Military Romance Scam: Fake US Army Leave Permit Requests (2026)

[Gala999]

I thought this letter writing thing was going to be easy but I guess it's not always that way. I have so many feelings to express that I have no idea where to begin. I never expected to feel this way toward you and to be honest I tried not to fall in love with you. But it got me, it sure got me good. Now that I don't have you I need you more than ever! I read a quote somewhere once that said, "It's not missing you that kills me, it knowing that I had you in my life that does." That is so absolutely true. But what's really bothering me is that I can't tell you how I feel.

I made the choice to let you go in the worse possible way, I screwed up so very badly and I don't blame you for never wanting to speak to me and for hating me as much as you probably do right now. You said some pretty nasty things to me but I don't hold it against you. I probably would have said worse in your case, you know me! I'm broken, remember?

I just want smell your skin, tease you about your cologne, hug you, tug on your ear, make fun of your whiteness and how you got all red from the sun instead of getting a tan, sleep at your house with the cold AC and wear your cool CK pants to sleep. OMG, I miss that so very much!

I'm sorry that I was such a jerk and that I never showed you how much I loved you. I remember when you told me more than once to let go and let you love me. I'm sorry!

I will always have our wishes and pictures of you teagan and Rory to remind me. Do you want to know what my wish was? I wished that I would never be stupid enough to let you go, but I did! I'm sorry.... Please come back to me

I love you,

Austin.
I m not hurt i knew they lied. I felt it was scam.

[Gala999]

I was wondering how do i post all his pictures here? They even sent me military id

[Gala999]

[email protected]
Austin Fred he is positioned in Afganistan.
He claims that he is from Staten Island new york
I even have his copy of his id and lots of pictures in military uniform.
His mother left him when he was 7,
His wife died during surgery. Just one heartbreaking story after another. He worked me around a month through one of the best love letters you can ever receive.
First they asked to pay 300 dollars to pay
To pamela kowski in chicago
It is their accountant supposedly so his communication service stays on.

[nuttie]

Hello, I recently had a friends request from a guy in the US NAVY, we had been chatting for about a week when he asked me to email his Captain for emergency leave, as he wanted us to meet and i was to say that i am his wife to be, very strange i thought.
Anyway he gave me the email address of his captain, i emailed his captain, this is the email address [email protected] i recieved a mail back telling me that the request was being looked at by the NAVY, then he went on to say i would have to pay $450 for the leave form due to me being in the UK.
I never paid the money and instantly got in touch with the guy i was chatting to, this guy is called MARK MATTHEWS CHIEF PETTY OFFICER.
Well he got upset to start but then went on to say he had asked his friends for help and they would pay $200 and for me to find the rest. I told Mark i couldn't get the money no matter what, then he went on to tell me his son was in hospital, he messaged me back a couple of times, but not heard from him in a few days.
PLEASE HELP was i being scammed.

[Bryon Williams]

Welcome to Scamwarners nuttie,

Yes, you are in contact with a Military romance scammer.

Military members do not pay for leave. It is part of their military package and given to them for free. His dependent children will also have free medical services.

The other person you emailed about leave was also the same scammer. He just set up another free email to pretend to be the Captain. He will play all roles in this scam to steal your money.

You also do not need to pay for phones or internet access for military personnel. Real military members will also have access to their money.

What was the fake " MARK MATTHEWS CHIEF PETTY OFFICER " email address?

[nuttie]

Hi, thank you for your help and im so glad i never sent any money.
[email protected] That is the email Mark was using.
I won't be contacting him again, i even went online and typed his name in, i was gobsmacked when i saw him in a news video, it was only then i got suspisous.

[Bryon Williams]

Please keep in mind the real Military members are not committing these frauds. The scammer is stealing their name and photo off the internet to commit these scams.

[nilla68]

Hi, I have been in contact with a guy named Linus Marshall, he is deployed in Korea, between North and South Korea. He is 45 years old and have a kid in Sweden. I have been talking to him about a month and a half.
He has been granted a 3 month leave, but he is on a "special duty" so to be able to leave he needs to pay 15.500 USD.
I told him I cant take a loan on that kind of money and don't have that kind of money.
He said it will be OK, he is going to get it on another way.

