[Tony Harris, Cnn Anchor:] And hello again, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. Top of the hour in the CNN NEWSROOM where anything can happen. Here are some of the people behind today's top stories. A sickening con job. A CNN investigation uncovers someone using pictures of dead soldiers to scam unsuspecting women.
[Unidentified Male:] Some scum bag is using my son's good name and honor to pillage women.
[Harris:] The controversial Arizona immigration law. A judge could strike it down before it becomes law in just a couple of hours. We are live from Phoenix. And you're online right now. We are, too. We are following the top stories trending on the internet. And one of those top stories is that tragic plane crash in Pakistan. Let's get started with our lead story this hour. They use photos of soldiers stolen off the web to create fake profiles of eligible bachelors on a host of different dating Web sites. The scammers' goal, to lure women into falling in love only to dupe them out of money in the end. CNN has confirmed, it is happening to everyone from foot soldiers all the way up to generals at the Pentagon. Special investigations unit correspondent, Abbi Boudreau, is with us here. Now, Abbie, this is horrible. Do these soldiers, in some of these cases, even realize this is happening to them?
[Abbie Boudreau, Cnn Investigative Unit Correspondent:] Most of them have no idea it's happening to them. Some of them are stationed overseas in Iraq or Afghanistan, and they have no clue their images are being used by imposters. The U.S. military does know about the scam, but so far, nothing has been done to stop it.
[Abbie Boudreau, Cnn Special Investigations Unit Correspondent:] These are the faces of soldiers whose military photos have been stolen and posted on Internet dating sites. This is Specialist Brian Browning. His picture was also stolen and his profile completely made up. [on camera]: We came to a story in Oregon to talk to his family because they had no idea that Brian's photograph was being used by some imposter.
[Perry Browning, Father Of Brian Browning:] Some scumbag is using my son's good name and honor to pillage women.
[Boudreau:] What's worse, the Browning's son is not even around to defend himself. Brian Browning was killed in Iraq three years ago.
[Browning:] He was up in he took a round. And they killed him instantly. And can we stop for a minute?
[Boudreau:] Sure. Yes.
[Stacey Chapman, Scam Victim:] Just seeing a photo of a man in uniform I really think that was the only thing that grabbed me.
[Boudreau:] In a small town in Indiana, Stacy Chapman lives as a single mom. She says she was lonely and looking for love when she was approached online by a man who called himself Christian Browning. He used Brian Browning's military photo as his profile picture.
[Chapman:] Soldiers have that ethic about them. They are all- American. They have passion. And I thought wow. I have everything wrapped up in one package.
[Boudreau:] Instantly she fell for him. They talked on the phone, chatted online. And e-mailed constantly.
[Chapman:] I went to I want to see you walk down the aisle and take your hand the rest of my life. I found someone that wanted me and my children.
[Boudreau:] She sent him more than $1,000 to try to get him enough money to come home to the States for Christmas. Of course, she had no idea at the time that that's not how the military works. [voice-over]: He never came home. It was all a fraud. In fact, in the past year, the army criminal investigation command has received hundreds of complaints of such scams. But since U.S. soldiers are not the perpetrators, there's not much the Army can do. [on camera]: We had to come to this tiny town in central Texas to find somebody who is trying do something to stop this scam. The military hasn't been able to do much to try to stop it and neither has the FBI. So we are about to meet C.J. Grisham these are the soldiers whose pictures have essentially been stolen.
[C.j. Grisham, U.s. Army:] Right. Yes. And there's hundreds of them all over the place.
[Boudreau:] Grisham is a military blogger, a master sergeant in the army who tracks these illusive impossible terse.
[Grisham:] They will send these beautiful missives to the women and
[Boudreau:] Make them feel special.
[Grisham:] Make them feel special. There are even instances where the scammers will send flowers and chocolates to their house. Shortly after they start bringing up the fact that they need money for, you know, to be able to call them or to use the internet or, you know, I just got shot and I need this or that. There is no such person as Erwin Kelly in the military.
[Boudreau:] Grisham says there may be thousands of victims. And the imposters likely live in West Africa. Based on some of the e-mails he has tracked. Stacy Chapman was never able to find her online imposter. And likely never will.
[Chapman:] I really sunk a lot into this man. I let my kids get sucked in by him. I put everything I had into him.
