Prison Inmates Catfished $560,000 Out of Military Service Members in Sextortion Scam, NCIS Says (gizmodo.com)

Hundreds of military service members reportedly got caught up in a sextortion scam run by prison inmates using cellphones, according to a release issued by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). From a report: Military agents from multiple criminal investigation groups have served summons and issued warrants for arrests related to the scheme. According to the NCIS, South Carolina and North Carolina prison inmates, assisted by outside accomplices, sought out service members through dating sites and social media, then took on false identities, feigned romantic interest, and exchanged photos.

Once the inmates had successfully catfished their targets, they would then pose as the father of the fake persona, insisting their child was underage and that the target had therefore committed a crime by exchanging photos. In some situations, the "father" claimed he wouldn't press charges if the target gave him money. Sometimes the catfisher would pose as law enforcement requesting money for the family.

Comments

This is why

[phantomfive]

This is why bitcoin will always have a use.

Re:This is why

[mermeid007]

LOL this is also why you should only meet women at a local bar. At least you know they are 21 and live nearby and you probably have friends in common.

Re:This is why

[mermeid007]

or 19 in Canada or whatever the drinking age is

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

Long story short, this is why you're a basement-dwelling slashdotter, you're taking down notes of an NCIS investigation on how these military personnel got it going with the babes... and you read the comments to make sure you won't get victimized

Re:This is why

[b0s0z0ku]

Or, if you're using a dating site, exchange phone numbers as quickly as possible, chat on the phone, and meet in person. Don't do stupid **** like exchanging nude photos with people you've never met.

Re:This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why bitcoin will always have a use.

To criminals yes, but not to ordinary citizens. In the United States a felony conviction is essentially the same things as permanent exile from both polite society and decent economic opportunities. As the connection between Bitcoin and crime becomes more and more firmly cemented in the public consciousness there will be fewer and fewer persons willing to touch it with a ten foot pole. Meanwhile, the US Government has every incentive to push Bitcoin into the same category as money laundering or illegal drugs, at which point no legitimate financial institution will want anything to do with it. This effect can be observed already with the marijuana industry, where no chartered financial institution wants anything to do with it because they know that the US Government can revoke their banking license for willfully and knowingly handling that money. No corporation is going to risk that, it's not worth it, and I suspect that in the end many citizens will come to the same conclusion about Bitcoin; namely that it's for criminals and scammers and not them.

Re:This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit you will know they are 21 in a bar, were you never under 21 in a bar?

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad. If you sneak into a bar you are breaking the law and you canâ(TM)t bull shit your way out of that. So donâ(TM)t date girls in the restaurant only the bar

Re: This is why

[phantomfive]

Polite society doesn't exclude people because they've made mistakes in the past. That is almost the definition of polite.

Re:This is why

[gravewax]

It may be a tool for use, but it isn't necessary and wouldn't change a thing if it was gone. They have a wide array of options without bitcoin.

Re:This is why

[hairyfeet]

Actually I had a friend the cops tried to pin a statutory story on who met a girl at a bar, she had a fake ID. Judge took one look and tossed it out, still cost him lawyers fees.

Re:This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

big assumption that the bar is checking ages. my younger sister never had any problem getting into bars underage.

Re:This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

Bars are a terrible place to meet women and it pretty much fucks over anybody even remotely introverted.

Plus who the fuck meets at bars. Maybe if you're looking for a one night stand and don't mind getting the clap, but I don't think anybody else does. Certainly not anybody I know.

Re:This is why

[dryeo]

There was a case here in Canada, back in the '50's I believe, where some poor guy picked up a girl at the bar, believing she was of age, got caught fucking her and charged with statutory rape. Due to the way the law was written, believing the girl was of age was not a defence and he got 5 years. The Judge was very apologetic when sentencing the guy but the law was the law.
Shortly after, due to this case, the law was changed so that believing a girl was of age was a defence.

Re: This is why

[dryeo]

You can politely torture someone to death and many an asshole is polite about it. Civilized people will forgive people for mistakes made in the past.

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

+1 - never

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

The defence is known as the "presumption of regularity" where you can assume another individual is law abiding: hence it was reasonable to believe she was 21+.

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

Look cuck: bars are great places to get laid. I also enjoy meeting chicks on busses, planes, in queues, out on the street, down the beach, etc... I'm not good looking, but put me in a position to *talk* to a women and I can generally bed her, which (for me) is the main true failing of bars. If I find myself out somewhere and can no longer talk to girls, I just call it in, as I know I'm just wasting my time.

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

of course it does, politeness has nothing to do with it. I think you mean CIVILIZED society doesn't exclude people for making a mistake. Though for many felons it was anything but a mistake (except for the getting caught part).

Re: This is why

[uncqual]

If a girl under 18 sneaks into the bar and you do her, even with her consent, your "She must have been 21 because she was in the bar" defense won't save you.

There are guys who even checked a girl's convincing fake ID and relied on that as proof of her being over 18 yet have ended up convicted of statutory rape (although, I doubt police would get away with fake ids in a sting operation -- that would likely be crossing the entrapment threshold).

Re:This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

They're only carded if the barman thinks they look under 21. So you're fucking a 15 year old, welcome to the penitentiary biatch!

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

citation needed

Re:This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, if you're using a dating site, exchange phone numbers as quickly as possible, chat on the phone, and meet in person. Don't do stupid **** like exchanging nude photos with people you've never met.

Too much common sense!!!! You must be one of the few left.

Re:This is why

[drinkypoo]

The Judge was very apologetic when sentencing the guy but the law was the law.

Are judges in Canada legally obligated to return a guilty verdict? If so, that's crap. If not, that judge wasn't sorry in the least.

Re:This is why

[DNS-and-BIND]

Judges judge according to the law. Not according to what our feelings might be that day. I know that's a weird idea to the far left, but here we are.