I have also have seen him in a webcam, so I do know its him on the photos he send me.

Is this another scam???

[vonpaso xlura]

It is a scam, and the webcam is fake. No one in the military pays for leave or asks someone else to pay for leave. Please post the emails he sent, including full headers, and pictures (fakemarked). Then stop communicating with him.

[Cinna]

I have been emailing and Chatting with him to for almost a month and half. To me he said that he has been married to a Swedish women and have a daughter that will be three in November. He has not asked me for any money but I has been granted a three months leave. I got an email from a person who was the "agent" for the leave. I got the email because he had written in the form that I was his next of kin. I even have a flight ticket that was send to me from this so called agent.
If you want me to send the correspondent we have had I can do that. I have pictures of him and his daughter too.

[Bryon Williams]

Welcome to Scamwarners Cinna,

Everything he has told you is a lie. The flight ticket is fake. Military members do not pay for leave. It is free and part of their benefits package. They also do not pay for flights back home.

Please post all the email addresses you have and phone numbers.

Yes, post a couple emails he sent you. Remove any information in them that may identify you.

[Cinna]

This two are the last mails I got
About the plane ticket. It said that it was the military that had paid for it not him. The person who contacted "the agent" me had a CIA email address. To me he claimed that he had used his pass card as collateral for a loan he took for a dying friend. He said that his founds are frozen because of his special duty.

Good morning babe,

Thanks so much for your message.. It actually makes a whole lot of difference. All i ever wanted from you is your love, attention and understanding. You don't need money to keep me.. you already have me and all i want you to do is showing that you understand and not been too pessimistic. I must say its been a difficult time for me but like they say "tough time never last, tough people do". We will pull through this, as long as we believe and stick together.

I have successfully asked for my flight to be rescheduled for a week, citing the unavailability of someone to replace me as a reason. It really works, they think i'm committed and the boss promised to recommend me for some kind of honor..lol. Now, i have another week to sort my self.. I hope its enough time to do all that's needed. I wish you a good day, talk soon. xoxo

Good morning Sweetie,

Thanks so much for the email. You don't have to apologize, i do understand your frustration. I know that neither one of us had in mind that we would meet someone on the Internet and fall in love this way but it has happened, and for that, i have no regrets. In fact, it is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. For this, and what we share i have God and you to thank. Since we met, you have brought so much joy to me that words can never explain. You have brought life back into a lifeless body that just exist. Since you came into my world you make me realize what it is to Love again and to feel loved. Things are hard right now, and they seem to just be a big blurry mess. I appreciate you doing everything you have done to make this work and i hope and cant wait to prove to you how much i love you and how much i appreciate you doing all you have done for us.

Babe, i know everything will get better... I'm only happy when I'm with you either through chatting or reading your email but i will be truly happy and excited when i walk out of the plane to meet you for the first time. It will be the start of our forever and our life together, it will be the start of happiness and true love. Thinking of you just lights up my world and i just want spend the rest of my life experiencing this. This is really hard and the fact that we haven't met in person makes it harder a times and i hope we will be able to get things done cause i really want to be with you more than you can ever imagine. For millions of years nature embedded in us the notion that the past can teach us a lot about the future. This is very useful for survival, and it is also mostly true with inanimate objects.

With humans the story is somewhat different: it is reasonable to learn from someone's past behaviour about his future behaviour (even though this proves erroneous most of the time). But it is mistaken to learn from someone's behavior about other people's. Our natural tendency is to trust, because we trust our parents. It feels good to really trust. It is also an essential component of love and an important test. Love without trust is dependence masquerading as love. We must trust, it is almost biological. Most of the time, we do trust. We trust the Universe to behave itself according to the laws of physics, our army not to go mad and shoot us all, our nearest and dearest not to betray us.

