
If you're a spectacularly average guy looking for love on Facebook, you could spend some time meticulously crafting your profile with Photoshopped self-shots, or quirky interests, in an attempt to make yourself seem more handsome and/or interesting than you really are. Or, if you have absolutely no soul whatsoever, you could just
pretend that you're a dead soldier, and use someone else's heroism as your digital pick-up line.
That, believe it or not, is the exact tactic that a guy known as "Dylan Sorvino" employed to "meet" several women on Facebook. Instead of filling out his profile with information about himself, Sorvino assumed the identity of Sgt. Roberto Sanchez (pictured), a 24-year-old Army Ranger who, in 2009, was killed in Afghanistan after five tours of duty. (Sanchez was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.) The impostor collected photos of the soldier to use as profile pictures, and even advertised himself as a chiseled guy that grew up in New York, studied law, and joined the Army to fight for his country in Afghanistan and Iraq.
With his disguise intact, Sorvino would then play poker on Facebook, looking to friend female players. Upon making a connection, the fraud would use his false military credentials to start online affairs. After months of courtship, he would typically write about his impending deployment, which provided him with an easy excuse for never meeting any of the women in person. "Tomorrow night is my crew's last Iraqi patrol and we start packing up," Sorvino wrote in one e-mail to 37-year-old Carolyn Hinz, from Minnesota. "I've been warned by command not to discuss my departure due to national security so we have to keep this talk to a minimum."
Hinz, like many others, fell for the ploy. "He had all these plans of getting dinner, going to the movies, going dancing," she said. "I was really excited. The guy was good -- he blew my mind." It helped that Sanchez was easy on the eyes, too. "I was a sucker for a cute face," Hinz explained to the New York Post. "It was a very cute face. Too bad it was someone else's face."
Sanchez's family eventually became aware of the scam, thanks to a woman who recognized their son's photo on Sorvino's Facebook page. A group of Sanchez's friends soon confronted the clown, and, on Thursday, he finally decided to delete his account. Sorvino's troubles, however, may be far from over. Posing as a war hero on Facebook may constitute a direct violation of the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which expressly prohibits claiming false military awards. Several of Sanchez's supporters have already contacted both Facebook and the FBI, in the hopes of pursuing further legal action.
Legal implications aside, Sorvino's actions have already re-opened fresh wounds within the Sanchez family, and have wreaked emotional damage that may be impossible to quantify. "This guy went on the Ranger battalion Web site looking for a fallen soldier to use," Wendy Holland, Sanchez's mother, told the Post. "
My son died for this country. How can anyone do that? It's so heartless."
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Facebook's Most Annoying Things
Problem: Cryptic status updates
Why it's annoying: The status update reads: "John wonders why people act that way" -- and nothing more. What happened to John? Is he confused? Have his feelings been hurt? What on earth could lead to such a mysterious comment? Give context or shut up, John. With updates like this, you're only fishing for responses. Facebook is not your personal diary.
Possible solution: If John's an especially close friend, call him. If not, just ignore the vague thoughts. If he wants to discuss specifics, that's the time to talk.
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Sure, Facebook can be a lot of fun. It's a great way to reconnect with lost friends and to keep up with people on the fringes of your social circle. And as far as workday distractions go, there's nothing better.
It's hardly a perfect service, though. Minor aggravations add up fast and can drive you nuts. We've combed through the annoyances to find the ten annoyances that bug people the most.
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Problem: Constant interface changes
Why it's annoying: Granted, innovation is necessary to avoid becoming stale, but sometimes you're better off leaving well enough alone. Facebook has radically overhauled its front page so many times that it's hard to keep count. Just as the anger dies down over one design, the site changes things again -- and confusion sets in. What's the difference between "News feed" and "Live feed"? And why can't Facebook remember which I prefer?
Possible solution: Sadly, there's not much you can do about this -- except wait for the next face-lift.
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Problem: Inappropriate automated friend suggestions
Why it's annoying: Friend suggestions can be handy, but when Facebook tries to push an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend on you, it's kind of awkward. Similarly, if you've had a major falling-out with someone who has mutual friends, you're bound to see their face pop up in the 'suggestion' field at some point. It makes a clean break that much harder to get.
Possible solution: The little "x" to the right will make the suggestion go away forever. To prevent further frustration, you might want to also click "see all" and weed out any other offending names.
