Sandra Eckenreiter of Fairhaven, Massachusetts thought she had met the perfect man.
“He says, 'I’m doing good, but doing better now that you are here, my love,'” she said as she read one of his texts.
She met him on
Match.com. It was her first attempt at Internet dating.
“My husband’s passed. I have four kids,” she explained. “I work, and I work all the time.”
The man told her his name was Sergeant Hill, a soldier stationed in Kabul, and she believed him. He sent her pictures periodically. Him in uniform, holding an American flag; a picture of him chilling in the pool.
She thought she was falling in love with a military man who had the kindest and sweetest words for her. But he raised her suspicion when he asked for a sum of money.
“I asked, 'What do you need money for? You work in the military, you should be getting paid,'" she recalled.
It was at that point that Eckenreiter asked herself, "What am I doing?”
Eckenreiter did a reverse search of Sergeant Hill’s picture online.
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