Scam artists pretending to be Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers preparing for combat deployments are trying to make phony car sales on the Internet with deals that sound too good to be true.
Officials at Lewis-McChord say the low prices are gimmicks, just like the stories the scam artists volunteer about imminent missions to Afghanistan.
“It’s really unfortunate that people are posing as soldiers to tug on people’s heartstrings,” Lewis-McChord spokesman Joe Piek said.
He and other officials at Lewis-McChord received several calls last week from would-be buyers who grew suspicious about claims made on websites such as Craigslist.org and Cars.com. The ads claim the Army will handle the shipping as soon as the buyer puts a few thousand dollars into accounts run by Amazon or Google.
In one ad, a woman claiming to be Sgt. Sarah Harper says she has an Audi ready to be delivered within four days if a buyer is willing to pay for the car right away.
“I have dropped my price to $4,950 (purchase price) including delivery and handling to your address since this is an Urgent Sale! I need to sell it before 17th February, when I will be deployed in Afghanistan with my platoon replacing the troops scheduled to come home,” she says.
In a follow-up email, the scammer sent a doctored driver’s license and a false military identification card. She refused to send a copy of the car’s title because of “privacy laws.”
The license and military ID might pass muster at first glance, but they have a few giveaways showing them to be false.
No one by Harper’s name is enlisted in the Army, Piek said. He also pointed out that Harper’s driver’s license shows a conspicuously young woman for someone claiming to be 34.
In addition to Harper, Lewis-McChord officials have flagged the names Sgt. John Dugan and Sgt. John Wofford in phony car ads. Each shares the same general story.
Piek said the number of calls about car scams this week and last week was unusual, but he was heartened by the fact that potential buyers checked with the Army before sending money to the scammers.
Civilians can use basic personal information to check whether someone claiming to be an active-duty soldier is in the Army. Those records are available at the Defense Manpower Data Center, https://www.dmdc.osd.mil.
This year, the Defense Department called attention to so-called romance scams in which con artists adopted the identities of well known Lewis-McChord soldiers, including the commanding general, to draw money out of women wanting to help soldiers in trouble.
Adam Ashton: 253-597-8646
adam.ashton@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/military
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