Facebook Connected Her to a Tattooed Soldier in Iraq. Or So She Thought.

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/technology/facebook-military-scam.html

Facebook Connected Her to a Tattooed Soldier in Iraq. Or So She Thought.
Renee Holland sent her Facebook friend thousands of dollars. She became entwined in a global fraud that the social network and the United States military appear helpless to stop.
By Jack Nicas
July 28, 2019

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — On a Monday afternoon in June 2017, Renee Holland was draped in an American flag at Philadelphia International Airport, waiting for a soldier she had befriended on Facebook.

The married 56-year-old had driven two hours from Delaware to pick him up. Their blossoming online friendship had prompted her to send him a care package and thousands of dollars in gift cards. She also wired him $5,000 for plane tickets to return home.

Now she was looking for a buff, tattooed man in uniform, just like in his Facebook photos. But his flight was not on the airport arrivals board. Then a ticket agent told her the flight didn’t exist.

From there, Ms. Holland said, it was a daze. She walked to her car, with “Welcome Home” written on the windows, and sobbed. She had spent much of her family’s savings on the phantom soldier. “There’s no way I can go home and tell my husband,” she remembered telling herself. She drove to a strip mall, bought sleeping pills and vodka, and downed them.

[DavidDvorkin]

1. I can't read the article, but based on the excerpt given here

I'm having a hard time feeling any sympathy for her. For her husband, I feel a lot of sympathy.

[Turbineguy]

2. A lot of Americans are nice people. Generous to a fault.

And sometimes they just get taken advantage of.

[spartan61]

3. The woman should have watched

Doctor Phil. He has had many shows about this scam. The scammer usually pretends to be an American soldier having many money problems. Wake up!!

[More_Cowbell]

4. She's dead now, killed by her husband

After losing $26k - $30k of the family's money. She kept believing the scammer. Her husband also killed her father and then himself.

I hit the NYT paywall but read the story elsewhere.

[BigmanPigman]

6. You were right. Here it is...

"The Hollands lost $26,000 to $30,000. To start afresh, they moved to Fort Pierce last year."

"But the strains remained. Mr. Holland was arrested on domestic violence charges in August 2018, according to a police report. Ms. Holland dropped the charges. She said in an interview last year that there had been another incident in 2017."

"On Dec. 23, 2018, Mr. Holland shot and killed Ms. Holland and her father at their new home. Mr. Holland then turned the gun on himself."

"The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said Mr. Holland left no indication of motive."

[customerserviceguy]

5. I met my lady

on a dating website fourteen years ago, and we saw lots of scammers trying to cheat people, mostly women.

It ain't for real until they're standing right in front of you.

[murielm99]

7. My youngest daughter

is married to a nice guy she met on a dating website. They are both quiet people who had a hard time meeting people socially. They came together because they are foodies and they love animals.

They have been married since 2013.