I think I’ve met with the same guy… That is, I’ve gotten looong mails from a supposedly US officer presently deployed in Afghanistan.
Long love letters, but with some strange typos and capitaltizations, and lots and lots of talk of God (God is great etc.), kinda reminds me of Muslims (the stereotype of the "devout Muslim" [no slurs intended, it’s just it doesen’t seem in character with an American officer type]).
Got some pictures, and in one of them, it’s exactly like the ones I’ve found here, the one where he stands with his arms crossed. Exact same way he has his fingers, and there’s a vein on his R hand that stands out, that’s clearly the same.
It was his last mail that made me suspicious:
"Richard Hannett
6. apr. 2019, 07:44 (for 2 døgn siden)
til meg
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Hi, dear, Thank you for the picture, You so look pretty, and i admire you for that... I'm sorry to make you worry about me that way; the Activities of my work and the growing attacks of the bad guys kept me occupied with lots of work to do. How are you doing today and I hope you do well and also in good condition. There is something that I would like to tell you that is good news for us; My retirement has been approved and this means that I will be coming to meet you soon at any moment when I'm finally relieved from active duty. The senior commanding general made the announcement this morning and luckily I will be among the next batch of officers to receive retirement approval and be relieved of active duties. On Thursday, all retiring officers will be going to Central Damascus, Syria, for our final psychological evaluation before final relieve, and I'm going to travel with a lot of my luggage which are not to be safe. So I have been thinking and I have decided that it would be best for me to send over my Luggage to you containing my personal belongings which I will need when I arrive in Norway because I can't carry all along with me to the Psychological evaluations, it's not safe there either. It will be delivered to your home address in Norway, Ciel you will keep it safe for me and wait for my arrival. I need to let you know that I'm serious when I told you about my intention to spend the rest of my life with you, to spend a pleasant time together and take a collective decision on how to spend the rest of our life together. I need your full name as it is on your ID, home address, and mobile phone number; Send them to my email now. I also need you to keep me in your constant prayers and tell me about the international airport that is near your city. Take care of yourself and always stay safe...."
The bit about the full name etc.: A Google search on me gived my phone# and address on Yellow Pages, and a Goolg.e search on international airports around Oslo leads you to Oslo Airport Gardermon (OSL) pretty quick…
I also got contacted on Google Hangouts. He once sent med four pictures, I’ve traced two of them to belong to a reak Richard Hannett in USA, in New York (on FB, but his profile is empty except for a bunch of pictures, one of them of the guy with the dogs, with no friends, no likes, no nothing, so that may well be fake, too…
I never answered his last mail, and haven’t heard from him since April 6th.
His mail address is richardhannett7007@gmail.com. He’s also on Instagram (that’s where he found me first…).
I’ll look into the links posted here about scammers using his name. Thanks!
And look out for love letters from this fake Richard Hannett!