{"id":13061,"date":"2021-08-11T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/blog\/?p=13061"},"modified":"2026-01-21T13:00:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T21:00:56","slug":"man-falls-victim-to-military-romance-scam-during-his-first-real-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.socialcatfish.cloud\/scamfish\/man-falls-victim-to-military-romance-scam-during-his-first-real-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Falls Victim to Military Romance Scam During His First Real Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Social Catfish, we speak to a man named Nicholas who got into his first relationship with a scammer.<\/a> He met her on Say Hi then transferred the conversation onto WhatsApp where they communicated with one another for seven months. She started asking for money so that she could eat, but it was all in the form of gift cards! Nicholas knew something was off and started investigating immediately. He reached out to Social Catfish to share his experience in dealing with a military romance scam.<\/p>\n[aesop_video src=”youtube” id=”kSjOSvy8F-k” width=”100%” align=”center” disable_for_mobile=”off” loop=”off” controls=”on” mute=”off” autoplay=”off” viewstart=”off” viewend=”off” show_subtitles=”off” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

What Is The Story of Nicholas’ Romance Scammer?<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/pexels-pixabay-54098-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

One day, Nicholas was bored sitting on his bed wondering what he could do. He went onto the App Store and downloaded a chat app called Say Hi. He started scrolling through the app and found a woman named Clara who he thought was super beautiful. He decided to reach out and start up a conversation with her.<\/p>\n

She claimed to be in the military stationed in Iowa. She stated that she needed to pay off her military clearance<\/a> before she could meet Nicholas in person. She also claimed that she has a bank account that she can’t access until she’s married.<\/p>\n

One Thanksgiving night, she told Nicholas that in order to stay together, she needed an Amazon gift card. Thinking that she was real since she sent him a bunch of pictures, he agreed to help her out by sending her an Amazon gift card. After he was done sending her the gift card,<\/a> he thought that would be the last time and that it would never happen again.<\/p>\n

Then right before New Year’s Day, Clara was claiming that she needed another Amazon gift card since she was starving and needed food. Nicholas wondered what happened to everyone else, and she claimed that she was all alone. Nicholas had already sent her more money before this, and he felt weird sending her even more.<\/p>\n

The scammer then pretended to be a military commander<\/a> and guilt-tripped Nicholas, claiming that he needed to help Clara so that she could see him. By March, most of the love for Clara stopped since she kept asking him for gift cards for various emergency reasons. He eventually left her for asking for money too many times, and will never forget what he went through<\/p>\n

What Are Military Romance Scams?<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/pexels-wyatt-794576-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Imagine going onto a dating app<\/a> and meeting\u00a0someone online that you really connect with. You talk to this same person for a year and get to know\u00a0more and more about them as you start to fall in love with them. As you get to know them they make\u00a0excuses as to why they can\u2019t video chat with you or meet you in person, and it\u2019s usually because\u00a0they are on leave. You think to yourself, “It\u2019s ok I\u2019ll meet my true love soon.” Then suddenly,\u00a0they constantly start to end up in emergency situations where they need your constant help\u00a0financially to get out of them. Your bank account starts to drain<\/a>,\u00a0and you wonder if you can even afford to stay in the relationship you\u2019re currently in.<\/p>\n

Romance scammers love to be able to stress you out. They put you in situations that make you feel bad for them to the point you feel like you have to help them. On top of that, being a soldier is one of the most respected jobs there is.<\/a> You know how much they are sacrificing so internally, you feel that you owe them something.\u00a0<\/span>That is why so often you hear stories of catfish<\/a> claiming they are a soldier stuck overseas. Or that they need money to get out of where they are currently stationed. Even going as far as claiming that they need help feeding their kids back home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They use their inability to leave where they are stationed as a pressure point to make you feel bad and ultimately send them money.\u00a0On top of that, being in the military is often an ever-changing job. They don’t control what they are doing, where they are going, or how long they will be somewhere. So it is extremely easy for a romance scammer<\/a> to claim they can’t talk to you on the phone or video chat with you because they are out in the field.\u00a0Millions of people fall for a\u00a0romance scam each day as scammers rack in millions of dollars just by stealing photos of\u00a0innocent military men and pretending to be them. Each day, more and more people find out\u00a0that their online lover is actually a Nigerian romance scammer.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

How Do We Know That Nicholas Was A Victim of a Military Romance Scam?<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/pexels-lukas-669277-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Clara suggests that she needed Nicholas to pay for her military clearance so that she could see him.<\/strong> Military clearance is when the military investigates<\/a> their soldiers to determine whether or not they are eligible to receive classified information. Usually, a soldier requests a military clearance for a new job or assignment. Then, they wait 60 days as an investigation is conducted on the specific soldier. This investigation consists of credit checks and examining national records. The military will complete this process for free and do not charge any fees to their soldiers. Therefore, we can conclude that Clara is lying with this excuse.<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-24-at-1.55.20-PM.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Clara claimed that she needed Amazon gift cards so that she could eat at the mess hall.<\/strong> According to the FTC, there was a 70% increase in reports of gift cards being used to send money to romance scammers.<\/a> This is due to the fact that gift cards are untraceable methods of payment, making it unlikely for victims to get their money back. Along with this, she can’t purchase food with the gift cards Nicholas is sending her. Gift cards can not be used to purchase anything on a military base or store. Instead, scammers sell them on third-party websites to make 80% of their profit back. For example, if a victim sends $100 dollars in gift cards, a scammer can make $80 back in cash. If someone tells you to pay them in gift cards, block them immediately since they are most likely a romance scammer.<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/pexels-karolina-grabowska-4021775-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Clara claimed that she didn’t have health insurance to help cover her medical expenses. <\/strong>The military makes sure that all its members are taken care of. They provide them with health insurance, dental insurance, and vision insurance called Tricare at a cheap price or no cost. Copays are also listed at low prices for military members. If Clara were really in the military<\/a>, she would have doctor\u2019s appointments covered at barely any additional cost and would be able to afford it with her military pay.<\/p>\n

How to Avoid Military Romance Scams<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/pexels-pixabay-40546.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n