8 Ways to Spot A Phony
By Laura Bailey, Times Staff Writer
Wannabe war heroes aren't just the guys at bars telling tall tales about their glory days as a Navy SEAL or recon Marine. Impostor veterans infiltrate unit reunions, military events and even funerals. Most are former military members beefing up their image with employers and friends. Some are active-duty service members trying to get an edge at promotion boards. Some have never even seen the inside of a military base.
So the odds are you'll run into a faker at some point. But how can you tell for sure? If you think someone is an impostor, usually your first instinct is accurate, said FBI Special Agent Thomas A. Cottone Jr., the bureau's lead agent on medals fraud cases.
"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," he said.
Medal of Honor impostors are the easiest to expose because there are few living members and they maintain a tight network, Cottone said. There are only 130 living recipients, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, which maintains a complete online list of recipients that can be checked to verify a suspicious story.
An independent investigator of phony veterans, B.G. "Jug" Burkett, said the men who impersonate war heroes gain from it personally and professionally. Burkett, author of the book "Stolen Valor," says the con often begins when a military member leaves or changes services. Once they're no longer with their peer group it becomes easier to lie, Burkett said. If they have doctored their records, their new peers don't bother to check them, he said.
The crime usually starts small, he said, typically beginning with tall tales at a social event. It often escalates when the story teller gets stuck in the lie, so he continues making up details to support the original lie. Then he might continue from there once he sees the benefit of the lie. The community might take him and make him the local war hero, for example.
"It's like knowing a sports hero," Burkett said. "Suddenly he's feeling better about himself. He's getting treated better." But medal fraud hunters are out to ruin those good feelings. They have special ways to decipher whether someone is the real deal, and while they wouldn't share all their tricks of the trade, they did disclose a few that you can use to help ferret out a phony.
1. Sketchy records. When asked to verify details of their military record, phonies often say they didn't go through the normal military channels, said Mike Sandborn, an FBI special agent and former Marine captain who works medals fraud cases. Sandborn said phonies will often say they were in high demand by the military and weren't required to go through the normal training.
2. Appearance matters. Impostors put on pretty lousy impersonations. They're often out of shape or have a "slovenly appearance in uniform," Sandborn said. If they look like "50 pounds of pork shoved into a 10-pound sack," Sandborn said, they're probably an impostor.
3. Top secret? Probably not. A phony often will say details of his career exploits are classified. But even with awards for classified actions, ceremonies are never top secret. Veterans claiming to have received an award should be able to produce an order granting it no matter how secretive the action.
4. "My dog ate it." Phonies often say their military documents were destroyed in a fire or some similar disaster.
5. Watch that rack. Check their decorations; phonies often wear medals in the wrong order or in disproportion to their time in service.
6. Check the birth date. When it comes to the Medal of Honor, age matters. According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, the youngest living recipient is 53-year-old Gordon R. Roberts. "If you see a young kid wearing a Medal of Honor, he's impersonating," said Gary Littrell, president of the society.
7. Just ask. Don't be afraid to test someone if you think they're faking, FBI agents say. If they're legit, they won't mind if you ask questions, Cottone said. Highly decorated veterans usually are very modest and rarely draw attention to their accomplishments; impostors love to boast. Sandborn cautioned troops to remember that "true heroism is like a river - the deeper it runs, the quieter it is."
8. Surf the Web. Still not sure? Check out the online databases of information about both real and phony war heroes. The site
www.homeofheroes.com has a confidential online "bust a phony" form. Information submitted is turned over to the FBI. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society maintains a list of living MOH award recipients at
www.cmohs.org. Also,
www.pownetwork.org maintains a list of phony veterans.
http://www.homeofheroes.com/herobill/News/cottone.htm
