
I learned something last night: There is an army–a veritable plethora, if you will–of Adam William Johnsons on Facebook. Portraits of men wearing uniforms from the various branches of the U.S. Military–Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. The uniforms have the stars and stripes of generals and other officers, and the profile pictures are typical formal headshots, or, in the case of the friend request I received, a picture of a general testifying before a microphone as if before Congress.
But why would a four-star general send me a friend request? I’m just a regular person living an ordinary life. To be honest, my first thought was that he was an ex-military man who was out trying to drum up interest for the book he’d written. (Being an author in today’s world, that is a routine thing.) The personal information listed was sparse except to say that he worked at the U.S. Army and was widowed.
Wait. Widowed? He wanted to date me? EWWWWWWW! (I mean, why else would that be highlighted in such a fashion if he weren’t out trolling for women?)
I called Steve over to show him because of the random weirdness of the request. He began examining the man’s uniform to try to figure out why an Air Force officer would identify himself as serving in the Army. (Steve’s very good with the details.) Next, we googled the name Adam William Johnson and couldn’t find any listing of a general by that name. In any branch of the service.
“Let’s do a reverse image search,” Steve suggested (very cleverly). So we did, and we found out that the image is really that of General Mark A. Welsh III, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force. We then found a whole list of Adam William Johnsons on Facebook–at least fifty of them–many with pictures of different military men. Actual, real-life men like Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson, Commander of the 8th Army, being masqueraded as Adam William Johnson. All of the misappropriated military men had their status listed as widowed. All said things like “Works at: U.S. Army.” A lot of them are stationed in Syria. Most of the accounts were set up recently, since December, with many just a couple weeks ago on the same date in February.
Here is the Facebook link to the fake Adam William Johnsons.
My hunch is the bogus accounts are meant to scam women–to play on their romantic notions, their loneliness–and then separate them from large amounts of cash.
Fake Adam William Johnson: You suck. Friend request: Denied!
Great detective work!! Stay safe and hang on to your money!!
LikeLike
You too, Nancy. (If he only knew how much money I don’t have.) 😉
LikeLike
I hear it originates in Nigeria. Sad to think how many lonely women fall prey to this type of scheme.
LikeLike
It is sad. This morning, I received one of those fake IRS calls for the second time. There are so many scams out there.
LikeLike
I believe it may go deeper and be more sinister than we know
LikeLike
Sounds ominous, Paul. It’s sinister enough. I feel bad for the men whose likenesses are being sullied.
LikeLike
I got this too. I’m not a girl though.
LikeLike
Did you really? Frickin’ scammers! (I guess I shouldn’t have generalized that women would be the targets. My bad!)
LikeLike
This catfish creep has been trying to message me for a month or so….I googled him because of his lack of profile info and photos. I found this info and questioned him AND reported him to FB. SAD
LikeLike
FAKE PROFILES USING STOLEN PHOTOS OF GENERAL MARK WELSH
Beware of fake social media profiles on-line ..! You never know for sure who the person is behind the picture you are seeing.There are now ‘criminal gangs’ and ‘terrorists’ masquerading as western based military personnel both male and female upon these sites … All of them impostors … ! https://plus.google.com/u/0/113930067331686495139/posts
LikeLike
I have been encountered by this fake profile also. Now he’s an md w a son
LikeLike
I not only block them but report them to google+. It’s interesting that when G+ launched there was whole hullabaloo about people using various legitimate online profiles that they’d developed over the years. For example I have a virtual music series in Second Life and my avatar’s name is associated with that activity, not my own name. However at that time the official G+ rules wouldn’t allow me to create an account in that name, no matter how innocent the intention (publicizing free online concerts). However they are very, very ineffective at quashing the endless stream of fake military (and other ) personnas that are essentially romance phishing ‘bots, hoping for a live one who will actually interact with them so they can run a scam.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for posting, Linda!
LikeLike