Fallen Soldier's Photo Used in Craigslist Scam

Five years after he was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, Sgt. Sean Fennerty's photo is being used by online scam artists. The Oregon soldier's photo appeared next to ads on Craigslist Pensacola and fundraising site Indiegogo.com containing a plea for funds from somebody claiming to be his twin sister, ABC reports. The ads, which have now been removed, claimed that the man in the photo lost both his legs when he stepped on an IED and needed help with his medical bills.

"Think of all the things someone could scam, and this is pretty low," the fallen soldier's father tells the Pensacola News Journal. "I want this exposed. I just wish there was a way to keep this sort of thing from happening again." But "charitable" solicitors on Craigslist are allowed to keep their identities secret, and such pleas are "outside the reach of regulators," warns the president of the watchdog group Charity Watch. The father, a doctor who served 11 years in the Navy, says he believes the scammer picked Pensacola because it's a long way from Oregon, and it has many residents with strong military connections that might make them sympathetic to the plight of a wounded veteran. (More US military stories.)