{"id":38999,"date":"2018-11-28T18:26:53","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T18:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/11\/28\/prisoners-steal-more-than-500k-from-troops-through-dating-app-sextortion-ring\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:15:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:15:41","slug":"prisoners-steal-more-than-500k-from-troops-through-dating-app-sextortion-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/11\/28\/prisoners-steal-more-than-500k-from-troops-through-dating-app-sextortion-ring\/","title":{"rendered":"Prisoners stole more than $500K from troops through dating app sextortion ring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service executed arrest warrants Wednesday in connection to a sextortion ring that has victimized hundreds of service members since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The warrants are the first phase of \u201cOperation Surprise Party,&#8221; an effort launched in 2017 by a collaboration of military and civilian law enforcement agencies to foil a prisoner-led extortion, money laundering and wire fraud scheme that \u201ccost 442 service members from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps from across the United States more than $560,000 in financial loss,\u201d a Wednesday NCIS release said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Army officials and South Carolina law enforcement revealed in October that prison inmates posing on dating applications as women in the same age bracket as the targeted soldier were allegedly duping service members into wiring cash following nude photo text message exchanges.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/off-duty\/military-culture\/2018\/10\/19\/soldiers-are-getting-catfished-blackmailed-on-dating-apps-by-male-prisoners-posing-as-women-report-says\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-868384894.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Service members are getting catfished, blackmailed on dating apps by male prisoners posing as women, report says<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The alleged sextortion scheme began in 2015, with prisoners posing as women in the same age bracket as the targeted soldier.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOnce making contact on the dating application, the conversations are transferred to phone-to-phone text messaging,\u201d the October warrant said. \u201cAfter several hours to several days of texting, the subject will either send unsolicited nude images of a female to the victim and\/or agree to trade sexually explicit images with the victim.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But shortly after swapping photos with the inmate, the unsuspecting soldier would receive a text from another phone number, one belonging to a completely different prisoner, who would then pose as the fictional girl\u2019s father or law enforcement official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe \u2018father\u2019 then notifies the victim that the female is under the age of 18,&#8221; the warrant stated. &#8220;The father will typically state that he will leave law enforcement out of the equation if the victim agrees to pay for various things like cell phone replacement, counseling, hospital treatments, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Targeted service members often succumb to the pressure, the NCIS release said, forking over the funds out of fear of repercussions from their command as a panic sets in that they\u2019ve unknowingly been soliciting child pornography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once the soldiers wire the cash, a runner, or &#8220;money mule,\u201d receives the transfer and deposits the funds into a JPay account, a payment processing system used by inmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JPay also oversees distribution of South Carolina\u2019s costly prison tablet services, the report said, so the inmates can directly apply the \u201csextorted\u201d money to funding the online scheme from inside the prison\u2019s walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201dWith nothing more than smart phones and a few keystrokes, South Carolina inmates along with outside accomplices victimized hundreds of people,&#8221; said Daniel Andrews, director of the Army Criminal Investigation Command\u2019s Computer Crime Investigative Unit. \u201cThis enforcement operation sends a clear message about our unwavering commitment to protect our nation\u2019s service members so they can focus on their mission of winning wars and defending the American way of life.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are more than 250 additional individuals currently being investigated who could face prosecution, NCIS said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis despicable targeting of our brave service members will never be tolerated,\u201d said Andrew Traver, NCIS director. \u201cWe were able to complete this first phase because of the excellent work by all our law enforcement partners. &#8230; This operation will continue until we break the back of these criminal networks.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The South Carolina Department of Corrections has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.doc.sc.gov\/news\/SCDC_Petition_for_Rulemaking.pdf\">petitioned<\/a> to end inmates&#8217; ability to use mobile communication devices inside prisons, a policy change that gained momentum in April after prisoners used contraband cell phones to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/nation\/la-na-south-carolina-prison-deaths-20180416-story.html\">coordinate a riot that left seven inmates dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOperation Surprise Party\u201d is a joint effort by NCIS, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Army Criminal Investigation Command and Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the release said. The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Marshals Service, Department of Energy, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the South Carolina Department of Corrections are also contributing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Personnel who suspect they\u2019re being targeted by a sextortion scheme are encouraged to contact their local criminal investigative organization, the release said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NCIS agents executed arrest warrants Wednesday in connection to a sextortion ring that has victimized hundreds of service members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":73816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,88,89,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3413],"class_list":["post-38999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QTQ5NNDUZNBJ5KEDGUDJOGW3PQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2018\/11\/28\/prisoners-steal-more-than-500k-from-troops-through-dating-app-sextortion-ring\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Prisoners stole more than $500K from troops through dating app sextortion ring - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NCIS agents executed arrest warrants Wednesday in connection to a sextortion ring that has victimized hundreds of service members.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prisoners stole more than $500K from troops through dating app sextortion ring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NCIS agents executed arrest warrants Wednesday in connection to a sextortion ring that has victimized hundreds of service members.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/11\/28\/prisoners-steal-more-than-500k-from-troops-through-dating-app-sextortion-ring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-28T18:26:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T03:15:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"J.D. 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