Impostor - 'One who assumes a false Character'.

Discussion in 'Veteran Accounts' started by von Poop, Feb 4, 2010.

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  1. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Heather
    what's wrong with using logic on this forum? :unsure:

    A conman will use any method open to them to obtain anything they want, so why should a criminal draw a line in the sand and say to themselves that some things are to be respected? For those who wish to 'simply' reap the benefits of using a fake service record or wearing medals to which they aren't entitled, it if wasn't this it'd surely be some other lie in their sad lives.

    One of the quirks of the internet is that identities can be easily fabricated as much as they are innocently masked to keep anonymity. This may make it difficult to unveil fraudsters, but as has been shown previously, these folks always give themselves away eventually. Vigilance and a degree of wariness online should be exercised - the same as for our ordinary 'real' lives.

    I'm glad however that this particular chapter is now closed.
     
  2. Lady Prime

    Lady Prime Discharged

    Heather
    it is unfortunate that there are folk out there who use the internet to indulge in their fantasies.
    Quite possibly the individuals could have a medical personality condition or they are just out to defraud the persons they meet.
    Not sure it will ever cease.
    However it is good that the these folk are eventually outed

    regards
    Clive

    After what happened with me and Ranger6, I belong to two groups that expose scammers/defrauders who "hunt" vulnerable people (men and women are in this group; no discrimination) and expose them.

    I don't think it will ever cease as, in these times, people are worried about their monetary future and will do anything in a desperate attempt to get it...or attention as well.
     
  3. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    After what happened with me and Ranger6, I belong to two groups that expose scammers/defrauders who "hunt" vulnerable people (men and women are in this group; no discrimination) and expose them.

    I don't think it will ever cease as, in these times, people are worried about their monetary future and will do anything in a desperate attempt to get it...or attention as well.

    Hi LP

    I'd put 60% of the British Army thats on tour then on that hit list if my Squadron was anything to go by.

    Just check out squaddies on dating websites; Faceparty is a good one to start with :D

    Regards
    Andy
     
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  4. Lady Prime

    Lady Prime Discharged

    Hi LP

    I'd put 60% of the British Army thats on tour then on that hit list if my Squadron was anything to go by.

    Just check out squaddies on dating websites; Faceparty is a good one to start with :D

    Regards
    Andy

    *Snorts then giggles*

    :lol:
     
  5. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Andy I was thinking of the older person pretending to be a vet or the like

    regards
    Clive
    ex Kings Royal Roman Rifles AC/DC with bar
     
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  6. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Odd. Aint it? I have been accused on several occasions of being a fraud. With the accusation that I was not who I said I was ...That the things i did, could never have taken place...That I was telling the story of someone else.
    Deadly serious these accusations. All I was doing was telling the story of a Royal Engineers Field Company in action,.... I shall never know look like a Vet Why my honesty was questioned.. I just do not know.. Perhaps because so many events are difficult for the civvy to understand? You tell me? One thing I do know that the situation became quite ugly at times.

    That returns to the question. WHY would anyone want to look like a vet? I can see no advantage what so ever in this fraud. If it warrants the title of fraud?
    Sapper
     
  7. Jedburgh22

    Jedburgh22 Very Senior Member

    What does a vet look like - veterans and heros come in all shapes and sizes but the bravest of the brave just look like normal people - and people who were not there cannot possibly know what war is like
     
  8. Jedburgh22

    Jedburgh22 Very Senior Member

  9. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Then you would be amazed at the disbelief when a vet writes about what life is like in action.... The greatest reason why Vets are prevented from telling their stories; is simply that Folk look at them sideways, with doubt written over their faces.