Re: This is why

[DNS-and-BIND]

When you prove you can't play with others, the adults come and take away your toys. A felony is a very serious crime and it is appropriate to lose some civil rights afterwards, like being able to own a gun. The only reason it's an issue is that people who commit serious crimes are overwhelmingly Democrats. Republicans practice what they preach about being law-abiding. Aside from a few outliers, you simply don't find Republicans committing felonies. However Democrats have a big problem on their side of the aisle with criminals.

Re:This is why

[drinkypoo]

Judges judge according to the law. Not according to what our feelings might be that day. I know that's a weird idea to the far left, but here we are.

Is that what they told you? They lied, and you believed it.

Re:This is why

[JackieBrown]

Depends on where you live. In Texas, you are carded if you look under 40.

Re:This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

If that were true, then legal precedent wouldn't be a thing, and if you got a ticket for doing 36 in a 35 you'd get a ticket. Fact is, legal precedent is a thing, and if a cop were to ticket you for doing 36 in a 35, the judge is going to toss it out and admonish the cop for wasting the courts time.

Re:This is why

[squiggleslash]

As far as I'm aware Canada has a court system modeled on Britain's, where Judges don't generally render verdicts at all, but leave that to a Jury, or the defendant themselves if they choose to plead guilty.

(And, while it's not relevant here, while Jury Nullification is a thing, where a Jury refuses to issue a guilty verdict for a clearly guilty defendant on the grounds the law itself is unjust, it's also not supposed to be used except in extreme cases and a Judge who tells a jury of its existence - indeed, a lawyer who tells a jury of the principle, would be disciplined. But obviously that doesn't factor in here, where you appear to be accusing a Judge, not a jury, of hypocrisy.)

Re:This is why

[drinkypoo]

Well, I know bugger-all about the Canadian court system, but here in the USA you don't have to exercise your right to a trial by jury. I also know nothing about the possibly apocryphal anecdote in question. So at this phase, I'm all about asking questions :p

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

...I'm not good looking, but put me in a position to *talk* to a women and I can generally bed her...

Wow, you're so awesome...ly dumb. Sounds like something a 14 yo virgin would say. Oh, and you're ugly to boot.

Re:This is why

[thomn8r]

were you never under 21 in a bar

Many times

Re:This is why

[thomn8r]

Are judges in Canada legally obligated to return a guilty verdict?

No, but they're legally obligated to apologize.

Re: This is why

[phantomfive]

Well you're not an adult.

Re:This is why

[dryeo]

The guy was guilty as the law was written, so the Judge had no reason to throw the case out as the facts were clear. There was also no right about double jeopardy at the time so if the Judge had thrown it out, there could well have been a new trial. Really the Crown shouldn't have pursued the case but they did. Perhaps the whole idea was to force Parliament into fixing a bad law, which happened. At the time, Parliament was Supreme and Judges almost never bucked the law. That changed when we got our Charter of Rights in '82.
Whether a jury was involved, I do not know, but even jury nullification wouldn't stop an appeal and the nullification thrown out at the time. That changed when juries kept nullifying Morganteller, an abortionist as the population as a whole got pissed off about it and our politicians do listen sometimes.

Re:This is why

[dryeo]

A ticket for 36 in a 35 zone is within the margin of error of the radar gun or whatever and would be a reason for the Judge to throw it out.

Re:This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

In theory all judges and juries are required to give a guilty verdict if the defendant is factually guilty of violating the law.

Jury nullification is a bug in the system whereby because the jurors decide whether the evidence is sufficient proof there isn't really any recourse if they all juts decide to consider no amount of evidence sufficient proof.

Re:This is why

[dryeo]

Our right to a jury is not as strong as in America. Basically it only kicks in at the possibility of getting over 5 years in prison and I believe people are less likely to elect trial by jury. Not sure if the case resulted in 5 years plus a day or less a day, both common on the books due to that 5 year thing.

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

The only reason it's an issue is that people who commit serious crimes are overwhelmingly Democrats. Republicans practice what they preach about being law-abiding.

Citation please.

I mean, that is a pretty decisive statement about criminals, one that should be easy enough to study and should have been done. Given how many felons we have, it shouldn't be to hard to figure out their political faction before committing those crimes thus there should be some study out there that you could reference.

Or is this more of your divisive bullshit that you troll the comments with?

Re:This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

I get carded in the DC metro area all the time. I am 60.

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

And what does that make you for pointing it out? Super duper lives forever with his parents basement dweller?

Re:This is why

[DNS-and-BIND]

Leftist judges judge not according to something as outdated and stodgy as the law. No. They judge according to their *feelings*. If something gives them a bad feeling, they rule against it. Hell of a way to run a jurisprudence, eh?

Re: This is why

[DNS-and-BIND]

You neither engaged with my ideas nor refuted my premises. You merely called me names. This is the address hominem logical fallacy. Please try again. Look into the political affiliations of criminals and let us all know if they are Republican or Democrat.

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh, heh, heh, look it up. You won't like what you find. The proportion is like 95/5. Why do you think the Democrats kick up such a fuss about felons voting? Criminals are a huge part of their constituents!

Re: This is why

[phantomfive]

This time I will directly address the idea in your post: you don't understand logical fallacies. It wasn't ad hominem, it was abuse. Learn the difference.

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

I met a blind girl in the ladies room. I snuck in after her and snuck into the handicap stall she opened. When she sat down to crap I already had my dick out and slipped right in. Best fuck I ever had.

Re: This is why

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit. Age of consent in Canada was 14 until 2008.

Re:This is why

[gravewax]

In most countries judges have very little leeway. Which on the whole is a good thing as a judge is not supposed to be deciding the good from the bad laws, they are supposed to rule and sentence according to the laws laid out before them. Yes that sometimes leads to cases which looked fucked up, but that needs to be fixed by those writing the laws.

Re: This is why

[Cederic]

That's a tricky one. I can't find any recent cases where this is explicitly the situation but there are a lot of legal advice pages (including from actual lawyers) stating that statutory rape is a strict liability offence to which "the child's fake ID showed them to be of age" is not a defence.

In the UK it's a bit easier: The legal age to drive is a year older than the legal age to have sex so only fuck people that own a car.

