Con artist uses Marine’s identity to scam women
By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 31, 2007 6:13:10 EST
Wendy McKay thought she had met someone special when the Marine colonel deployed to Iraq started chatting with her on the online dating Web site.
Someone claiming to be Col. Richard Bartch told her he was in Iraq for the first time after volunteering for duty. And like her, he was divorced. Chats quickly led to e-mails and within a day he sent her photos of himself in uniform.
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McKay almost bought it. That is, until she realized doing so was really going to cost her.
Bartch — or more accurately, the con artist who had stolen the identity of the real Marine officer, from a family-oriented military Web site — wanted her to send him $5,000.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/marine_datingcon_071230w/