    Would you say anything under those circumstances? Its only a few Vets that are willing to put themselves in the firing line...They are the ones that write HERE. I would suggest that they all have one thing in common.. Determination!
    Sapper
     
  10. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Sapper -
    you got that right - I often wonder how so many people question many of the tales we Vets can tell as if by reading some book or other - gives them more knowledge of how wars are fought - then they expound this newly found knowledge into queries of the actual events.....as I say ..I often scratch my head about that......since we are determined to teach all what war is all about in the faint hope that civilisation can proceed as we would wish and not fall into the trap envisaged by Einstein that WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones -

    I tended to look on my small part of Hitlers downfall as a humorous time and set out to see the fun side of it all - and we must admit that there were times of great humour alongside the tragedy of losing friends violently.

    Stay well Brian- no messing arround in those discos - and love to Shiela
    Cheers Tom
     
  11. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Cheers Tom Mate.
    The Saintly Sheila has gone off to the village hall bingo, along with all the other elderly ladies.... HOUSE!

    Getting back to the having seen action.... One thing that for me has never changed, It is that we have to go out and get ourselves clobbered, to stop some bloody idiot from making a mess of the World... In the same vein as a great loathing for war and all its aspects... I know that more idiots will come along at some time or other.

    One thing is certain. This country paid an extra price in taking part, and that was the loss of the prime of our manhood. The men this country needed to push the country forward after the conflict was over, They were not there!
    Take care Tom .
    sapper
     
  12. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Brian -
    we also lost leaders heavily in the WW1 and then 20 years later - more of the same - in the past 20 years we have seen the frightening loss of those leaders to the extent that you appear to be ruled by ex enemies and the people we helped to liberate -
    those leaders of to-day are the real imposters and thieves of all dignity to allow such a state to prevail.......was it all for nothing Brian - Ron - Niccar - Gerry - Driver -op -and all the other Vets.... ?
    Cheers
     
  13. DanielG

    DanielG Senior Member

    Cheers Tom Mate.
    The Saintly Sheila has gone off to the village hall bingo, along with all the other elderly ladies.... HOUSE!

    Getting back to the having seen action.... One thing that for me has never changed, It is that we have to go out and get ourselves clobbered, to stop some bloody idiot from making a mess of the World... In the same vein as a great loathing for war and all its aspects... I know that more idiots will come along at some time or other.

    One thing is certain. This country paid an extra price in taking part, and that was the loss of the prime of our manhood. The men this country needed to push the country forward after the conflict was over, They were not there!
    Take care Tom .
    sapper
    On that note, I think it is fairly unanimous amongst historians that Newfoundland never recovered from the losses of the best and brightest in WWI.
     
  14. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Then you would be amazed at the disbelief when a vet writes about what life is like in action.... The greatest reason why Vets are prevented from telling their stories; is simply that Folk look at them sideways, with doubt written over their faces.

    Would you say anything under those circumstances? Its only a few Vets that are willing to put themselves in the firing line...They are the ones that write HERE. I would suggest that they all have one thing in common.. Determination!
    Sapper

    And thank God for that!

    Keep the memories and stories coming Brian.
    The fakes, liars and cheap facsimiles all fall by the wayside sooner or later.
     
  15. Jim Lankford

    Jim Lankford Member

    Then you would be amazed at the disbelief when a vet writes about what life is like in action.... The greatest reason why Vets are prevented from telling their stories; is simply that Folk look at them sideways, with doubt written over their faces.

    Would you say anything under those circumstances? Its only a few Vets that are willing to put themselves in the firing line...They are the ones that write HERE. I would suggest that they all have one thing in common.. Determination!
    Sapper


    Based on my experiences with WW2 veterans here in the US, part of the problem, especially in recent years, is faulty memories which raise serious issues regarding their eyewitness accounts.

    Several years ago NPR (National Public Radio) did a story and interview of a veteran who said he took part in the liberation of Dachau. The only problem was that his combat unit never got within twenty miles of the main camp, and if he had been there at the liberation he would have had to be AWOL, and across corps, army, and army group lines.

    His company commander was (he passed away not long ago) a friend of mine so I called him up to see what he had to say. He told me the man in question was a fine soldier, and would not knowingly lie about something he did during the war. The c.o. gave the man a call, and gently reminded him that his unit had participated in the liberation of several sub-camps of the Dachau system. He was, needless to say, embarrassed by the mistake. (I regret to report that after his death, his family continued to claim he took part in the liberation of Dachau, but that is their business, not mine.)