Re: This is why

[ImprovOmega]

Actually, since we're talking about U.S. military service members here, the UCMJ governs. And weirdly, under the UCMJ Article 120 it is an affirmative defense to show that a) the person in question was at a minimum over 12 years of age AND b) the service member reasonably believed that the person in question was over the age of 16.

So if a service member was subject to a court martial for having sex with an underage girl who was, say, 15 years old but in a bar with a fake ID. He could present evidence to the effect that a) she was in a bar drinking so he reasonably believed she was over 21, AND b) she is in reality 15 years old so he can use this defense.

MOST states do not allow this, but I bring it up because it is a quirk in the UCMJ which applies to folks in the military.

Re:This is why

[sound vision]

You can keep hitting up the bars, that just means a better pool of women left for me. Oh, and better beer for me at the grocery store.

keep in mind mildec lulzboat

[trumpai]

You know in brexit penal colony system war equals peace, freedom equals slavery, etc.. so they are not talking about prison inmated, but about special forces "inmates" embedded in penal colony system. Fake news here in lithuania ran this "prison inmates" scam for more than decade. You know every day there would be stories in 5 page about gullible pensioners, mothers, fathers, etc succumbing and believing tales from the crypts as told on the phone. Usually it's much simpler narratives - you know mother receives a phonecall from son who says he crashed a car in the accident. Someone is hurt badly. The victim is willing not to press charges if son pays some sort of "reasonable" amount of money - thousands of euros. Police is in on it. What is interesting is the "acting" part. You know impersonation, mimicking, etc.. Victims would always be fooled even if it's closest person in their lives. So we are talking about military business - meat and bones of NSA - "non state actors" so called naval support activity of SEAORG.

Re: keep in mind mildec lulzboat

[Anonymous Coward]

Listen dawg the Seaborg only pays money to the church and refers junior members to a decade or more of hard labor.

They are not nearly as wholesome as you might think. Live on their ship and they will torture you by making you watch hot babes run by your house while all you can do is Sean the deck. I love it here. Most evil like yourself mister evil whispers

Re: keep in mind mildec lulzboat

[Anonymous Coward]

op here. I depleted my limit of 2 post per 24 hours. so i'm replying as anonymous.
as far as seaorg goes i had in mind second hand silky roads of buttpiracy and kings of vi. You know how "batman" is real rank of royal brexit navy? You know it's a derivative from "buttman". Higher ranking officers have some sort of personal butlers, servants, serfs, etc... In other words there is no need to differentiate navies - there is only one navy that is divided for conquering purposes and uses various flags of convenience. To make matters interesting we have not only ships, but aircraft carriers: planes, trains, automobiles, etc.. At this point you have to add to equation space travels and boring companies and of course all harry potter bullshit, salem witch trials and tribulations, etc.. In this sense SEAORG is just one of the flags of convenience, comfort table of numbing, etc..
So you're making mistake trying to defend the shitbags as they are not under attack. They are on the chopping block. Keep in mind that NAVY is also institution where higher ranking scumbags are required to walk around armed with a sword, dagger, etc.. as if they are some sort of adherents to the faith of sikhs, tajiks, talibans, etc. So navy as the whole walked the plank of red carpet pride parades together with Osama Bin Laden body. You know when they stormed and "killed" Osama Bin Laden in that strange compound situated right next to pakistan military academy equivalent to West Point, NY. So what i'm hinting about is that there was never Osama Bin Laden to begin with. Pure fiction from start to finish.

Re: keep in mind mildec lulzboat

[Anonymous Coward]

You need to retake English starting at 3rd grade level.
You literally write like a broken chatbot and aren't getting your point across at all.

Hah, post limits...hahahahaha. I get 20 a day and I haven't logged in since the 90's. You are being very annoying to have been pushed down to 2 a day.

Re: keep in mind mildec lulzboat

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to resort to using proxy to fight this censorship of CIA lemon party gestapo. You know i'm rioting next to stonewallers. Keep in mind that rainbows do not forget they do not forgive. Expect them. Deficits do matter.
  No. You're using one of the methods to the madness for stifling free speech. It's about those rainbow boys who entertain themselves by squealing about wolves on fire in a crowded audience of moving war theater. You know if you're startled to the point where you believe that your life is in danger you will very quickly stop picking nose and start looking for exit towards higher ground of security and safety. Problem is the equality regime of "flat earth". There is no higher ground. To make matters interesting feature presentation on the stage of military war theater is the documentary about wolves on fire. Of course majority of the audience in such war theaters are wolves who are wearing skin of stonewalling of the lambs.
You know it's about weapons of "love trumps hate". Tar budget scumbags go around trumping with love everything you hate. It's like those PC babies in south park, but it's not so explicit. So for the blind inhabitants of the kingdom it's more the territory of "vibes" - scanners, carrie, "they live", etc..Your come across as if your motivation is love for the sake of higher power, commonwealth and common good. So the the attack is always engineered in such ways that target has to adopt grateful dead position. It's for his own good. You know he doesn't want to be outsider, he wants to be "one of us - gooba gobble". Otherwise he is with the terrorists. Thats how zombie brain is wired about architecture of "civilization". It's about dynamic pyramid of caste system constructed by using psychiatry as object oriented clockwork orange cuckoos nest. So it's a form of directed energy warfare pogroms by those gently and softly speaking landed gentry men. You know it's about achieving submission state of "non violent resistance" where they can conduct most outrageous bullshit through brains of zombies and get away with it. So "fake news" is obviously something intended as part of shits and giggles on this journey. You know "resistance" is a property measurable in physics of electricity - something related to conductivity. Their tongue serves as balancing stick for flogging inhabitants of the fair towards various final solution amusement rides. So red handed gandhi and bloodsucking mother teresas are false idols on par with hitler, stalin, etc.. Couple years ago CIA homos erected monument for gandhi 5 miles from my home. But new rewised history is that Gandhi was buttboy of some strange "lithuanian" borat who was in charge of Gandhi. Strangely enough nobody has ever heard about this "lithuanian".

