Women all across the world think they’re dating “Navy Jack.”
“Nigeria to Canada to Mexico,” Greg Browne, a United States Navy veteran living in Northern Virginia, told FOX 2 in Detroit. “Most recently was in Columbus, Georgia.”
But they’re not. Because Browne is the real “Navy Jack”, and his identity — to go along with his generous Instagram following of about 150,000 followers — are being used by a scammer to deceive wannabe love interests and send along money.
Commonly known as a “catfish” scheme, the criminal hooks his bait online by putting forth a convincing story that he’s fighting overseas and needs some dough to get by.
One woman who ultimately sniffed the rottenness of fake Navy Jack’s advances, tells FOX 2 how it all went down:
“I would ask him, ‘Okay, we can go out for a drink. When are you coming back to the United States?’ and he wouldn’t answer,” said Keri, a Michigan woman who came into contact with the Navy Jack impersonator on the dating app Bumble.
She added, “I felt like some of his replies seemed kind of sketchy.”
In just 24 hours of exchanged messages and emails, she saw the red flags.
“But if you have the time to go to the bank and get out thousands of dollars to give to a stranger, I would hope you check him out,” Keri said.
The dark enterprise has even managed to infiltrate Browne’s personal life. Recently a woman came up to him while he was walking around a California mall.
“She started yelling at me and she was hysterical and she was saying that she couldn’t believe that I’d stop talking to her, that we were dating for so long and she wanted her money back, and where did I go and what happened,” Browne recalled.
“She was hysterical and it took me a few minutes to kind of understand I have no idea who you are, I have never seen you in my life — to realize what had happened.”
“They are easy targets to find, so that is the sad aspect of it. They are people that fall for this and do do form loving relationships with me just to get their heart broke. I usually end it with I’m gay and happily in a relationship and hopefully that sometimes is a closing deal for them and sometimes it is not. Sometimes they are even still persistent.”