<!-- wp:html --><p>U.S. Army/Twitter</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Townsend, a well-respected military commander who <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3121090/langley-succeeds-townsend-as-africa-command-commander/">headed up the U.S. Army’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) until August</a>, told the widow his “portfolio” had been held up by customs officials demanding large fees to release it. Could she help?</p>
<p>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 href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23437193-townsend-identity-theft">a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Salt Lake City federal court and obtained by The Daily Beast</a>. Still, N.W. had questions—all of which “Townsend” was eager to explain away.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-bizarre-romance-scams-using-army-gen-stephen-j-townsends-identit?source=articles&via=rss">Read more at The Daily Beast.</a></p><!-- /wp:html -->
U.S. Army/Twitter
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.
