The seedy, vicious delinquency known as “revenge porn” has, unfortunately, reared its ugly head in the United States military.

Kind of.

According to the U.S. Air Force, military officials are investigating the “online distribution of explicit pornographic images allegedly depicting a female non-commissioned officer engaged in sex acts”.

They pictures aren’t real, however, an not of the airman. They’re fake — the NCO the alleged target of an “online smear campaign” to shatter her career and public persona.

This from the Air Force Times:

Air Education and Training Command officials emphatically said in interviews that the allegations are false, and the NCO and her husband are not being investigated. AETC officials said they have no idea why the NCO was targeted.

“This story is very concerning,” AETC spokesman Col. Sean McKenna said. “It’s another example of someone taking it on themselves to shame someone online.”

Security forces has focused on a former airman who allegedly posted a pornographic photograph on the Air Force Recruiting Service’s Facebook page on Jan. 26, said Lt. Col. Toni Whaley, spokeswoman for Air Education and Training Command. The Air Force did not disclose the identity of the suspect.

The face of the woman in the picture was blurred, Whaley said, but the suspect allegedly claimed in the post that it was of the NCO and that she was regularly starring in online pornography.

AETC started looking into the allegations, Whaley said, and investigators quickly learned that the NCO did not have tattoos that matched the woman in the pornographic image and concluded it was not her. Security forces immediately shifted their focus and began investigating the former airman who allegedly posted the picture for making false accusations.

“Who knows where this investigation will lead us,” said McKenna. “I’ve never seen one like this.”

In order to protect her privacy, the NCO wasn’t identified in the report.