When trust is broken, the feeling is that a part of us dies, is hollowed out and this hurt so baldy. Babe i will not betray your trust in me as i sit here this minute I'm thinking of everything you have done to me and for us, for you be to have doubt in us hurts me but its not your fault my love i am not blaming you and i want to promise you again this minute that i will make it up to you. I m happy that we did not allow our past to run the present and future because we deserve happiness in life. Not trusting is abnormal and is the natural result of bitter or even traumatic life experiences in the past. Mistrust or distrust are induced not by our own thoughts, nor by some device or machination of ours - but by life's sad circumstances. To continue not to trust is to reward the people who wronged us and made us distrustful in the first place. These people have long abandoned us and still they have a great, malignant, influence on our lives. This is the irony of the lack of trust. I need to tell you this babe, people often disappoint and are not worthy of trust.

They are often arbitrary, treacherous and vicious, or worse, but i want you to know that i am the Man you can trust with your life and you will never regret it for a minute, because my word is my honor. With everything i have been through in life, i have come to a very important conclusion that has helped me live my life the way i do, no betrayal stamps the world irreversibly or eliminates other possibilities, opportunities, chances and people. Time goes on, people meet and part, lovers quarrel and make love, Love ones live and die. It is the very essence of time that it erodes us all to the finest dust. Our only weapon - however crude and maybe unwise - against this unstoppable process is to trust each other, My love, above all things i appreciate you for trusting me and giving us the chance to work. I appreciate you making this happens for us and when i get home, you will be glad you did, every down we have been through this past days will really help our future together. Everything that we have been through together has proved so many law and so many believe wrong cause so many people wont make it this far. I will try catch you on yahoo messenger soon. Have a good day. xoxo

[Bryon Williams]

@Cinna Thank you for posting the emails

Can you please post the name he is using? The email addresses he is using? And any phone numbers.

This information will help other women avoid his scam attempts.

Bryon

[Cinna]

He use the name Linus Marshall if you ask if he has a second name it will be Diotiguardi.

The email he use is [email protected]

The so called agents name is John Johnson and the email address used for this person are [email protected] and [email protected] the last address is on the flight ticket too.

I did not get any phone number to him.

If you want pictures he is using I can send them too but I prefer not to put them here. I think about the real person in the photos.

[wateva]

Hi,this is a reply to STARR1969..
Everything u wrote here about the CAPT. ANDRE GRAHAM, is the same for me.. All the info he gave u is the same for me as well as the pictures.. He started to send me email from Jan. 22 to Feb. 11, 2014. I just read this posts now coz i just got curious to check him up on scammers list when i saw his emails again now.. But im really glad that he is the 1 who ended it coz i didnt get any emails from him after Feb. 11.. Maybe he had guessed that he wont be able to get a single penny from me since i informed him that i have a fiance and i'm in another country and applying for a new job.. I really got suspicious at first coz he sent me an email, without me giving out my email address to him... when i asked him where he got my email add, he said he saw my profile..im so confused bout his answer.. but i just gave him the benefit of the doubt coz he just wanted friendship he said coz he gets lonely where he is posted.. so, we exchanged emails letters since i thought there wont be any harm to be friends... but it didnt get as far as him asking for money and just disappeared virtually.. lol..
well, i hope & pray that nobody gets fooled by these scammers..

