I-Team 8: Romance Fraud

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The U.S. Army is investigating a new wave of fraud that involves a decorated soldier right here in Indianapolis.

I-Team 8's Karen Hensel’s investigation into romance fraud begins with "America's Heroes", a small group of men who have been awarded military honors for battles fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But a scammer is using one Indianapolis war hero's time on the battlefield to lure women.

Stephanie Wilson of San Francisco was looking for love.

“Everyone told me to go online and find a website for Christian singles," she said.  "So that is what I did.”

After losing her husband three years ago, she signed up for a dating website. She searched the photo gallery and found Sergeant First Class John Adams. As a 100% disabled soldier and military veteran herself, she thought she'd found "the one" in a fellow soldier. The profile said he was in Afghanistan.

He wrote to her saying he too had lost his spouse. 

"That made me even more interested because here's someone who's gone through the same thing I've gone through," she said.

The relationship moved quickly and he started telling Stephanie he was falling in love with her.  He also talked of her becoming the mother of his daughter, Emma. But his next request was a red flag. He asked her to send him a satellite phone so they could get closer. The price was $1,000.

So she began to dig deeper into the background of the SFC John Adams. He is not your ordinary soldier.  He is a hero. The Army awarded him the Bronze Star for Valor in Iraq.

His story is profiled on the Army's gaming website.

THE REAL Sfc JOHN ADAMS:

Sgt. Adams took enemy fire as he stopped alongside a decoy car. The driver was setting up intricate roadside bombs south of Baghdad.

Adams remembers, “The next day a 200 vehicle convoy was going through with fuel, oil, ammunition, food for the entire country.” Hundreds of lives were saved.

Sgt. Adams is a hero with his own action figure.

But Adams isn't on duty in Afghanistan. He works here in Indianapolis as a recruiter.

He's not widowed. He's married with two children.

It's that family photo on the website that tipped off Stephanie Wilson. 

“He looked really happily married," she said.  "I got really angry.”

Sgt. Adams is angry too. He never went on the dating websites. His identity was stolen from the America's Army website.

Adams says, “I'm confused, angry, I'm like the normal person you don’t think its going to happen to you.”

But it is happening to a growing number of people. 

"It's a classic example of the romance fraud,"according to Josh McFall with the REACT High Tech Crimes Task Force. 

Police say conmen are now hiding on the internet dating sites.

“They're just playing to the victim’s innermost desires,” McFall said.

He says many of the victims are women. 

"Either the person is so lured into the relationship or so willing for it to work that they are willing to believe things that they might not otherwise believe if they were just approached on the street," said McFall.

McFall says the con man who stole Sgt. Adams identity knew what he was doing.

In fact the con-man is still pretending to be Adams on Facebook. We found the con's Facebook page just above the real John Adams.

The profile even has the same picture in uniform.

I-Team 8 contacted all of the women he has friended.  Many tell the same story.  One wrote, "he said he was divorced with one daughter called Emma."  Another wrote, "...recently deleted and blocked him from my account.  Thanks for that."

And I-Team 8 also found him on an anti-scam blog in Germany.  She made his scam public.

Spreading the word through the internet is key because many romance fraudsters operate from foreign countries.  Police say those people can be tough to catch.

“As soon as I find that search warrant takes me out of the country, it's pretty much closed,” according to McFall.

That is frustrating to the Army hero in Indianapolis. 

“When someone says that about me and is acting like me, yeah it gets deep in your stomach," said Adams.  "You grit your teeth and you want to meet them face to face.”

“I wish I could find him and put an end to it," Stephanie agreed. "But I can't.”

I-Team 8 also learned there are two other soldiers on the America's Army Web site that have had their identities stolen. The Web site has now made security changes to try to prevent other soldiers identities from being stolen.

The US Army is investigating.

Stephanie says she was tipped off by his broken English and that he asked her to send the money.

America's Army issued this statement about the fraud:  "We are extremely saddened that someone would misuse information about heroic Soldiers. This is a legal matter that has been referred to the appropriate authorities."