A secretive group of online investigators says it has identified more than 100 impostors who are blatantly posing as Australian war veterans, despite severe penalties for such activities.

The ex-military vigilante group ANZMI (Australian and New Zealand Military Impostors) has launched a "name and shame" campaign because it claims Australian authorities refuse to prosecute fakes who are defying the law.

Under the Federal Defence Act, persons falsely representing themselves as returned soldiers, sailors or airmen, or wearing decorations that were not earned, can face up to six months' jail and a $3,300 fine.

At every Anzac Day March, every wreath laying, every reunion, there is one in the ranks - their chests a blaze of coloured ribbons and metal.

Campaign medals and decorations provide an instant CV of a digger's past, easily decoded by those who were there. But a growing number of veterans, proudly posing with their "rack" of medals, do not stand up to closer scrutiny.

Their decorations were not earned in war, but bought online. The tales of heroics are nothing more than verbal cut and paste jobs, fabricated after hours of listening to war stories in the local RSL or trawling online through military blogs.

They are the virtual veterans.

Now, according to a self-described "covert group" tracking military impostors, the fakes are going viral.

Since February 2009, the shadowy online team ANZMI claims to have investigated 265 cases and declared 103 "wannabe" soldiers, sailors and airmen to be "proven guilty" of falsely impersonating veterans.

Their pictures and profiles posted on the ANZMI website, for all to see.

But being "outed" in an obscure corner of the web is apparently not enough. ANZMI has launched an old fashioned "naming and shaming" campaign, quietly tipping off veterans' associations, police and home-town newspapers.

Star impostors

In the past month, two of ANZMI's star impostors have been exposed in major metropolitan papers.

Peter McInnes is the fighting padre, a self-styled "archbishop" who lives in Queensland.

McInnes appears in his ANZMI profile, donning priestly vestments and large gold cross. The outfit is complemented by a colourful array of medal ribbons indicating that he is a veteran of peacekeeping operations in Somalia and Cambodia. Another picture captures McInnes in the uniform of a Royal Australian Navy commander.

Queensland's Sunday Mail has revealed that McInnes' real military service was somewhat less heroic: A stint with the Army Reserve in Tasmania.

Then there is the be-medalled Gordon Tisdell. He became the international face of the ANZAC spirit after his picture was snapped at Sydney's Shrine of Remembrance last year. His image was beamed around the world, and reportedly appeared in Life magazine.

Tisdell is also on the ANZMI site sporting an impressive array of Vietnam campaign medals on his left breast pocket. On his right, what appears to be the gongs of half the campaigns since the Anzacs went ashore at Gallipoli.

But Tisdell's photographic career has come to an abrupt end after being outed by the Sydney Morning Herald under the headline "Decade of deception ends as veteran claims exposed".

Secrecy

While ANZMI targets the fakes with the spotlight of publicity, those behind the campaign prefer the dark corners of anonymity. ANZMI's investigators attempt to keep their identities closely guarded.

So why the secrecy?

"We get threats from the people we expose; there is also the threat of legal action - so we wouldn't be able to work," says ANZMI's spokesman, who goes by the nom de guerre of "Bill Hobson".

Through a series of phone calls and emails, all Bill will publicly reveal is that he served for 20 years in the Army, rose from the ranks to become an officer, and spent many years deployed overseas.

He says another 25 cases are active and the target of an ongoing investigation.

ANZMI says that in 32 cases the individuals were either "legitimate" veterans or the subject of false allegations. More than 100 targets were dropped for a variety of reasons. In 93 cases, evidence was either lacking or inconclusive.

"That doesn't mean the 93 were innocent," Mr Hobson said.

But what if this cyber judge, jury and online executioner gets it wrong?

"We rely on tip-offs from the veterans community and the public," he said.

"Our verification process is quite thorough. We check military records, electoral rolls and ask witnesses to sign statutory declarations, but often people who initially report impostors are not prepared to take that next step we need for verification."

Bill says a pattern of behaviour emerges once impostors are posted on the website.

"When we expose them, they want to threaten us physically, followed by threats of legal action. Then comes the claims of mental instability, they threaten suicide and blame us," he said.

According to Bill, the persecution cycle can end with the impostor suddenly claiming a life-threatening illness, such as cancer, which is blamed on the ANZMI revelations.

Fraud, distress

A trawl through the ANZMI site reveals another pattern: the fakes predominately claim to be Vietnam veterans and former members of elite units.

"Most wannabes come undone because they choose to be SAS troopers or tunnel rats or clearance divers or snipers. If they choose to be cooks or drivers or storemen they may never be caught," Bill said.

He says ANZMI "no longer approach the authorities because they aren't interested".

Only a handful of impostors in so-called Stolen Valour cases have been prosecuted in recent times.

"Stolen Valour is not a victimless crime," said Bill, adding impostors can often cause distress to the families of real veterans who did not come home from war.

ANZMI says impostors have also infiltrated the ranks of ex-service groups such as the RSL.

The activities of some fakes apparently extend beyond fantasy and into alleged fraud.

'Blind eye to crime'

Rex Crane, 83, who is the former president of the Ex-Prisoners of War Association, was exposed as a fake who allegedly claimed more than $405,000 as a disabled World War II veteran.

But Bill claims such action by the authorities is the exception to the rule.

"If politicians, police and the courts did not consistently fail to enforce the laws intended to protect veterans' and the community's interests, ANZMI wouldn't need to do their jobs for them," he said.

"Those who turn a blind eye to crime are complicit in its execution."

Unless there is a clear cut case of financial fraud, police tend to give military fantasists a low priority.

But it appears ANZMI has friends in high places. Discreet inquiries to the veterans community, Defence and Veterans Affairs bureaucracies and law enforcement agencies confirm that many are ANZMI fans - regarding their information as highly reliable. Some insiders provide a helping hand to the clandestine investigators.

So if the impostors are not committing fraud why does it matter?

Bill says the medals symbolise service and sacrifice. He is not interested in the usual pub braggarts, whose military exploits grow with each round of beers. ANZMI targets "pathological liars...or those that just want to raise their profiles in their community. One was running for a local council position. [Two others] used false heroic military service to deceive and steal from women.[Three impostors] did it for sympathy from their families."

ANZMI insists there is no rough stuff. The days of foot-in-the-door confrontations between angry old diggers and phonies are over.

"That's for thugs - we work only by computer," Bill said.

For the online vigilantes, the computer mouse is mightier than the sword.

Heroes, Frauds and Imposters, which examines the boom in military service fraud in the United States, airs on Foreign Correspondent - Tuesday 8PM on ABC1