Re: keep in mind mildec lulzboat

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually had someone call me, claiming my brother was in a car accident 5 states away with this guy's brother who was kinda a crazy. And what are "we" going to do about it? The guy had a clear Brooklyn accent. Too bad this guy picked the wrong person to try and scam. My brother was in a serious accident a year before and 5 states away and is a paraplegic. So I told him that and then he tries to claim it was my father in the accident. I just lost my dad 3 months ago to ALS. So I told the scammer that dad hasn't driven in over a year because of ALS. The guy starts yelling at me, telling me I'm not listening to him etc., meanwhile I'm laughing at him on the phone. He seriously tried one last time to claim it was my brother which made me laugh harder....end result, he hung up.

It was one of few times my family's tragedies made me laugh.

- geekpoet

Re: keep in mind mildec lulzboat

[Anonymous Coward]

Huh?

Discharge them

[Anonymous Coward]

These service members paid money to hide what they thought was a crime. Their intentions were unethical and dishonorable. They should be kicked out.

Re: Discharge them

[Anonymous Coward]

Service members donâ(TM)t have the worldly ways even though they can sure punch a guy damned hard. Too much for some to handle but some scams tow your car or use vicious little dogs to scare you.

Re:Discharge them

[b0s0z0ku]

Did they intend to commit a crime, though -- i.e. did the fake dating profiles have a birth date that was over 18 years ago? This is basically an online variant of the old scam. Women gets a guy drunk, takes him home from a bar, they get naked. Random guy bursts in on them naked. Guy either pretends to be:

(1) The woman's angry husband, who'll report the guy to his CO for adultery
(2) An angry pimp demanding payment
(3) The woman's father, and the woman is actually 16.
(4) An undercover cop investigating a prostitution ring.

Either way, some money changes hands and everyone is on their merry way.

Re: Discharge them

[Anonymous Coward]

Is what discharge mean is to be free to be in wonderful place of sleep

Re: Discharge them

[Anonymous Coward]

That's it... victimize them twice. /s

Re:Discharge them

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't matter whether they intended to commit a crime, if any of those men had security clearances, those clearances should be revoked.

It's one thing to be online dating somebody, but to put yourself in a position where you can be blackmailed or extorted for favors is ridiculous.

Re:Discharge them

[Anonymous Coward]

[...] This is basically an online variant of the old scam. [...]

From which TV show?

Re:Discharge them

[gnasher719]

This is basically an online variant of the old scam

Forsyte wrote a nice short story about this theme. With the added twist that the victim was an ex bomb disposal expert.

Re:Discharge them

[Anonymous Coward]

Random guy bursts in on them naked. Guy either pretends to be:

(1) The woman's angry husband, who'll report the guy to his CO for adultery

The woman came willingly, so toss him out forcibly. Nobody interrupts me during sex. I am not sorry for someone who doesn't take care of his wife.

(2) An angry pimp demanding payment

Bah. Most places, prostitution is not legal so he has no case. Toss him out - badly beaten if need be. In a place where prostitution is legal - she didn't ask me for money, she came willingly, so get rid of the intruder anyway. Even whores can have lovers if they want to. Nobody interrupts me during sex.

(3) The woman's father, and the woman is actually 16.

Toss him out - nobody interrupts me . . .

(4) An undercover cop investigating a prostitution ring.

He had better have som ID to show then - and also prove that he has some uniformed backup. Or I assume he is a fraud, and toss him. Especially since I didn't pay the woman so it wasn't prostitution. Nobody interrupts . . .

Either way, money don't change hands. Unless they are capable of robbery.

More proof....

[b0s0z0ku]

that the military isn't composed of the best and the brightest. "Military intelligence" is a fine oxymoron.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

This is blatantly offensive. It takes more to get into the military now than to get into college. You need to have at least graduated high school. Less than 30% of the population qualifies. Many fail because they are fat slobs with big mouths. Oh, and you need to get out of your basement to join the military.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

When I joined the AF it's acceptance was higher than the Army, and yet I watched guys collect after-shave to drink, and had test scores of 30(or less) out of 100. Yup, high quality recruits!

Re:More proof....

[b0s0z0ku]

I intend to be offensive. Fuck the American culture of hero-worship of anyone in a uniform and with a gun.

Re:More proof....

[AHuxley]

AC AF equipment is expensive. Most nations test and re test their AF people to ensure their AF can "fly" when needed.
The AF is one part of the mil that has to "work" as people/media tend to notice the flying part.
Its not like a ship/sub that can be returned to port and have contractors repair for months in secret.
A new tank that can be put on the back of a big truck and repaired later.

Spending millions only to find out later that a person will never be able to fly is another problem many AF took decades to study and understand.
AF got tired of having so many pilots who could not take the g forces.

The other end of the scale was Project 100,000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... that accepted random people well below all military mental or medical standards.

The question for US "Military Intelligence" now is to show all "chat" was 100% domestic to the USA.
The complex intelligence work of another friendly nations "military intelligence" :)
Another nation doing intelligence gathering on all ranks of the US mil?

Re:More proof....

[Solandri]

The data contradicts your belief. Military enlistees are better educated, have higher IQs, and come from wealthier families than their peers in the general population.

Entrapment schemes like the one described in TFA are by their very definition designed to trap people who are behaving normally and reasonably. If there's any selection bias going on, it'd be on the part of the scammers. They might deliberately target military personnel because the potential penalty for being entrapped is much greater for military personnel (prison + dishonorable discharge) than for civilians (only prison), making them more likely to pay the extortion fee.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

We need to give all our football mascots guns. See how that works.

Re:More proof....

[ShanghaiBill]

Most people in the USAF are not pilots, and don't fly as part of their job.

Sure, the USAF has multi-million dollar equipment, but they also have floors to sweep and potatoes to peel.

Re:More proof....

[ShanghaiBill]

Fuck the American culture of hero-worship of anyone in a uniform and with a gun.

The hero worship increases proportionally to the square of the distance from the nearest military base. When travelling in uniform, people would buy me drinks. But just off base, lawns would have signs that said "Dogs and Marines Keep off the Grass". Familiarity breeds contempt.

