{"id":9368,"date":"2023-03-30T14:16:25","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T21:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/blog\/?p=9368"},"modified":"2023-03-30T14:16:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T21:16:41","slug":"military-romance-scam-scammers-use-military-mens-pictures-to-scam-their-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.socialcatfish.cloud\/scamfish\/military-romance-scam-scammers-use-military-mens-pictures-to-scam-their-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Military Romance Scam: Scammers Use Military Men’s Pictures to Scam Their Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine joining a dating app<\/a> and meeting someone you deeply connect with. Over the course of a year, you develop strong feelings for this person as you get to know them more. However, they always make excuses as to why they cannot video chat<\/a> or meet in person, citing military leave as the reason. You dismiss the red flags and continue the relationship. But then, they start to ask for constant financial help, claiming to be in emergency situations. You begin to notice your bank account<\/a> dwindling and wonder if you can even afford to stay in the relationship. These are some of the key indicators that you may be a victim of a military romance scam.<\/p>\n

What is a Military Romance Scam?<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Wearing-a-soldier-helmet-640872-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

A military romance scam is when a scammer steals someone’s pictures that are either from the military or wearing a uniform, then states they are in the military themselves. They pretend to fall in love with you and say anything they could to gain your trust, usually going off of a scammer’s playbook<\/a>. Once they gain your trust, they use the military as an excuse to ask for tons of money. Some of these excuses range from “I need to pay to come back home,” “I need food while I’m fighting for the country,” “I need money for medical expenses<\/a> after being injured in combat,” and “I lost my weapon and I need to pay for a new one so I don’t get kicked out of the military.”<\/p>\n

They also say that they are in the military as an excuse to not come and see you. They figure that if their victim thinks they are overseas, they won’t ask to meet with them in person<\/a>. They can also use this as an excuse<\/a> to not video chat with you since they supposedly don’t have wifi or service where they are stationed. However, nowadays with modern technology, military soldiers do have wifi of some sort when they are stationed overseas.<\/p>\n

People That Have Had Their Pictures Stolen by Scammers<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Tank-exhibition-772950-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Alessandro Cinquini<\/h3>\n[aesop_video src=”youtube” id=”M9rawnj5PTc” 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

Alessandro Cinquini<\/a> is a social media influencer on Instagram<\/a> and a first officer for Carnival Cruise Lines. He got popular on social media<\/a> for posting photos of him traveling across the world as he worked for the cruise line. As he gained 10,000 followers, scammers started to steal his photos and pretended to be him as they lured girls into their scam trap.<\/p>\n

Since then, he\u2019s gotten thousands of messages<\/a> a year averaging to about 5-10 messages a day from girls who have been tricked with his photos. There have been girls simply letting him know that his images were being used, and others that have accused him of being a scammer himself.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s seen about 10 new accounts with his images on the profiles created a day. He tries to report them, but they keep on popping up on Instagram<\/a>. He\u2019s almost had his account blocked by scammers, but Scam Haters United has stepped in and helped him get his account back.<\/p>\n

Even though Alessandro is not in the military<\/a>, there have been many scammers that pretend that his cruise lines uniform is actually a military uniform. They tell their victims they are from the military, and get away with it all because of Alessandro’s uniform.<\/p>\n

When asked why he thinks scammers choose to steal pictures from servicemen to scam people, and why he thinks he’s a target, Alessandro had a lot of insight.<\/p>\n

“It’s easy to create a story about our life, and also the main factor to maintain distance in the ‘fake relationship,’\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Terry Sorrells<\/h3>\n[aesop_video src=”youtube” id=”0ZLY1kTu6BI” 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

Terry Sorrells<\/a> is an active-duty first sergeant logistics specialist in the army who is a brand ambassador for Military Fresh. He is an influencer to his many Instagram<\/a> followers, which has also made him famous in the Catfishing<\/a> world. Scammers have made thousands of fake profiles based on Terry\u2019s photos, targeting thousands of women\u2019s wallets and even some gay men\u2019s wallets. We estimated that $1,000,000 was made off of the fake profiles scamming these innocent victims.<\/p>\n

Scammers use military men\u2019s profiles<\/a> all the time when they create fake profiles. This allows for the scammer to pretend they are deployed in another country so that the women they are talking to never ask to meet in person. They also know that a lot of women are attracted to and go after military men, meaning that women will rarely say \u201cno\u201d when it comes to giving them a chance at online dating.<\/p>\n

Terry\u2019s advice to those who are looking into online dating is to pay attention to the story the scammer tells you. A military<\/a> man is able to call you and video chat with you using their cell phones. They have access to Wi-Fi and the military pays for them to get deployed to wherever the military says. If someone is telling you otherwise, then they aren\u2019t really in the military and are just looking to catfish<\/a> you.<\/p>\n

Why Scammers Choose Pictures of Men in Uniforms<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Folded-flag-close-up-742696-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Scammers<\/a> choose pictures of men in uniforms as a sign of proof that they are in the military like they proclaim. They pretend that the person in the pictures is them, and since the man in the photo has a uniform on, the victim thinks it’s actually them wearing the uniform. Since the victim sees multiple pictures of them, they assume the scammer is telling them the truth and has no reason not to believe them.<\/p>\n

Signs That You are in a Military Romance Scam<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Screaming-soldier-628990-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n