Beware of messages from users claiming to be in the military asking for money!

Thank you for your continued support of Lang-8!

It has come to our attention that there have been multiple instances of attempted monetary fraud by a user or users claiming to be in the American military. The main targets so far have been female, Japanese users.

Thankfully, there have been no reported victims of the actual scheme yet. However, if you receive a message containing similar information to that found in the summary below, please:

1) Do not respond

2) Block the user

3) Report there message to Lang-8, Inc immediately

＜Summary of information found in the fraudulent messages＞　

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Claims to be from the American military
Persistently asks to be contacted on Skype
Claims to be in an active war-zone (i.e. Afghanistan, Iraq)
Has only one remaining family member: either a son or daughter
Requests for users to receive money and pass it on to their son or daughter
The user will receive a portion of the money as thanks for holding onto it
Or, they simply request a large amount of money in JPY(¥) be deposited into their bank account

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If you are a victim of this or other acts of fraud, please contact your local police as soon as possible.

<Helpful links>

1) Blocking users
http://blog.lang-8.com/post/23158922197/blocking-users

2) Reports messages
http://blog.lang-8.com/post/25502049340/how-do-i-report-spam-on-lang-8

Team Lang-8