Semper fi.

Re: More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

Clinton contacted that out. No, seriously, in his "balance the budget" scam, he contacted out almost all of that. Some of his friends got a hefty payout to their"minority owned small business" and he got to defer military costs by a year, giving a "balanced budget" that has cost a few tens of billion dollars in defense contractor profits since

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah.... no. I had a quite a few in my senior years at school that decided they couldn't make it college so their fallback was the military. realistically the vast majority of positions in the military require that you can follow orders and have a basic level of fitness. It is a great fallback for many that don't have the brains or education level to get far in civilian life.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

When I joined the AF it's acceptance was higher than the Army, and yet I watched guys collect after-shave to drink, and had test scores of 30(or less) out of 100. Yup, high quality recruits!

The AF also has by far the most horribly pervasive and ingrained culture of evangelical Christianity of all the branches. Enough said.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

that contempt is usually well earned and easy to understand how peoples view would improve at distance. I have lived near a military base and the lack of respect for the local community and property by those from the base was atrocious. It is actually something I would always look at in future to ensure a place I buy is not near a base.

Re: More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but military contracting is still counted as military expenditures for budget purposes. Prior to the Rs taking back Congress under Obama, the AF was working to "in-source" a lot of the support jobs formerly contracted out to private outfits like CH2M/Hill because of the massive waste and corruption they were engaged in.
With the R's in control of all three branches, the feeding troughs are back in business for military contractors.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

I am guessing your in the military if you think that that article contradicts his assertion? being better than 1/3 of the population is hardly a high bar (or to put it another way, you can be below average and do well in the military) and it doesn't say they are better educated, it says that they have a high school diploma as that is a requirement for the majority. yes the article tries to word it in a confusing way to make the military sound better, but the details are right there in the article.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

All that the "data" prove is that the U.S. is so poorly educated and suffers from so much inequality that even the minimal recruitment standards they impose put the mean of enlistees above that of the average population. That doesn't even come close to making them the "best and brightest," let alone even particularly smart.
It just means they have successfully kept out REALLY stupid, poor, and uneducated people.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just familiarity, it's that there's an increase in malfeasance. Sure, it's not every service person that misbehaves, but seeing a couple will make far more of an impression than dozens that are behaving themselves.

But, there's also the issue that an awful lot of those places with bases are also places with people that are educated enough to know that the biggest threats to America come from the things that the military does. 9/11 was a direct consequence of the military's involvement in the Middle East and the CIA's funding of Osama Bin Ladin.

We'd be far safer if the military would just stay out of foreign conflicts that have nothing to do with us.

Re: More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, if being right smack at 50% is the norm, then isn't being right smack at 30% worse?

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

You give thanks to the marines who, right or wrong, faught for your freedom, your rights, and your way of life, for you.

Wars are seldom just, often over resources, and are often due to a total failure of the political and investor class to treat those they are supposed to look after with self-respect and dignity. Sometimes society makes mistakes, and sometimes a lot of people get drug into the gutter right along with those mistakes. Long history there if you care to go look.

Frankly, Fuck the people who don't make investments in politics and their own interests to keep us from getting there in the first place.

Buy a Marine a beer. Not every one of em' is good at what they do, but at least they did it for you.

Re: More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately the bullshit is pretty universal.

Re: More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't understand, the US military is a *welfare* scheme that is somewhat palatable to the far right. Think about it.

Re:More proof....

[DNS-and-BIND]

Oh look, an America-hating leftist. How unusual.

Re:More proof....

[Hognoxious]

It is a great fallback for many that don't have the brains or education level to get far in civilian life.

Especially the ones who aren't violent enough to be police officers.

Re: More proof....

[bradley13]

Fine, but first: can you please explain how the US military went from being reviled in the 70's to the hero worship of today? I really do not understand this, given that the wars of the past couple of decades have been even less honorable and less justified than Vietnam.

Re:More proof....

[Pikoro]

And this is why we will never get proper healthcare or cheaper education in the USA.

See, if college/university were within the grasp of "the plebs" and healthcare were more affordable, then nobody would enlist in the military anymore because the primary reason of joining are those 2 things.

Nobody honestly signs up to become a bullet sponge.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

Aww, look, the drug addicted coward hates military members. I can only guess he is Canadian or one of those fake anarchists who really just want to be able to victimize people while they, themselves, are protected by laws.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess university taught you how to an over-entitled little bitch who complains about the people who sacrifice so he can say how horrible they are. Why don't you move to Cuba. Or to Russia so you can be with buddy, that traitor and spy Snowden?

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a veteran. I guess my reading comprehension must be lacking. My understanding is that cutting off the bottom 1/3 is the starting point. From there you need to remove those with criminal records, health problems, and can't pass a PT test (which isn't that hard). Boot camp is as much about weeding out people who have no chance of handling combat stress as it is training. After boot camp, academy, ROTC, or OCS, you go to your job's school. The school will further weed out people who can't hack it. The job training isn't like college where you can just take the class again and gain. Depending on the school, you will be sent to an easier job if you fail a portion. If you then fail that, you are given the boot. Some enlisted schools are notorious for being tough. EOD is the poster child for tough enlisted schools. To further trim the fat, the services will kick you out if you don't get promotions in a very generous time frame. Judging from my interactions with various ranks, it seems to work pretty well. I would describe most general officers as equanimous.
It isn't perfect, some real pieces of work get through, but generally GIs can be relied on to show up on time and do their job.

Contractors is one of the reasons I got out. They were often paid twice as much for the same job, or in some cases, an easier job. Relying on contractors is also a great way for GI skills to get stale. In my situation, the companies told the government that the military was too stupid to do what they were doing and the government believed them. What they were doing was basically junior level systems administration that the GIs were perfectly capable of doing. How the company ended up in the position is a long story, but it isn't due to inept officers. Technology improvements changed the nature of the job from highly specialized and outside the skills of normal IT to normal IT. The end result was wasted money, substandard service, and poor GI retention. The GIs either got out, did whatever they could to get transferred, or in certain circumstances ended up with a lack of skills and low confidence. In the latter situation, it was people who didn't choose IT with no background in it and came straight from school. It took a while, I had been out for a while when it happened, but eventually the company doing the junior admin stuff was caught in their BS and canned. Since commanders are replaced every two years, they probably didn't get enough exit interviews from GIs transferring or separating to notice the pattern.

