A Soldier's Perspective
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Loser Uses Photos of Fallen to Scam Public
Recently, I was contacted by someone asking to look into a man claiming to be a former Chief Petty Officer in St. Charles, Missouri. Ryan Zull is frequently seen in bars and public events wearing the uniform of a Naval Chief Petty Officer, quite an accomplishment for Sailors. He claims to have joined the Navy in 2001 and got out earlier this year.
Based on my research, Ryan only served 11 months in the Navy. Since there is no possible way for a Sailor to go from zero to CPO in 11 months, I’m pretty confident he’s making it up.
Ryan held a fundraiser recently in which he distributed the following flier for publicity of the event.
In addition to distributing the flier, he posted it on his personal Facebook page, which is now private after my inquiries and grabbing this from his photos. Ryan claims that the Marine at the bottom of the flier was a good friend of his who was killed in 2008, Gunnery Sergeant Steven Howard. On the memorial that Zull created with the funds he raised, he listed 17 other fallen troops to memorialize. The problem is that there is no such person as GySgt Steven Howard that was killed in combat. Three other names of the 17 he listed were similiarly absent from the list of fallen warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to an article written by Russell Korando in July, Zull removed those names when a Gold Star Mother challenged the memorial that used her son’s name without permission.
I contact Zull for comment via his Facebook page and asked if he could explain why he was using the image of a fallen Marine with a fake name. Naturally, frauds don’t like being called out. Though I asked for a copy of his DD214, he said I had my facts wrong and that he had already been vetted. The problem is that the same people he says were provided with his DD214 haven’t confirmed any of the pertinent information.
A copy of Zull’s DD 214 — military separation document — indicates he left the Navy with an honorable discharge. The parts of the document that ordinarily would show where he served, how long he served and his rank were blacked out. Zull said he left the service to get custody of his two sons.
Any reader of This Ain’t Hell knows that these items aren’t sensitive and rarely blacked out. However, Zull most likely blacked them out to obscure the truth about his military service and further his fraud. When I brought up the DD214 discrepancy, Zull refused to answer and directed me to his attorney. Two voicemails to his attorney have remained unanswered, though it is a legitimate law firm.
I should have his FOIA documents shortly.
(21) Readers Comments
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The Nigerian Leave Request Scam
Sukhminder, she is surely a scammer. No soldier needs a civilians help
Kate
if possible can you contact me — i have a few questions that i hope you can answer for me
thank-you
Julie Vinnedge
Kate, I am the mother of LCpl Phillip Vinnedge. Is there anything I may do for you?
Dean Alexander
Great article! I know about this a-hole! Actually, 1 of the people not showing up in the archives is real, the dumbass misspelled his name, along with a few others. Hell, he misspelled ARMY once! What a tool!
mrs B
That is the Same POS that I was Telling Ms Julie about !
OMG…..and another thing I have a friend who is a Staff Sgt who is divorced who’s wife abused his kids while he was in Iraq and the Military left his kids butts in foster care and him in Iraq !
Please let me know if my good buddy IKE SKELTON can help u with this as he is a man of Honor and Pro Troops and there familys . He has a law firm in DC now .
I can’t wait to forward this pic to MY BOYS as when they read his post about going to bars on Halloween to get free drinks Pissed them off !
DD214 will tell it all ! Prison Bound Buddy what a dam disgrace
Amanda
I can give you pictures of him at the bar in uniform drinking the drinks people bought him his favorites hang outs are teachers in st Charles and tubbys also in st Charles then a few places on main street.. But yea like i said i.have pictures and plenty of them
Deborah McCoy
I am still trying to find out about the soldier Dario Moore,50, Kabul Afghanistan, from new York,. 2 young sons. Week one he was in love. Sent me 4 pictures. One with his sons at his shoulders. The others with him in uniform. Week 2 , he needed $10000 for documentation and shipment fees. He needed to ship me over a million dollrs of gold. He would retire at the end of october. At the end of week one he started sounding and writing like a foreigner. I questioned that. He told me not to worry about the money when i told him i couldnt help him. I told him that my son was checking him ouy because of all of the scams that are going on. He told me that we probably would not work because i did not trust him. He would contavt me at the end of his deployment.But still occasionally contacts me. Says he wnt to make sure i am ok. His email is Darioxxx50@gmail.com.
