99%. Have you ever met in person? It reads like the standard scam, but I could be wrong. Why would he be in Dubai customs when it's only transiting?

They didn’t even update their scam template to take into account the new Expedia logo which changed over a year ago…

"Welcome James" email "Donald Webb" Yes, it's a scam. Don't send money.

‘He’ could well be a ‘she’. Definitely a scam. Don’t send money and don’t pay for a flight for someone you’ve never met in person.

And someone who is retiring from the military does not have to pay their own way home. And E-9 pay is $123k per year. So even if this person isn't scamming you, then they have very bad financial skills

As a rule if you have to ask yourself "Is this a scam" the answer is "Yes".

If that is your real name change it in your profile.

If the authorities think he's done something illegal, how would sending money keep him out of jail? His story really doesn't add up. I'm so sorry that you've fallen for something like this. I've been victim of a romance scam, so I know it's hard to accept.

It takes five minutes to draw up a fake flight itinerary, if that.

As a general rule also check for typos and poor English, this is another big giveaway. ''Traveller'' has been misspelled and ''photo ID'' has been written as ''photo id''. Even the trip summary ''Traveler 1: Adult'' does not make sense.

@Tom if you're going to view "traveler" as a red flag you're going to have a hard time of it if you ever visit the US. Failing to capitalize "ID" is also something that a native speaker could easily do, though it's less likely in a formal context such as this. But how many internet businesses actually have all of their customer-facing copy produced by professional writers? Oftentimes it's written by software developers, many of whom, even native speakers, have misconceptions about "correct" spelling or just don't care that much. This copy was probably taken from a genuine confirmation.

Putting aside the other red flags, considering that Expedia.com doesn't look like that (at least anymore), as well as the defunct Google Plus button at the top right, it's 100% fake.

The standard advice for people who run into legal trouble while travel(l)ing abroad is to contact their country's consulate. Those travelling on government business, including military, may be given additional "who to call" resources. It's not believable that somebody in this situation would be asking a girlfriend they've never met for money, rather than going through those channels. One of the most common tactics of scammers is to pressure you to hand over the money RIGHT NOW, to prevent you from thinking it over. The more urgent it sounds (jail threats) the more likely it's a scam.

Amusingly, Expedia dropped their support for Nectar points six years ago: headforpoints.com/2018/11/13/expedia-drops-nectar. I bet you could figure out how long they've been running this scam for by checking archived versions of Expedia's site.

Sadly, it's fake. || Re responding advice. As Valorum noted (post now delete) it can be vey risky. As an admin elsewhere a user isliked me severely (I was never sure why) and edited a pedo-file alert post from elsewhere and posed it on an SE page. A web scraper copied it in the 15 minutes that it was live and spred it across nearly 100 sites. It took many years to finally go away. While this case was clearly able to be shown as faked that doesn't stop people believing such :-( .

If he is a retiring Sergeant Major and he has not made at least one friend during his long career that is prepared to bail him out and he saying that the only person that can help him is a person that he has never met before, then there is something wrong. They are either lying and it is a scam or they are a person that is not worth knowing because everyone he has met in life prior to you thinks he is not worth helping and can't be trusted. Just to put your mind at rest contact the Dubai customs. Almost certainly they will say they have never heard of him.

Even if he is real, he is travelling without any credit cards or debit cards or cash or traveller's checks and it sounds like he is travelling to meet you and fully expects you to provide everything for him and be a financial burden on you. Is that what you want or signed up for?

@mdewey "As a rule if you have to ask yourself "Is this a scam" the answer is "Yes". " is a horrible rule. That rule only works if you aren't sceptical enough. Random example: Somewhat recently we were booking a boat trip, and we were sincerely worried it was a scam, as the invoice looked shady (different city, no company registration, etc.)... long story short though (and after a bunch of scrutiny from our side): Not a scam. "Is this a scam?" should be a question you should be asking yourself whilst travelling more often than only in the cases where you actually were getting scammed.

Regarding logo: expedia.com/newsroom/media-kits/expedia-logo

In general, "online romantic contact" is a set-up for a scam. Remember that you do not actually have any evidence this person exists or is anything like just they portray themselves. Flirting can be a fun game, but if you have not met them IRL you must assume they could be predators of one variety or another; there are too many romance scammers, and even if that isn't their goal they may just be amusing themselves seeing what they can get you to believe. You are playing with fire; that can be fun but expect to be burned if you aren't careful and know when to drop it and smother it.