[Boudreau:] What do you think about the woman who fell in love with your son's picture and profile? She wanted to marry him.
[Browning:] She fell in love with a nice picture of a young man. He was worth falling in love with.
[Boudreau:] Who is the real Brian?
[Browning:] A loving son, caring, funny character, this is a room for Brian.
[Boudreau:] This is the photo. See how it last name there, Browning.
[Browning:] Yes.
[Boudreau:] And then that's how they stole his identity.
[Browning:] That's the name tag. That is the name tag right there. Just know scumbag out there, the Brownings are looking for you, hard.
[Tony Harris, Cnn Anchor:] Yes. And Abbie is, too. So, Abbie, whatever happened to Brian Browning's photo? Was it taken down from those Web sites?
[Boudreau:] We believe it was taken down from the dating Web sites. But we found out just a little bit ago that his photo has now popped up on Facebook using a completely fake profile. And, I mean, his parents have just had enough. They've already been through so much, and they just want whoever's doing this just to let their son rest in peace.
[Harris:] And how do you know if the person you believe you're meeting online is a real soldier or not? How do you even know?
[Boudreau:] Well, there's a lot of things that you can do to figure this out. You have first of all, if they're not writing to you using a military Web site or using their military e-mail address, you can ask them. You know, just "Send me an e-mail and use your military address." And if they say no, that's, number one, a huge red flag. Number two, they often have misspellings and have grammatical errors and problems like that. We have a ton more information on CNN.com that I hope people check out. And hopefully that helps some people, because it's really just word of mouth, because it's really hard to track these people down.
[Harris:] OK. Terrific story. Thank you, Abbie.
[Boudreau:] Thanks.
[Harris:] Arizona, as you know, is the epicenter today in this divisive debate over illegal immigration. We are waiting to see if a judge will block the state's new law or allow it to take effect tomorrow. It requires officers to question people about their immigration status if they have been detained and if there is reason to suspect they are in the country illegally. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer says the states acted because the feds were not carrying out their responsibility.
[Gov. Jan Brewer , Arizona:] We are just helping the feds do their job because they won't do it. The bottom line is that the people of Arizona are frustrated. We shouldn't have to do it. The federal government should be doing it. And if they won't, well, the legislature and the people of Arizona overwhelmingly believe that we need to enforce it and help them do their job.
[Harris:] All right. Let's get to Phoenix right now, and our correspondent there from KPHO is standing by. Juan Carlos is with us. And Juan Carlos, has the judge well, good to see you, sir. Has Judge Bolton tipped her hand at all on this? Do we know for sure even that she will issue a ruling today?
[Juan Carlos Lopez, Cnn En Espanol Correspondent:] Well, first of all, we don't know if she will issue a ruling. We're hearing that she well. And she hasn't tipped her hand, but what we're hearing from sources is that based on the questions she asked at the hearing, is that it might be a misruling where she agrees with some of the objections the government has with SB 1070 and disagree with others. The question is, what does she agree with, and does it go to the heart of the matter, the government's argument that immigration is federal business, it's not state business, federal state law overriding sorry, federal law overriding state law? So if those are the objections, then we'll see how that's interpreted and if SB 1070 goes or not into effect at midnight tonight.
[Harris:] OK. And Juan Carlos Lopez is our Washington correspondent for CNN en Espanol. And Juan Carlos, any clue as to how the judge is leaning?
[Lopez:] Yes. As I was saying, what we're hearing from sources is it might be a mixed ruling where she agrees on some of the objections the government has, she disagrees on others.
[Harris:] And all eyes are obviously on the state, especially law enforcement. Are we getting indication as to the kind of guidance law enforcement supervisors are giving their officers as they plan to move forward in response to this law?
[Lopez:] They've been under training for several weeks. They're trying to finish up that process. And from speaking to law enforcement officers in Tucson, in Nogales, they've been told to follow the law, to be very careful, to respect civil rights, and to just carry on their business.
[Harris:] All right. CNN en Espanol's Juan Carlos Lopez for us. Good to see you, sir. The fate of Arizona's immigration law is in the hands of U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix. And we should learn something inside the next few hours. At least we think we might. The father of a worker killed in the Deepwater Horizon explosion shares his feelings on the disaster in the Gulf. First, though, our "Random Moment" in 90 seconds.