The worried mother of a U.S. soldier in Russian custody said Wednesday that her son “was lured” there by a Russian woman he had been seeing in South Korea for over a year and that he’s being held on trumped-up charges of stealing roughly $100 from her.

Melody Jones said she thinks her son, Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, was set up by his girlfriend, whom she identified as Aleksandra Vashchuk.

“I think she convinced him to come there,” Jones said in a video interview from her home in Cheyenne, Wyoming. “He wanted to see her for the last time before going home, and so he went there.”

The Russians detained Black, 34, on theft charges last week after he traveled from the military base in South Korea where he had been stationed to the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok.

A Defense Department spokesperson said Tuesday that the Army is investigating whether Russia’s intelligence services specifically targeted Black.

  • @Diplomjodler3
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    4224 days ago

    How dumb do you have to be to fall for something like that?

      • @aodhsishaj
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        3824 days ago

        Hey! That dumb motherfucker is ARMY, he’s no Marine.

        • @almar_quigley
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          1724 days ago

          Sorry, the glue sniffing department in that case

      • @HWK_290
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        English
        123 days ago

        The George W Bush Honorary Crayon Eating Department to you, you young whippersnapper

    • Canadian_anarchist
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      fedilink
      924 days ago

      This scam is as old as time. A person in a bad place in their life and/or let hormones make their decisions is vulnerable to these. People considered ‘intelligent’ get duped in scams too.

    • @stoly
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      124 days ago

      Human behavior is probabilistic. Remember that people try to put out grease fires with water. You have to account for that with important things.