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Problem: Never-ending game invitations
Why it's annoying: 'Farmville' and 'Mafia Wars' might be fun, but if you don't want to play them, the constant invites are infuriating. Many Facebook games are like Ponzi schemes; the way to succeed is to get more people playing. And once you've managed to filter out one game, another pops up.
Possible solution: It's not too hard to hide the requests and invitations for these games. Just click "Block this application" when you get the first invite. Then, hover over the updates that are clogging your news feed, and click "Hide" when the word appears.
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Problem: Political fights
Why it's annoying: Between cable news and talk radio, it's hard enough to hide the squabbling between the left and the right. So when political debates fire up on Facebook, it's particularly annoying. All you want to do is see friends' pictures and learn what they're up to -- not eavesdrop on a debate over healthcare reform.
Possible solution: If you've got a friend who picks such fights in their status updates, you might be best off hiding them. You can still check in on them whenever you'd like, but you won't have opinions shoved down your throat.
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Problem: Imported updates from Twitter
Why it's annoying: Tweets have their own language and shorthand, and if you're not familiar with the 140-character-or-less updates, it might look like someone had a hand spasm while typing. Facebook and Twitter are two entirely different services -- and forcing the two together feels like a poorly arranged marriage.
Possible solution: Once again, you're kind of stuck. Your best bet is to either embrace the language of the tweet -- or learn to selectively ignore posts.
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Problem: No 'Dislike' button
Why it's annoying: A friend proudly mentions in a status update that she got a promotion. That's an easy thing to like. But what about when they announce they've been laid off? In its relentless drive to be cheery, Facebook hasn't given us the choice to quickly commiserate or disagree with someone.
Possible solution: There's an active lobbying effort to get Facebook to add a 'Dislike' button, with over 553,000 people members of a group specifically asking for one. Hopefully, the powers that be will listen to the protests.
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Problem: People who 'friend' you too fast
Why it's annoying: Sometimes it's a person you've gone out with one time. Sometimes it's a coworker you only speak with occasionally. But odds are you've been 'friended' by someone you'd rather not have on your list. Technically, ignoring the request is an option, but that can create some real world tensions.
Possible solution: Your privacy settings can make this problem an easy one to conquer. You can block specific people from seeing status updates, photos and more by choosing 'custom' and black-listing them. Then, hide their updates from your news feed.
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Problem: Stealth tagging
Why it's annoying: We all have horrifying childhood pictures or shots we wouldn't want to share with the world. Invariably, though, friends will post them as a joke of sorts and tag you. All of a sudden, that prom picture of you with acne, coke-bottle glasses, and a really bad perm is out there for everyone to see.
Possible solution: You can untag yourself, which prevents others from putting your name to the picture -- but in some cases, that's closing the barn door after the horse has run away.
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Problem: Obvious celebrity marketing ploys
Why it's annoying: Celebrities love Facebook -- or so it would seem. But all too often, it's someone writing on their behalf (and often poorly). That doesn't stop avid fans from falling over themselves to 'like' every comment and chime in as part of the 'amen' chorus.
Possible solution: Unless you're sure it's actually the celebrity doing the updates, you'd often do better to just avoid the pages. After all, is it really that critical that you declare yourself as a fan?
Most Annoying Things About Facebook
Tags: afghanistan, army, dating, facebook, fraud, heroes, iraq, pathetic, profile, RobertoSanchez, scam, SocialNetworking, top, war, web
Comments
20
Subscribe to commentsskippyJan 10th 2011 2:51PM
someone should shoot that piece of s**t Sorvino, he's a gutless coward that better pray he never runs into a real 'RANGER"
God bless Sgt. Sanchez, and his family
Rangers lead the way
Gatubela105Jan 12th 2011 11:25AM
I agree, its wrong when someone uses another's face but its even worse when someone brings in other people's lives in it as well. He should be punished by maximum. @skippy
Gatubela105Jan 12th 2011 11:31AM
@skippy I agree 100%, not only did he impersonate a dead soldier he had brought other people's lives into it. A hero who had died for our country, he should be punished by the maximum.
exoticdoc2Jan 10th 2011 2:55PM
I must be missing something. What good would this do? If you expect a relationship to actually go anywhere you are going to have to meet face to face sooner or later, at which point you would be exposed for the scuzzy liar and fraud that you are.
bawno23Jan 10th 2011 3:08PM
@exoticdoc2: With a name like exoticdoc I would hope you are joking. You have heard of online relationships, pics being traded, sexting, cyber sex and others right? This guy obviously wanted to feel needed or wanted by the female gender. It's sad, but true.
exoticdoc2Jan 10th 2011 3:21PM
bawno. Maybe that explains it. It don't consider cyber-relationships to be real relationships, at least not beyond a simple acquaintance. You cannot fully build a relationship with someone you have never met, the idea is silly and naive. As for things like cyber sex/sexting, if you are engaging in such behaviors with someone you have not even met then you just take what comes your way and accept at least half the blame.