Re:More proof....

[drinkypoo]

The data contradicts your belief. Military enlistees are better educated, have higher IQs, and come from wealthier families than their peers in the general population.

More of them have graduated high school, but less of them have graduated college, so I'm not sure you can call them better educated. In fact, I'm sure you can't. IQ scores are largely bullshit, but they are irrelevant to your argument since your fine citation states that they only discard the lowest third of applicants by IQ, not anything about what those scores are. If most of the people who apply to join the military have below-average IQ, then they can discard the bottom third and still wind up with an average IQ which is below the national average. As for wealthier families, your own source also states that this could reasonably be because poorer families are less likely to produce qualified applicants. I figure it's because of confirmation bias, though. People whose basic needs are met are more likely to believe that the military is part of people having their basic needs met. If they're not very smart, which as we've established is not screened out by the military enlistment procedure, then this might seem very reasonable. And there's no correlation between income and intelligence, so that washes ok.

TL;DR: Your citation proves only that military members aren't poor, not that they aren't stupid.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, no sex before marriage then!

Re: More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

Because they dropped the draft.

Re:More proof....

[JackieBrown]

And yet has the most progressive treatment of women.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

That's how I feel about teachers and democrats.

Re: More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

Fine, but first: can you please explain how the US military went from being reviled in the 70's to the hero worship of today? I really do not understand this, given that the wars of the past couple of decades have been even less honorable and less justified than Vietnam.

The 70s were the anomaly, anointing soldiers and first responders heroes has been going on for a long time. It is how society convinces young men to take dumb risks that are good for everyone but bad for the individual.

This is the kind of thing (real*) MRAs are talking about. This is an aspect of society that takes advantage of young men, much in the way that young women were taken advantage of my being pressed in housework.

*Meaning ones who aren't just having a knee jerk reaction feminism.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe if Marines would pick up after themselves after pooping on people's lawns then they'd get a little more respect.

I've seen Navy personnel that had successfully been trained to do this. Doubt if it would work with Marines though.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

The data contradicts your belief. Military enlistees are better educated, have higher IQs, and come from wealthier families than their peers in the general population.

More of them have graduated high school, but less of them have graduated college, so I'm not sure you can call them better educated. In fact, I'm sure you can't. IQ scores are largely bullshit, but they are irrelevant to your argument since your fine citation states that they only discard the lowest third of applicants by IQ, not anything about what those scores are. If most of the people who apply to join the military have below-average IQ, then they can discard the bottom third and still wind up with an average IQ which is below the national average. As for wealthier families, your own source also states that this could reasonably be because poorer families are less likely to produce qualified applicants. I figure it's because of confirmation bias, though. People whose basic needs are met are more likely to believe that the military is part of people having their basic needs met. If they're not very smart, which as we've established is not screened out by the military enlistment procedure, then this might seem very reasonable. And there's no correlation between income and intelligence, so that washes ok.

TL;DR: Your citation proves only that military members aren't poor, not that they aren't stupid.

You are obviously quite invested in your beliefs.

BTW, IQ scores are not only not bullshit, they are the least bullshit part of social science.

Re: More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

Generally speaking there's no hero worship. Most people think of military members as young people from poor families who wouldn't be capable of getting into a good college so they chose the military instead (which isn't really the truth, mostly just the perception).

In the 70s, of course, many people were firmly opposed to the Vietnam War . The Afgan Military Operations aren't nearly as unpopular.

Re:More proof....

[ShanghaiBill]

The inappropriate defecation is not caused by a lack of training, but by an excess of alcohol.

Re:More proof....

[coolsnowmen]

The same is true of any collage town. 18-23 year olds...

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

The inappropriate defecation is not caused by a lack of training, but by an excess of alcohol.

The intake of an excess of alcohol on such a consistent basis is definitely a failure in training.

Re:More proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

But just off base, lawns would have signs that said "Dogs and Marines Keep off the Grass". Familiarity breeds contempt.

What prejudice. Don't they know that Marines won't shit on their lawn unless ordered to?

Re:More proof....

[drinkypoo]

From there you need to remove those with criminal records, health problems, and can't pass a PT test (which isn't that hard).

Except they're letting more of those kind of people into the military these days. There's been numerous articles about it. How they're having to accept people they never would have accepted before, in all of these categories. So no.

After boot camp, academy, ROTC, or OCS, you go to your job's school. The school will further weed out people who can't hack it.

Except they've got MOSes for idiots as well as geniuses.

Contractors is one of the reasons I got out. They were often paid twice as much for the same job

Yeah, that's how badly you're getting fucked if you join the military.

This didn't happen when Obama was president

[Anonymous Coward]

rump is letting this happen because he doesn't give a damn about the military.

Re:This didn't happen when Obama was president

[b0s0z0ku]

Trump is like almost every other leader, giving lip service to caring about the military and honoring them as heroes, while exploiting them in reality.

Re:This didn't happen when Obama was president

[Anonymous Coward]

The difference of course being that Trump NEVER visited with the troops and complained about Obama's golfing, which he's quadrupled. So there's some truth there, but also that's a stretched diaper in Trump's case.

Re:This didn't happen when Obama was president

[Anonymous Coward]

The investigation started before Trump was even president. Nice case of TDS there.

Re:This didn't happen when Obama was president

[Anonymous Coward]

Just like how I peed in creimer's butt?

Re:This didn't happen when Obama was president

[Anonymous Coward]

https://i.redd.it/38bkcpwcvw12...

Re:This didn't happen when Obama was president

[Anonymous Coward]

You should re-enroll in 1st grade.

