Wow! I know this one too. I had wanted to offer support packages to troops serving in war zones for years. Then gay people were finally allowed to openly serve their country, and it occurred to me that some of them may be enjoying less support back home. So I decided to get busy. I went to the resources of Gold Star Families and other sites, where they tell you what troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the dessert need, like lip balm, moisturizer, towelettes, and food snacks like beef jerky and chocolate etc., and being confident that I would be able to find at least one soldier, I went and picked up $150 in various toiletries and treats, and packed it in a box ready to ship.
It became tricky to find anyone deployed that identified as one of the newly liberated soldiers serving openly, but I made contact with civilian support contractors, and others that were there, and were close and confirmed that they existed, which of course I knew they did. Then I found out that CraigsList has a Iraq page, it's only Middle Eastern site, except Israel of course, and that our soldiers use it anywhere in The Middle East. I placed an elaborate ad there and one in San Francisco during "Fleet Week".
I made contact with a soldier that had a brief conversation with me, but declined my package, and never contacted me again. He was the real deal, I think, nice guy too. Since then over a period of about 7 months, I have been contacted by I think a total of 6 and three were legit. One of them took the shipment, being gracious, admitting he didn't really need anything but knew I wanted to help. We become great friends and have spoken and texted almost everyday, since then.
However a couple of them really blew my mind, one claimed to be a Brigadier General in the AirForce. He sent me several pics of himself in uniform and even sent a pic of his son, with grandmother in Hawaii, saying he was on a mission in Libya. We also communicated constantly for weeks, and frankly he had me fooled. But then he said he was going on a special mission for 3 days and would be in touch when he got back. They were launching an attack on Isis. 3 days later he said he was back that it was brutal, and there were casualties and he was wounded. When pressed he said he was just bruised but that one of his brothers was killed. Then very expertly, at the expression that I wished there were something I could do, he said he hated the food they had and wanted me to send him some money, claimed he had lost his wallet. He had previously told me he had a house in Malibu, and the request for money made no sense. Also he had wanted me to send it to a friend of his, that could get it to him. I recognized that common thread among scammers, another red flag was that in this moment ( I suppose he was salivating at the idea of springing the trap and let his guard down) he started sounding, for the only time like English was a second language, in a very subtle way but until then he had always been very articulate. It could have been more than one of them working the scam. Then my friend in Iraq said Brigadier Generals don't go on missions, which I had wondered about myself.
Another guy contacted me saying he was on a base in Penn, and had enlisted after both parents had died to find a place he belonged, and that his birthday was in a couple days. LOL At that point I knew he was a scam and asked for pics of him in uniform. He sent me one. then he sent me 3 more. the four pictures were of 3 different young men that only barely resembled each other. There was a Hawaiian, an Hispanic, and what looked like a Olive complected Italian. I told him; "man! you're not even trying!" I had to laugh at that.
I could have been scammed a couple time at least, but I was careful and I'm glad I did it. I've made a friend for life. However, sending care packages to troops as an individual without an organization that has blazed a path, I couldn't recommend.
