A warning to parents!!!

posted by Patty James @ 4:02pm, Friday 23 July 2010.

I know this has nothing to do with Shine The Light, but I must tell you what happened today.

As you all know my son Russell is a Navy Corpsman in Afghanistan. He's been on patrol (with the marines-he looks after all their medical needs) for 36 days and it generally doesn't go longer than 30 days. This morning at 5:05 I received an email from Russell saying he was on leave in London and he was just mugged. They got everything but his passport and he was lucky to be alive. He needed money to get back to base.

I am at my sister Margaret's house in Oregon and I rushed in from the RV to her house with the news. I will spare you a lot more details, but suffice it to say that I sent $4,500 Western Union to Russell. They were 2 different wires because I forgot about the exchange rate. I received a third email from Russell saying he missed his flight and needed more money. This doesn't feel right....

We'll skip ahead a couple a couple hours....

My sister and I look at each other and wonder if we've been scammed. No, not possible...the email was from Russell's email address. Now I hear from Joe, Russell's Dad and he just checked email and received the same email from Russell. I had been up since a little after 5:00, so I was first to take care of the money for Russell. Joe also says this isn't feeling right. If I was scammed and yet they have Russell's email and ID to pick up funds, where's Russell? I am in a full panic now, yet still able to think enough to get to the Navy. Automatic answering machine. I call a recruiter and very quickly tell him the whole story. He can't help me find out where my son is. In London beaten up or worse or Afghanistan. He tells me to to call the Military Red Cross. I do and the woman who answers the phone, (I guess I shouldn't say her name) knew the money wasn't my concern- where is Russell? She vows to find him and call me back, but it could take several hours to go up the chain of command in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile Joe contacts the London Police and tells them the story. They are not sure what to do until we find Russell. I have to call them back and give them the whole story. They tell me I have to file a police report in the US before they can proceed, so I call the local sheriff and he comes out and takes my story, talks to the Navy Police and to the Red Cross and other military people who were involved.

I can not tell you how Joe and Doris (his wife) and my daughter's are absolutely beside ourselves as are my Mom and sister Margaret.

The Red Cross woman called back.....they found my son, safe and sound in Afghanistan, although they can't tell me where exactly. More hoots and hollers across several states at this point. I never thought I would be happy to hear my son was in Afghanistan but all this time we feared the worse. He was on leave, he was mugged and the muggers were holding him for money or worse.

So all reports are done and the sad part is that someone could have hacked into the military's computers to get Russell's email account and parents names. The Navy is on this big time. These sicko people know that parents will do anything for their sons and daughters if they think they are in trouble. I was scammed. Bottom line is my son is o.k.

DO NOT SEND MONEY TO YOUR MILITARY SON OR DAUGHTER UNTIL YOU HEAR THEIR VOICE!!!!!!!