Re:This didn't happen when Obama was president

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because he has been successful with all three of those things doesn't mean he didn't do it to make this master Putin happy. Putin wants the US to have a strong economy since Putin has investments here so Trump is doing this for Putin.

Re:This didn't happen when Obama was president

[Anonymous Coward]

Accepting a free education, lifetime healthcare, and a pension in return for being willing to kill people for the benefit of industry hardly makes you a hero.

In fact, it's pretty disgusting.

Honestly,

[humankind]

It's hard to tell who the bad guys are in this story?

Re:Honestly,

[Anonymous Coward]

Government officials who gave computer access to inmates.

Cell 23 hours a day. 1 hour of sunshine and exercise.

Re:Honestly,

[ShanghaiBill]

Government officials who gave computer access to inmates.

The inmates were using smuggled cell phones.

Re:Honestly,

[Anonymous Coward]

it's less of a crime to smuggle drugs than a cell phone into prison. cell phones are classified as an escape device.

Re:Honestly,

[Anonymous Coward]

It's hard to tell who the bad guys are in this story?

What’s odd about a bunch of mostly 18-20-something military members using dating sites and finding out their date is lying about their age?
This is so common it’s annual training for young enlisted guys. How’s that make them bad?

Re:Honestly,

[Anonymous Coward]

give 'em a break. maybe they just wanted to read a book?

Re:Honestly,

[Anonymous Coward]

Government officials who gave computer access to inmates.

Cell 23 hours a day. 1 hour of sunshine and exercise.

I hope they immediately murder a right-wing nerd on release.

Payment in secrets...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a technique China and Russia use to collect military secrets. Extortion, and instead of being paid in cash, payment comes in the form of information about weapons systems, sensor performance, etc.

It works.

Re:Payment in secrets...

[mermeid007]

Israel does that too, but we don't call it espionage

Re:Payment in secrets...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually our USINT does consider Israeli operations espionage, you just hear less about it because they're allies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident

Re:Payment in secrets...

[ShanghaiBill]

It works.

It would stop working if we decriminalized texting.

Re:Payment in secrets...

[Anonymous Coward]

And you would be a fool to think the US intelligence aren't using the same extortion techniques on the Chinese, Russians and other countries.

Re:Payment in secrets...

[Waccoon]

Loose slips sink ships.

As if that expression needed to be more of a tongue twister.

Re: Payment in secrets...

[houghi]

Reminds me of many years ago when a Swedish or Danish person went to pre-wall Russia and did the nasty with his none-wife. Russia tries to blackmail, guy confesses to wife and media and explains blackmail atempt.

The issue is that many things, while legal, are an issue. Iyou should be able to ask dor a t-shirt with your penis on it and sue them for copyright infrindgement at the same time.

Re: Payment in secrets...

[Anonymous Coward]

Reminds me of many years ago when a Swedish or Danish person went to pre-wall Russia and did the nasty with his none-wife. Russia tries to blackmail, guy confesses to wife and media and explains blackmail atempt.

The issue is that many things, while legal, are an issue. Iyou should be able to ask dor a t-shirt with your penis on it and sue them for copyright infrindgement at the same time.

Hi there, drunk posting guy (apologies if you are actually on benzos). Can you explain what you meant by "pre-wall Russia"? because while a lot of people are going to assume you just meant the Berlin Wall, I'm really not convinced from the context. I feel that some entertaining ideas might be forthcoming if we press you on what you actually believe and you attempt to type it out.

However I do agree that in a perfect world you should be able to ask for a t-shirt with your penis on it and sue them for copyright infringement at the same time. It's every man's right really.

Cyber Romeo spy ring?

[AHuxley]

The old method was to wait in bars and clubs around any US/UK mil site and offer instant friendship.
Get to know the base workings and slowly find someone with some lifestyle to hide.

Was this just the start of a decade long spy attempt to map out US officers personality traits by chatting with their low rank staff?

That particular scam

[BankRobberMBA]

That scam is called 'the Badger Game' and is still popular today.

About the criminal intent, this happened in the US. In the United States almost every jurisdiction has 'strict liability' on their age of consent laws. This means that you are strictly liable for any lewd activity with a person below the age of consent, REGARDLESS OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THAT PERSON'S AGE.

This is explicitly done to remove the "I didn't know!" defense. It isn't enough to say "I saw an ID, and she looked old enough, and..."

It doesn't matter. This is why they call mature-looking minors 'jail-bait'.

Re:That particular scam

[cwatts]

This scam isn't limited to the military... They called me, and I am not in the military and i'm not on dating sites. And, of course, i dont send pictures of my junk to people. Based what the guy said I figure they got my info off facebook. He told me $500 would cover my "transgressions" or else. I told him to "Bring it, bitch" and never heard from him again.

Scammers like this are all bark and no bite.

Re:That particular scam

[b0s0z0ku]

Did he say this in a heavy accent while claiming he was from the IRS?

Re:That particular scam

[Anonymous Coward]

the IRS will grant immunity on past tax crimes if you send pictures of bobs and vagene

Re:That particular scam

[irving47]

Does it change if there is an intermediary? They legally committed fraud if they scammed through the dating sites, which would have required both parties to be adults. (No, not suggesting the dating site get sued. Just wondering if the act of fraud changes anything)

Re: That particular scam

[Anonymous Coward]

Was the sex any good?

Re:That particular scam

[ImprovOmega]

About the criminal intent, this happened in the US. In the United States almost every jurisdiction has 'strict liability' on their age of consent laws. This means that you are strictly liable for any lewd activity with a person below the age of consent, REGARDLESS OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THAT PERSON'S AGE.

These folks are military. The UCMJ actually allows for the "I thought she was 18" defense (actually, technically, 16, but damn that's creepy) under Article 120. But you are right, most civilian jurisdictions have strict liability.

Honestly..

[blanca12]

Trump is like almost every other leader, giving lip service to caring about the military and honoring them as heroes, while exploiting them in reality. ________________________________ https://discord.software/ https://downloader.vip/adobe-r... https://downloader.vip/itunes/

Just a very basic "Internet 101" tip:

[argStyopa]

Don't send money to anyone you meet on the internet, ever.
EVEN IF SHE PROMISES TO SUCK YOUR DICK.