Take care y'all...
Wateva

I TOO WAS SENT RECENTLY AN E-MAIL FROM A CAPTAIN ANDRE GRAHAM,44 YEARS OF AGE. HE SAYS, HE'S STATIONED IN AFGHANISTAN AND HAS BEEN IN THE ARMY FOR 16 YEARS. HIS WIFE AMANDA DIED 8 YEARS AGO DURING CHILDBIRTH OF THEIR DAUGHTER, CHLOE. OF COURSE, I RESPONDED BECAUSE MY RELATIONSHIP IS ON THE BRINKS AND HE WAS SAYING SO MANY NICE THINGS. HE ASKED ME TON'S OF QUESTIONS BUT NEVER ONCE DID HE EVER MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT MONIES OF ANY SORT. HE TOLD ME HE HAS A HOME IN DENVER, COLORADO AND LIVERPOOL. CURRENTLY, THAT IS WHERE IS DAUGHTER CHLOE IS LIVING WITH A NANNY. I'M A SUCKER FOR ROMANCE! BUT THE OTHER STORIES I HAVE READ DON'T GIVE AS MUCH INFORMATION THAT I HAVE. WE JUST STARTED INSTANT MESSAGING IN THE MORNING HOURS MY TIME WAS 5:50 A.M. CST. WE INSTANT CHATTED FOR 2 HOURS AND HE HAD MORE QUESTIONS FOR ME. THE QUESTIONS HE'S ASKING SEEM TRULY SINCERE. HERE ARE SOME OF THEM: DO YOU LIKE TO SURPRISE PEOPLE? DO YOU LIKE QUIET PLACES OR LOUD? DO YOU BELIEVE IN ROMANCE? WHAT'S MY FAVORITE MUSIC? DO I LIKE KID'S? WHAT DO I THINK THE ROLE OF A MOTHER IS? DO YOU LIKE YOUSELF THE WAY YOU ARE? WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU HAPPY? WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL? WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? DO I LIKE ICECREAM? WHAT KIND OF THINGS DO I LIKE TO DO? IF I'M A SHY PERSON? DO I HAVE ANY PET PEEVES? WHAT OUTDOOR GAMES DO I LIKE? WHEN YOUR FEELING LONELY, WHAT DO I DO? DO I GET ANGRY EASILY AND HOW DO I DEAL WITH MY FEELINGS? THERE'S SO MANY MORE BUT I WON'T POST. HE ALSO SENT ME 3 PICTURES, THE FIRST ONE WAS HE WAS SITTING AT HIS DESK IN UNIFORM, THE SECOND WAS A PICTURE OF HIS DAUGHTER,CHLOE IN A RED DRESS AND HIM WITHOUT A SHIRT AND BLUE JEANS, THE THIRD WAS PICTURE OF HIM AND ANOTHER GUY DRINKING A BUDWEISER BEER. I HAVE A 17 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER AND SHE SAID, MOM WHAT IF HE'S CATFISHING YOU. IT'S A SHOW ON MTV, WHERE PEOPLE TALK ON LINE OR SKYPE AND SEND PICTURES, THEN THEY WANT TO MET THEM AND THE 2 GUYS HELP THEM AND THE TRUTH IS REVEALED. SOME TURN OUT FINDING REAL LOVE WHILE OTHERS WERE JUST BEING USED. SO, I HAVE KEPT MY GUARD UP BUT I'M STILL CURIOUS. IS THAT WRONG? I DO FEEL SOMETHING FOR HIM.. BUT I ALWAYS CONSTANTLY REMIND ANDRE THAT I HATE LIARS OF ANY SORT. HE EVEN GAVE ME HIS BIRTHDAY FEBRUARY 22,1966 AND HIM AND HIS DAUGHTER SHARE THE SAME BIRTHDAY, DIFFERENT YEAR OF COURSE. HE ALSO TOLD ME WHAT PART OF THE REGION HE WAS AT KABUL,AFGHANISTAN. I'M SUCH A TRUSTING PERSON BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE MADE A FOOL OF EITHER. IF I CAN HELP OTHER'S I WILL CONTINUE TO CHAT WITH HIM BUT THE DAY HE BRINGS UP ANY TYPE OF MONEY, THEN I'M OUT! TO ebrima9455 DID HE SHARE ANY OF THIS INFO WITH YOU? WHAT DID HE LOOK LIKE SO WE CAN COMPARE? ANYTHING YOU CAN GIVE ME WILL BE HELPFUL? WHEN I THREATENED HIM AND SAID I WAS NO LONGER INTERESTED, WE STARTED INSTANT CHATTING. I ALSO HAVE OTHER E-MAILS FOR HIM, THESE ARE THEM: [email protected] and i for got the new one he just gave me for instant chat. I WILL GET IT AND POST AGAIN. THANKS TO ALL YOU BRAVE YOUNG WOMAN.