Anyone else been scammed by "General Stanley McChrystal

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 21 Feb 2010 Posts: 1

I have recently been scammed on a dating site in Cornwall, by someone claiming to be General Stanley McChrystal, although he didn't reveal his full identity for a couple of weeks, by which time he had built up my trust and stolen my heart. When I googled him I discoverd that he had more siblings than the guy I was speaking to said. I chose to ignore that - I was hooked. I also ignored the fact that he thought you could ski in Paris! Or that the temp in Kabul was 17c when it was snowing, or that he couldn't receive post... Love is blind. He also asked me to marry him, (I said no) that he'd show me to the world when we married and introduce me to the President. I also found the Official FB of the General; on the discussion wall are about 8 coments from 6 ladies across the world who had been scammed in this General's name. That evening I confronted him with this. He pretended to be very angry, accused me of starting it, and was that how I repaid him after trusting me with his heart etc etc. He calmed down, told me he trusted me again and that he'd get the FBI onto it and arrest the people involved, and assured me I was talking to the right Stan. He even took the General's picture off his msn page as security, but then put it back on just for me! He then told me about his cattle farm in Norfolk, UK, which was his investment for his - now our - retirement, and he hadn't been in contact with it for nearly a year. Would I ring the farm caretaker, which I did. Quite coincidentally (!) there had been 5 cattle deaths in the 2 weeks just before I rang. "Stanley" was bereft of course. I offered to go up to the farm and see what was going on, but this 4* General had forgotten the address and postcode!! Then there was a huge vet bill of £6800. I had to ask how much money in the dairy acount, and of course, only £2000. "Stanley" then lost control, claiming he was ruined and would I lend him the remaining£4800. I was the only one he could trust, his first and last and only hope, the only one who could save him. I refused, because a) I'm only gullible and not stupid, b) couldn't raise the money anyway. He then spent 20 mins begging, pleading with me to save him. He would pay me back when he came to live with me in June; he had the money in Kabul, but couldn't get it out of the country; asked me to lend it "from ur heart" , accused me of refusing to help him and so on. He even told me he knew I had the money - which I don't. He got angry when I wouldn't change my mind and didn't speak to me the next day. In the evening I researched a bit more because very skillfully he kept putting seeds of doubt in my mind. I wanted to find out about his son, as there was apicture of a family group - mother, young marine and, I assumed, girlfriend, on his msn photo album. It had the caption, "Fallen marine's father" which made no sense to me. In my research that evening, I came across a webpage with the banner headline, "Fallen Marine's father rips into General McChrystal's new rules of engagement in Afghanistan!" and under the headline was that picture. It was of the Bernard family, mother, son and daughter. The son, a 21 year old Lance Corporal had been killed while on patrol in Afghanistan in August 2009. He had come to prominence because the news distributor AP had published photos of the young man as he was dying, being tended to by his colleagues. I couldn't believe that the lowlife I had lost my heart to was sick enough to include this in his plagiarised msn album. The final insult being that the young man had died on the real General McChrystal's 55th birthday. I had finally allowed myself to believe that I had been the victim of a scam and spent the next day crying... When "Stan" did contact me again, he was all apologetic and begged my forgiveness etc. By this time I had become angry with him for messing with my head and my emotions, and my sister and I spent a very entertaining evening stringing him along. I challenged him on the photo. He maintained it was his son, and then I told him who it was and he said, "Forget ab him!" We continued with our conversation and I told him his account had been deactivated by the dating site because someone else had reported him. Then he got angry again and said he'd never go on msn again and I'd never hear from him again except I could e-mail him my address on 1st June and he'd turn up at my door and then I'd know it was the general, another seed of doubt, which I ignored. And I won't be e-mailing my address. The next day he sent me an msn message and a flower icon. In the evening I sent a final curt e-mail telling him, fairly politely what I thought of him, and that my sister and I had enjoyed our evening stringing him along (not knowing then this was a recognised sport), and that along with one of the ladies from the FB page and I would be researching him, and that I had deleted everything to do with him from my computer. And that was the end. I am now going to be interviewed by the local radio station, with my identity protected, to highlight the amount of scamming that goes on on dating websites, and to help inform others so that they know about it and can protect themselves, as I couldn't.
In a way, he has done me a favour, as I no longer correspond with people who don't put their photos or full profile on the site, and don't give out personal information either.
If anyone else has had experience of this scam, or would like his msn address or mobile number, I shall be pleased to pass them on. You can also go to the Official Facebook Page of General Stanley McChrystal to read the experiences of the other ladies there.

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:07 pm

Hi rock-climber,

I'm so sorry that you've had this bad experience. Though I'm so glad that you realised that it was a scam and didn't send him any money.

If you still have some emails from him, particularly his first ones, and you'd like to warn other ladies about him, you might like to go to our sister site:

www.scamwarners.com

and add something about him there. You'll be able to find someone to help you with finding good information to report, and also to help you remove all your own personal details and any parts of his emails which were personal to you, if you'd like that.

Some scammers do include photographs and full profiles on dating sites, and even give you a lot of detail and information about themselves (though it is usually invented). You can often tell which country a would-be 'date' is really writing from, however, by learning how to find and understand the IP address. It is also helpful to familiarise yourself with 'Romance Scams'. The scamwarners site will be helpful for that, too.

Finally: please don't berate yourself, or call yourself 'gullible'. The ability to trust is a good quality, when appropriate. A genuine man will appreciate that about you one day.

Oh: and well done for wanting to inform and protect others. I wish you well with your radio interview.

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:43 pm

Hi i second what Branwen says, and welcome !! they tried to scam your money but dont let them take away what is you all the good qualities.That way they never really win at all Very Happy

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 2:06 am

Hi Rock Climber and Welcome.

Unfortunately the military angle seems to be quite popular amongst the scammers lately, we have had at least 6 reported at Scamwarners in the last week.

If you haven't already done so, please take a look through this thread http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=178765 on the first post right at the bottom you will find a link to an informational topic on Military scammers which may help you.

I would be happy to help you post up the details of this scammer for you, I will send you a PM with an email address shortly

Meanwhile, if you have any questions about baiting, ask here or questions more specific to scams you are best to ask over at Scamwarners.

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