GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - Thanks to a story by the KARE 11 investigative team, a convicted swindler faces a new charge for allegedly posing as a Navy SEAL to gain a Woodbury woman's trust.
It turns out, being a military impostor and stealing valor are rampant problems around the U.S., according to several experts who search for impostors.
“Telling someone you are a Navy SEAL instantly builds trust, and people admire that,” said Don Shipley, a retired Navy SEAL senior chief petty officer who hunts down fake Navy SEALs for his website, extremesealexperience.com.
Shipley says there have been about 19,000 SEALs in history, going back to the inception of the program in 1943. He says about 9,000 SEALs are still living today. He says for every real SEAL, the FBI estimates there are 250 impostors. Shipley believes there are more like 1,000 fakes for every real one.
“Most of the time when a guy actually served in the military and is claiming to be a SEAL, when we pull his records, he had a very bad run in the military. It's something a lot of these guys are terribly ashamed of,” said Shipley.
“It’s really epidemic,” said Diana Hicks, who served in the Army and is now the marketing manager for Guardian of Valor.
Hicks says her team has outed hundreds of military impostors, some leading to significant prison time for fraud.
She says the company has about 10,000 leads in their inbox at any given time.
“For me personally, I think it's despicable," said Hicks. "When people steal our valor they are stealing from our brothers and sisters that never got to come home and they are stealing from wounded veterans that could use anything that they are taking from us."
In Minnesota, impersonating a police or military officer is a misdemeanor.
One quick way to check if someone’s medals are legitimate is to go to this Defense Department website to see a list of service members who have received one of the top three medals in each branch of the military.
For more detailed service background checks, people can send an inquiry to one of the following:
www.extremesealexperience.com/Fake-Navy-Seal-Verification
www.stolenvalor.com
www.guardianofvalor.com
