The 41-year-old woman became suspicious when asked to pay a large shipping bill for the soldier’s shipment of gold bricks. Police are urging social media users to be cautious and never send any money, confidential information or personal data to people they don’t know. Photo: Stock picture / Freepik.
Blansko, Jan 20 (BD) – “In the Czech Republic there have been many cases of fraudsters impersonating members of the US Army. These fake soldiers seek contact with women, and then try to gain their confidence and affection. They then try to trick the women into giving them money, using various made up tales,” said police spokeswoman Lenka Koryťáková.
The most recent case was reported in Blansko last week. The conman contacted a 41-year-old woman via a social network, pretending to be a U.S. soldier currently on a mission in Syria. He tried to gain her trust in communication lasting half a year, from August 2019 to 16 January 2020. In one recent message he told her that he had received 20 gold bricks for his services, which he needed to store somewhere. He told her he had identified her as a trustworthy person, which flattered her, and convinced her to agree to the consignment.
The “soldier” then requested personal information, including a copy of her ID, which the woman sent him. However, she became suspicious when she received an email from an alleged shipping company requesting payment of EUR 710 of delivery charges, which she refused to pay. The soldier’s attitude then changed, and he threatened that if she didn’t send money, he would forward all of the messages from their virtual relationship to her husband. The woman reported the whole thing to Czech Police, mainly due to fear of her documents being misused.
Koryťáková added some advice for social media users: “We encourage women who are in contact with online suitors to be cautious. Never send any money, confidential information or personal data, including copies of documents, to your “virtual friend”!”
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