    Here's where things got very weird. It was my job to notify the powers that be at NPR about the mistake. At first they insisted they got the story right, but after the exchange of a few emails, they admitted it was impossible for the veteran to have participated in the liberation of Dachau, but continued to stick by their guns that the story was valuable and newsworthy. To my knowledge NPR never issued a retraction and the story remained unchanged.

    The moral of this is that it is important to do the necessary research to verify that a veteran took part in a particular action…….. not that he is intentionally bending the truth, although that happens sometimes too, but because he might honestly be in error.

    For the record, I’ve not interviewed many veterans over here that demurred from telling me what they knew. To the contrary, some have been willing, crucial eyewitnesses who provided valuable information about a particular action or incident. I’d like to think it was my approach, but in all likelihood it was the years I spent learning the division’s history so I could talk intelligently with a veteran, that and generally earning their trust.
     
  16. londoner

    londoner Member

    I have just read through this thread for the first time. Over the years I have heard my fair share of “tall tales” from one vet or another; equally I have heard many true stories of great heroism and/or giving of themselves for the war effort . Some of the tallest tales I have heard are not from WW2 but from people claiming to have been mercenaries in the Congo, Rhodesia and Vietnam, I say “tall tales” because if true I simply do not know how they can live with themselves.

    I was particularly interested in post 19 about people claiming to have been in the SAS. Until a few years ago I worked for a firm that did business with Hereford and naturally enough our staff and genuine SAS people got friendly. One day the subject of people claiming to be SAS or ex SAS came up. We were told that the starting point for deciding whether genuine or not is to ask the person so claiming “what is on display in the medical centre at Hereford?” and if they know the answer to take enquiries further, if not they are not genuine.David
     
  17. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    My acid test on meeting any ex-serviceman is to simply ask them for their service number.

    Ron
     
  18. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

    When you have lost your inns,' wrote the poet Hilaire Belloc in the 1930s, 'drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England'. He might well have noted if alive today that a pub without an ex SAS man as a local should not be considered a real pub! One particularly entertaining old guy in Shirley, Southampton is so outrageous with his claims of 'Company B!' SAS - he would make John Wayne blush. He tried to spin a line to an old Malaya hand and came a cropper! A few years ago the same pub had a bloke wearing full parachute regiment combats- he made complete fool of himself and was reported to have been spotted a month later with a change of beret and was now a royal marine! You have to wonder.
     
  19. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    I always took folk at the face value..It never occurred to me that they were..Or could be Frauds.. It was only when a good friend had her photo taken alongside a WW2 para officer, Who was so blatantly far too young to have earned the campaign medals he wore.. That was the first time that I began to take a closer look....

    Another thing worth mentioning. Memory! Oh dear oh dear! This 19 year old lad thrust into battle, remembers all of it...Clear and sharp. Though when the war caught up with me, and i teetered on the edge of leaving this mortal coil, I did lose some memory and cannot get it back. I am aware that many vets are incapable of remembering anything from those days

    BY the way Tom and Ron. In reality I am a Ballet Dancer....Big Grin!

    PS Could some one tell me the place where they buy free beer for old vets? I have not found it yet...But I live in hopes! Even bigger grin!
     
  20. londoner

    londoner Member

    Yes and then there is the propaganda that became folk lore or facts. Eating carrots help you to see in the dark and hundreds of burnt German bodies being washed up on the beaches of Suffolk from a repelled invasion are two of many that spring to mind from my childhood.
    As to service numbers I recently asked a customer for his phone number and he gave me what appeared to me to be some set of random numbers, on asking again he apologised and said it was his Army service number. He was about 70 and spoke in a broad Lincolnshire accent, this all sparked an interest so I asked him if his service had taken him anywhere interesting - he replied "yes London, never been before, never been since".
    I would certainly, and have done, buy any vet a drink in return for recollections of his/her experiences.
     

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