It all started when I had a friend request on Facebook. There was this picture of a handsome Soldier in Uniform, so I accepted his request. At the time, I thought he was just lonely and wanted to talk to someone as he was stationed in Afghanistan. He asked me what I did for a living, and if I had any family, and I told him everything. He told me he had lost his wife to cancer, and he had a daughter at school that was being looked after by a nanny. He said it was expensive, but he didn’t mind because he idolized her. He showed me a picture of her, and she was pretty. He also told me he was a General. I did think at the time if he was in a position like that surely he would be busy, but we talked for some time, and he told me when he had to go on missions. So I didn’t think any more about it when he wasn’t online all the time. Then one day he said his daughter needed money for a school trip and he couldn’t get the funds to her from where he was so he asked me to send it to a friend in the states, and he would take the money to the Nanny and give to her to pay the fees. So I did as he asked.
Time went on, and we still communicated. Then he said his daughter had been sent home from school as she had slumped and started to become very sick, and she was admitted to the hospital and had meningitis. He pleaded with me to help him. His words were, “I can’t lose her. She is all I have.” He spoke of the pain losing his wife and that he wanted me to become his wife. He then asked for monies to pay hospital fees. He had the same story that he can’t get money to her because of where he was stationed. So I got what I could and sent it to the receiver in the states. It upset me to think she was very ill and was fighting for her life. He sent me pictures of her in the hospital. I genuinely thought I was helping a soldier who was fighting for his country, and peace and freedom for all. He seemed so genuine, so I raised what money I could to help his daughter. He even sent me a picture of her in the hospital with her head bandaged and tubes in her mouth and she looked like she was fighting for her life, that’s what got to me more, was to think a child was suffering like this it upset me, so I went along with it.
He often called me his fiancé and said he was falling in love with me. He said he wanted me to be his and his alone. Then he asked for more money as he wanted to get leave and he said he wanted to come and see me. He had been declaring his love for me and said he couldn’t live without me, and he wanted us to be together as a family. He said he told everyone I was his fiancé, and he wanted to spend some time with me. So he wanted money so he could leave. At this time, I started to get suspicious of his behavior and started looking on the internet, then I came across a site called real or fake, and there were loads of stories of military scams and people using United States soldier’s pictures to scam women out of money.
At this time, I lost 4,404.00GBP. I suddenly realized something was wrong, and I stopped sending any more money so he disappeared. I did not hear from him, so I had an idea something was not right. I started to panic. Then I came across Diana’s scam and Awareness group. I am so glad I did, or it could have happened again.
Julie
Great Brittan