Rhonda Starboard
I started gettin letters from a guy who called himself law gerhard back in july and week one he was in love and week two wants to marry me. He had went above and beyond call sending me tons of love letters. all the things he wants to do with me such as walk on the beach, share a plate of spaghetti , and on and on and on.Anyway after tons of love letters and we also chatted a lot on facebook and messenger , he sends me an e-mail saying he was on a community mission in Afghanistan and helped some colleges to safety and they gave him two bars of gold and some money and says it is not safe there and wants to send it to me to put up for him when he comes home in Nocvember, To get me? I sent him back an e-mails and so did my brother saying are you affiliated with 419 scams, Also he always signed his name love Law and then one day I got an e-mails from him saying love Kelivin then I knew something was really wrong. I didn’t hear from him for a few days and just got an e-mail from him saying my love i did not forsake you and his writing seems to be foreign or something. He says he was born in New York. I truly believe I am being scammed. he has not asked me for mony yet, but I sent him a message saying I have no money and am fighting disability. I said because if I have to pay anything for this parcel I cannot and will not. These people ought to be ashamed of themselves hes even used God in his letters of love and I am a christian woman,
Deborah McCoy
I wonder if he could be the same guy. I have pictures of the guy that was supposedly emailing me. My email is deborahmccoy12@gmail.com if you received some pictures.
Deborah McCoy
Did you get any pictures of him?
Mona
Hi Deborah,
I was so glad to find your post on line. I’ve been dealing with this fool for a few weeks now and had really fallen for him. A couple of days ago he said he had lost his diary with his banking information in it and needed me to send money to his 2 kids (4 years old and 6 years old). I became quite uncomfortable with how he had changed (now angry words and threats), so I thought I’d just take a minute to check him out. Then I found your post. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.
Please take care and be strong.
Amanda
This guy makes me sick i.know this article is not bogus because i know this guy personally… If only this article exposed him for everything he’s done!!!
Ali Shields
Amanda-
Can you email me?? I need inside info. Thanks.
weneed2know@yahoo.com
Gramps
As I understand it these scum bags are free it us the pictures of our fallen heroes without the families permission. It should be a federal crime to disgrace our fallen for your own personal profit or to use their name or likeness to raise fund for anything without the written permission of the fallen’s family.
CJ
There’s an easy way around this as I explained to one Gold Star Family member. If she just copyrights her son’s name and image, she can prevent the use of his name on advertisements without first seeking permission. This would not preclude fair use cases, however, but would prevent tools like this from using our fallen troops to further themselves.
Kelley Lawrencee
How can you put “BYOB” and “Kid friendly” in the same sentence?? My nephew is in the army and im sure he would flip out over this guy! The men and women who truely served our country and may or may not need help are being disrespected here and it makes me sick! I hope this guy is exposed to all who see this!
Amanda
He only put kid friendly because a few people.told him.they wouldnt make it because of their children… He.was.just.doing and.saying whatever people wanted to hear so he could have more people there for.his own personal gain..he is selfish.. Self centered.. Delusional.. Sick.. Crazy..insane money pathetic excuse of a human being…
leroy bursch
If this person is posing as a Chief Petty Officer of the U S Navy and is in reality lying he is subject to prosecution by the U S Navy for impersonating an officer.
CJ
A Chief Petty Officer, in spite of its title, isn’t an officer.
Mrs A
Dear Leroy,
I am from SA and I receive about 6+ invites a week and they are all general major NOT Major General like it is supposed to be. These invites are from major gen and up but they use name without rank. All the photos that get used are available on the following site http://www.af.mil/information/bios. They all want the get married as soon as the know your name or you need to deposit money into a diplomat’s bank account to bring a parcel to SA. The other one wants to buy a house. I work for a USA based company, therefore I am always sure about the relation of this person. Yes they are not allowed to make or take calls. and when they get their age wrong and then tell you it is for security. I did ask one guy if he thinks it is some BUY A BRIDE WEBSITE. This is really getting out of hand. Some names – Polumbo HD, William A Chaimbers(gen Major) Not all woman knows better than to believe you getting a man, house etc……only an empty promise girls. They actually get agressive if you don’t give money or fall for their nonsense.
Michele King
I posted my original story on something with the words Aries as the title, try as I might I cannot find it again, to see what your next answers to my questions were. You had told me to be vigilante and something about forwarding my information to pigscammers? I never received an e-mail answer on anything. Would you be able to advise how I can locate my post?
sheryllapointe
can you look up in your army data and see if you have a bernard coleman in there , he said that was his name and he is in afgahstine,he said he wasnt married and dont have kids and probly be comming home the end of this month,over there he said they call him osu jay,he wrote me off of meetme. thank you thats all i need to know if he is real or not… asap if you can……God bless