Soldiers Catfished Into Sextortion Trouble By *Hot Women (*Male Prisoners)
Inmates in South Carolina have been casting a wide net & reeling in that sweet, sweet commissary money. Their method? Blackmailing our nation’s finest (and sometimes most gullible) – the junior enlisted soldier who’s full of testosterone & out on his own with a paycheck for the first time in his life.
Via the Sacramento Bee:
Soldiers thought they were meeting a woman around their age on a dating app, according to a search warrant filed in Charleston federal court. But after the men started messaging with the “woman,” they received unsolicited nude photos. Then “her father” chimed in to say his “daughter” is underage and that he’ll call the police — unless the soldier sends him money.
The search warrants accuse inmates in the South Carolina Department of Corrections in what the Army calls a “sextortion” scheme that has been running since at least 2015. U.S. Army investigators filed the search warrant this month to get access to two Gmail accounts belonging to the alleged scammers.
According to the warrant the dating app most often used in this scheme is “PlentyOfFish”. It’s free of charge but sort of notorious for being on the shadier side (unlike classier sites like SquirterConnections or AdultClamJammer).
The South Carolina inmates pretend to be around the same age as the soldiers they are targeting and move out of the app to talking by text message. Then come the nude photos and the angry “father” threatening the soldier and demanding money or he will call the cops, the warrant says.
Young military members are known to buy cars with astronomical interest from places that spell cars like ‘Karz’ owned by a man named “Crazy Eddie”. When I was in it also wasn’t uncommon for my mil-buddies to believe the local strippers “really, really did like them”. Even I fell victim to mall kiosk rip-offs on paydays where I couldn’t wait to go out & blow it all in the dumbest possible ways.. so I’m not shocked some of these guys are getting scammed.
Advertisement
…So yeah, I do feel a little sympathy for them. Especially these days where social media plays such an important part in military life. You’re often traveling, far from friends & family, etc. so a lot of relationships take place online. And I don’t think it’s shameful to share nudes & sext with someone if you *think* you’re dating them.
I can only imagine the command’s reaction when a soldier comes to them with this story needing help, and it makes me wonder how many have kept it to themselves & actually paid these inmates. No doubt there’s some gents sitting on a massive pile of cigs & Dinty Moore Stew in a SC cell.
All this catfish talk got me wondering what the origin of ‘catfish’ was anyway & it goes back to the original Catfish documentary with Nev Schulman (who went on to make the MTV show). At one point he speaks with his own catfish’s husband, who used to be a fisherman:
“They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They’d keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn’t have somebody nipping at our fin.”
So that’s where the term was born. Huh. I always thought it was because you’re like “oh look at that nice thicc sturgeon-fish” & then it winds up being a catfish that has a weird mustache thing going on no matter the gender, but you don’t realize it until you see them up close.
Anyways, cheers to all the soldiers that will have to sit through long safety brief PowerPoint presentations about this now. At least in worldwide catfishing news other soldiers still have it worse??