Duke 64Jan 10th 2011 3:15PM
Pass out his REAL name and his address, and e-mail address, and get a photo - full body shot,
like that of Sgt Sanchez. Then ship his ("Sorvino's") pathetic ass off to Afghanistan.
It truly does "irritate" the real warriors when someone tries to steal a piece of their honor.
BradJan 10th 2011 3:42PM
wow! That is really a very low thing to do. I do hope there is a law to prosecute Dylan Sorvino. Terrible thing to do to the family and friends of Sgt. Roberto Sanchez.
wtilton67Jan 10th 2011 3:56PM
There was an CSI episode on last night about a guy that was doing the same thing.
gamergirlJan 10th 2011 3:56PM
something similar i think is happening with me. i met a guy on okcupid, and we'd planned to go to dinner, he said he was going to be late. then he started saying things, that made his story not add up. i know this seems odd but i searched him up online and was finding all these memorial sites and dedications to him. idk if this is just a coincidence, but we were supposed to meet the next day at the library...wouldn't you know it, didn't show up again. its scary to think that this person knew the time i'd be walking to a location alone in the dark.
ar4mla1Jan 10th 2011 4:17PM
@Borisbadenovisback
yours is the explanation of a COWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Julia ClayJan 10th 2011 4:48PM
I had a guy that did that kind of thing (not the military hero that died...but used someone else's photo etc) and he would make plans to meet and then come up with excuses that happened to sound plausible and we would talk for hours by phone and emails etc. Well I'm pretty tech savvy and would save all his emails, instant messages etc. and got a detective to find out who the phone number REALLY belonged to. Turned out the guy was older, fatter and married to boot. Even when I confronted him by calling the actual owner of his business phone, his in-laws to get a phone number (on false pretenses of my own) and called his HOME phone which he claimed he didn't have...just the business cell...he STILL tried to pretend that the woman who answered was his sister and the boy in the background was his nephew. I wound up making copies of all the emails, im's and sent them to his in-laws and called his wife when I knew he wouldn't be home. Of course, she was more mad at me for calling to tell her what was going on than she seemed to be at him, but hey, I felt I did what I set out to do and that is to cut off some of the people who take advantage of others using the internet. Luckily I met my mate who was everything he claimed to be and we've been together now for 5 years, so you can't look at everyone as being dishonest. You just have to know that if a woman or man keeps coming up with excuses about not being able to keep a face to face that there's usually a reason (and it's not the one he/she is giving).
DJGary@Platinum Ent.Jan 10th 2011 4:48PM
driving nails through his testicles would be enough punishment for me! What a scumbag!
R.I.P. SGT SANCHEZ
macrosentJan 10th 2011 5:36PM
I know a bunch of fine young military men (my son being one of them) that would like to get their hands on this dishonorable scumbag.
AleksanderRomanJan 10th 2011 6:24PM
Sanchez should never have died. The war is bullshit.
ChrisJan 10th 2011 7:11PM
Sorvino is a POS, and Aleksander, I think you're referring to the the Iraq war...Pretty sure there is an damn good reason for the Afghanistan war.
egmb10Jan 10th 2011 7:21PM
like won't the ladies relize when they meet him in real life
Bernhard ArmstrongJan 10th 2011 7:52PM
Scum!
UberSilJan 11th 2011 12:15AM
Wasn't this a CSI: Miami plot?
MaryJan 16th 2011 6:26PM
This happened in our chatroom on AOL as well. Guy posed for a couple years as a soldier and used a real soldiers pictures. Turned out the real soldier was a war hero killed in action. When confronted with the evidence guy disappeared. What a pack of losers.......I only wish someone had turned him in to the authorities and they had locked his sorry butt up.