Re:Just a very basic "Internet 101" tip:

[Anonymous Coward]

Even if he says he is a girl and promises to suck your dick!?

But what about?

[AndyKron]

Will the Naval Criminal Investigative Service be investigating the hundreds of military service members that were doing things they probably shouldn't have been doing?

Re:But what about?

[DaveV1.0]

They already do that. Are you an idiot?

Call prison call costs down to say $0.005 min max

[Joe_Dragon]

Call prison call costs down to say $0.005 min max and then the cell phone issue will be cut down big time.

Call Gibbs!

[Anonymous Coward]

He'll get it solved.

Re: Call prison call costs down to say $0.005 min

[Anonymous Coward]

No it won't. Those prison phones are recorded and don't go online genius.

The prisons don't care anyways, it's just contraband to confiscate. If they care they will deploy 1 Stingray per prison and now the cellphones don't stop ringing so your ass is caught immediately or your battery drained. Either way they could easily make cellphones useless in prison but they don't. They're just there to fleece the tax payers with the least amount of spending. They'll expend all kinds of "effort" because it makes them look good to the plebs. But spending tax dollars responsibly is asking too much.

Her Dad says...

[Anonymous Coward]

Give me some money and I'll let you get away with raping my daughter!

Policeman says: Give me some money and I won't arrest you for raping a child!?

Re: Call prison call costs down to say $0.005 min

[Anonymous Coward]

The issue is more complicated than you make it sound. Prisons have gotten in trouble for blocking all cell service which blocks guards from calling 911 for themselves or on behalf of inmates.

There are apparently legal issues with deploying stingrays at prisons; laws would need to change or possibly even constitutional amendments against unwarranted spying on people who live near prisons and on guards personal calls.

They are working on developing special blockers for prisons that don't spy, whitelist guard's phones, and allow any phone to call 911. However, rolling out this technology has been slow.

News is...

[Anonymous Coward]

The NCIS is a real law enforcement agency and not just a fictional one.

Never use your real name online

[Anonymous Coward]

Never use your real name online.
People are really stupid if they use their real names online. Lie, lie, lie.
Then mean IRL and tell the truth.

Back when I used dating sites to get laid, a few women would initiate contact. Guess I'm approachable and attractive enough.
I'd check out her profile, then do a little cyber stalking. Remember a fairly attractive black girl having a great initial message, but when I found her profile on MySpace she looked like a crack whore with all her "friends" spewing racists comments onto her wall. Plus the Myspace profile said she lived about 200 miles away.
Sure, I'd hit that for a weekend, but the situation wasn't relationship material for me, at the time. No way would I tell a weekend fling my real name and I'd use a forwarding VoIP phone number if forced to provide one.
Common sense folks.
And lie, lie, lie, until you know someone can be trusted.
And if money is asked for, disappear. Friends don't mix non-trivial amounts of money with other friends. Dinner is one thing, but a pay-off is something completely different.

Did I mention you should lie online?

Burn them!

[Anonymous Coward]

Burn the inmates! Burn them alive as an example to the others.

Re:Call prison call costs down to say $0.005 min m

[DaveV1.0]

I have a better idea: Put cell phone jammers in prisons so those ass phones become worthless.

Re: Call prison call costs down to say $0.005 min

[DaveV1.0]

The legal issues are because the of the FCC rules. I say change the laws to allow them to block cell phones in prisons. Just like most prisons don't have guards who carry guns, guards should not be allowed to carry cell phones in the prison.

Presence of intermediary

[BankRobberMBA]

Well, I am not a lawyer, and we are stretching the boundaries of my knowledge here, but...

In this particular case, I am pretty sure the soldiers are off the hook because there were never any underage people involved, just scammy convicted felons. They are liable to see some disciplinary action through their commands for trying to hide it, but probably nothing too severe. And they may get off with nothing at all, it depends on the people in the chain of command above them.

In general, I don't think the intermediary would make someone innocent of the statutory rape/lewd act with a minor/child pornography offense. The whole point of strict liability is "we're not accepting any excuses." That said, I suspect the judge at trial (or jury, if there is one) would see that as mitigating evidence. This might reduce the sentence, or it might get the prosecutor to agree to some other charge with a lighter sentence. It might get the charge plead down to something that doesn't require registration as a sex offender, which would be huge.

Honestly, I'm not sure. I haven't read that many cases about age of consent violations.

Re:Presence of intermediary

[parkinglot777]

IANAL either, and I need more information. From what I gather from TFA, they seem to have no idea about the age.

After the service member responded, prisoners would then assume a role of the female's father, who claimed the female was a juvenile.

However, TFA didn't clearly say anything about those service members knowing those fictitious young females' age before hand. If they knew about the age and the age was younger than 18, then there is no defend for them and they are possibly (dishonorably) discharged. If they didn't know and there was no evidence of the knowledge, or they were told that the age was 18+, then I would agree with you that the punishment shouldn't be too harsh (but could still face a discharge).

Re:Call prison call costs down to say $0.005 min m

[geoscodin]

I meant to mark this Insightful, but my clumsy finger hit Flambait, so I'm commenting to remove it since I can't correct it.
The prisons here have been fighting to be allowed to jam mobile phones, but so far the Feds won't allow it.

Re:Call prison call costs down to say $0.005 min m

[Anonymous Coward]

That's because they both have vested interests in making sure many people as possible remain incarcerated. This is yuge business, ya know?

Must be Grisham fans

[RespekMyAthorati]

This is exactly the plot of the John Grisham book "The Brethren".

CBS episodes incoming!

[Anonymous Coward]

NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and NCIS: New Orleans will have a crossover episode filled with intrigue to dig into this very problem.

There will also be a dead officer and a few random cameos. Plot will be surprisingly average.

Your'e cooking...

[Mats Svensson]

...with butter.

Huh

[BankRobberMBA]

I did not know that. Thanks.