When four-star Gen. Stephen J. Townsend found himself in a financial bind while deployed overseas in 2019, he did what any top commander in the U.S. military would: get on Facebook to contact a 74-year-old widow he had never met before.
Townsend, a well-respected military commander who headed up the U.S. Army’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) until August, told the widow his “portfolio” had been held up by customs officials demanding large fees to release it. Could she help?
Such an overture would be immediately obvious as a so-called romance scam to most. But it apparently didn’t seem so far-fetched to the woman, a U.S. resident who is identified only as “N.W.” in a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Salt Lake City federal court and obtained by The Daily Beast. Still, N.W. had questions—all of which “Townsend” was eager to explain away.
“That’s me and that’s my passport,” he wrote to N.W. on Facebook Messenger, sharing a photo. “It hurts me so much that you are letting people to [sic] spoil your mind towards me and then you keep hurting me.”
He continued: “I have never loved any woman like I love you but you have hurt me so deeply. You are making me sad. God knows my heart and he knows that I will never do anything to hurt you. But you have hurt me so much. Are you going to help me claim my portfolio or not Nancy?”
U.S. District Court for the District of Utah
Townsend’s identity, for some reason, has been usurped by online scammers to such an…
