Someone using SF 1SG Photo in catfishing attempt. Can you help stop this?

COL Thomas F. — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 20:54:46 -0400

I'm looking for assistance from the community on who this Soldier maybe. Someone is using this photo to catfish a good female friend of mine and would at like to least tell this Soldier what's going on. "Richard Walter", as his FB profile shows, starts off saying he is stationed in Syria as an L.T.G on a peacekeeping mission. He is "Head of Strategic Planning (HOSP) for war and terror". Of course, the Facebook profile pic doesn't look like the airborne trooper. His FB profile says he's a bit coin miner in his free time. Its most likely a "bot" trolling the net but I find it way uncool when people use Soldier's pics as bait.

My intent is to make sure people are careful, and for us to help watch our non-military friends from being caught up in BS like this. If you know the real Airborne 1SG here, have him contact me.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 22 at 2020 10:08 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 22:08:53 -0400

This actually happens WAY more often than most people think. For instance, I have an attractive coworker who has an Instagram account and people frequently steal her photos and create fake profiles. She’s been contacted multiple times by people who have been scammed by others pretending to be her. Sometimes the victims claim they were dating but never met. Sometimes they are led to believe her son needs money for an operation, or money for a plane ticket to fly out to meet.
Another common scam is a person to make a fake FB profile with all the same pictures and even the same name, then send friend requests to all of their friends. Then they contact those people, claim to be deployed and that they need money for a plane ticket home.
Another common one, especially for higher ranking officers like generals, is that someone will take their command photo and use that for a fake profile. It’s easy to verify the name and rank. Then they claim to be deployed on an operation they can’t make public. They develop a relationship with an older, lonely, victim and milk them for gifts or financial assistance.
It’s not our military friends who get targeted by these scam, it’s the well intentioned civilians who get hit the hardest. That might sound cold, but this happens all the time with celebrities and models as well. The best defense is having a good skeptical mind and a well developed BS sniffer

Response by SFC Kelly Fuerhoff made Jul 23 at 2020 12:09 AM

SFC Kelly Fuerhoff — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 00:09:14 -0400

Is Stolen Valor still a thing? There was a page that a bunch of people ran where they would investigate things like this.

I just got a random message from a "CPT" today. Picture of the guy's profile and a few others show a guy matching the name in uniform with CPT rank. I messaged him and said nice try your profile is fake. He said "you are very stupid." He said "Why do you say that?" I said because you're a fake. If you're not a fake I'm a SFC so I'm not ruining my career fraternizing with a CPT. Guy says "lol what do you mean?" I said get off my messenger psycho.

A couple hours ago I saw that the profile is gone, it says Facebook user and all the messages he sent say "this user is pending verification."

If people can't spot a fake profile...that's on them. It's too easy to spot.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Jul 23 at 2020 3:33 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 15:33:57 -0400

I have read about prisoners catfishing young GIs and asking for nude pictures, then they are blackmailed.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 27 at 2020 12:45 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:45:10 -0400

I'm an additional level of paranoid with my data stream. I wont even check out "Richard Walter" on Facebook with the intent of getting to the bottom of it, because of I do, then I potentially will pop up on "Richard Walter's" friend recommendations.

It's why I will never ever become verified on RallyPoint, or fill out complete profile information. Who knows how secure the data is, or will be in the future. I gave a name and rank, you all can look me up on AKO to see if I'm legit if you care enough.

Years ago, when I opened a FB account (ironically at the requirement of my Intel School Cadre to use as a communication channel for exodus during the holidays) my first friends were my Intel School classmates in this new FB account.

Then all the sudden I was getting friend request from really hot women interested in my service to my country. One of these hot hot women was named KEVIN!!!!!!!!!!!! The source of these hot women were my FB friends who were young horny intel soldiers. I started cutting them one at a time, and eventually the hot women request named KEVIN stopped.

My point. I don't know if the request for help is legit, and there is a potential to cause myself to pop up on Richard Walter's recommendations and expose myself to being used as well.