.
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Camille Wilson, VP Communications Director, 970-488-2035, cwilson@wynco.bbb.org