Vigilantes: MailOnline has spoken to a network of former military personnel, known as the Walter Mitty Hunters, who operate through Facebook to expose those who falsely claim to be in the Armed Forces

Operating anonymously, contacting each other only through Facebook, a secret network of former military personnel is at work.

Their mission is simple: expose those who fraudulently claim to have fought for their country.

Deceptions range from a fantasist SAS hero who boasted of working as Princess Diana's bodyguard to a supposed Falklands veteran and even those who falsely claim to be dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Known as the Walter Mitty Hunters Club, the small group of experts bring extensive experience from across the Armed Forces. And with a growing following of more than 45,000 people on Facebook, awareness of their work is on the rise. 

Even NHS boob scrounger Josie Cunningham has been outed by the vigilantes. She claimed she enlisted in the Royal Navy at the age of 16 and was touted as a future warfare specialist, before falling pregnant and leaving a year later. The 'hunters' have evidence which suggests otherwise.

The group's name comes from the fictional fantasist character at the heart of James Thurber’s 1941 short story. A daydreamer who longed to escape from his mundane existence, timid middle-aged accountant Walter Mitty would picture himself as a brilliant surgeon, wartime pilot and brave soldier.

But what he could scarcely have imagined was that one day he would become an everyday metaphor for those of a similar character and later adopted into British military slang.

In an interview with MailOnline, one anonymous 'Walter Mitty hunter’ said the group now gets between 20 and 30 ‘Walt’ tip-offs each weekend.

Some are ‘love rats’ who have deceived women with their alleged service history. Others do it for financial gain, boasting of their fictitious past to promote a business.

But perhaps the hardest pill to swallow for many genuine veterans is the number of Walts who are conning charities by pretending to be PTSD sufferers.

Aim: The group's mission is simple - to expose those who fraudulently claim to have fought for their country

Named and shamed: One man caught out by the 'hunters' was Beau Plantard (left). He claimed he was an SAS hero so he could lure women into bed. The group also creates 'wanted' posters for those it exposes (right)

Fraud: Plantard even had a tattoo of Parachute Regiment-style wings emblazoned across his shoulder blade

When asked about such cases, the anonymous ‘hunter’ told MailOnline: ‘We've come across quite a few who claim to have PTSD from serving in war zones by recounting stories they've heard or read about in books or from listening to real vets.

‘Then you have the worst kind. Once caught they claim PTSD, which is becoming more common, attempting to use it as an excuse and for sympathy.

‘They are not only compounding the deceit, but stigmatising a symptom that real vets find hard to admit to themselves, let alone the public.’

LOVE RAT 'WAR HERO' WAS AN ELECTRICIAN WHO LIVED WITH MUM 

Love rat Brian Dall was exposed by the 'hunters'

Brian Dall is just one example of a fantasist caught falsely saying he had served his country. 

He claimed he was a Parachute Regiment sergeant who had saved lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Actually, he was an unemployed electrician who lived with his mother. 

Dall, of Ludgershall, Wiltshire, was found to have seduced up to 50 women by posing as a war hero Para. He met women in internet chatrooms and dressed in full combat uniform when he arrived for dates with them.

Among the Walts exposed are a conman who pretended to raise money for a dying girl and a fantasist who claimed he was an SAS hero who worked as Princess Diana’s bodyguard.

The latter, Beau Plantard, 49, who also goes by the name John Pugh, used a web of lies to lure women into bed. He pretended he was a veteran paratrooper who had once been asked to assist with the rescue of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria by Boko Haram.

Meanwhile, Martin Heaver was jailed for six months when it came to light he had been asking people to sponsor a series of skydives to raise money for a fictitious desperately ill five-year-old girl.

The then 46-year-old posed as a war hero and even bought a paratrooper T-shirt and beret from eBay in order to give his lies more credibility.

He claimed he wanted to raise enough cash to make the girl's dying wish to meet Mickey Mouse at Walt Disney World in Florida come true. But the girl never existed and Heaver pocketed between £900 and £1,000 from around 100 unwitting members of the public.

Speaking about why Walt behaviour is infuriating, the hunter replied: ‘It's an insult to all those who have worked hard, felt the pain and, in some cases, lost people close to them – the people actually doing the things the Walter Mittys like to boast about.’

When asked why people do it, the ‘hunter’ replied: ‘Mostly it amounts to attention seeking, wanting the glory and kudos they could not attain themselves - enjoying the attention and admiration from an unknowing public and in most cases the free pints bought for them from grateful people for the job they are allowing them to think they do.

‘Some do it for financial gain – conning people into signing up to fitness boot camps and survival weekends with claims of having passed the notoriously hard P Company, or using so-called experience as a Royal Marine.

‘One conned the Hollywood film industry with claims of serving in the British secretive undercover unit known as “The Det”.

‘Then there are those who attempt to con service charities for free hand-outs. This in turn drains precious resources from those charities as they now have to go through quite stringent checks to make sure money is going to genuine ex-servicemen and women.’ 

Deceived: Mark Izzard's doting wife Tracey (pictured together) died of cancer believing her 'veteran' husband was a war hero. In reality, her children later discovered he was nothing more than a fantasist lorry driver

Fiction: To perpetuate the lie he posed for 'official' photographs in a fancy dress beret while gripping a BB gun and even claimed this was a photograph of him 'looking fed up in Kuwait' when he posted it on Facebook

Lies: The phony continued his lie online, posting photographs of troops that he pretended were him - including one of a Para named Lee Crichton jumping from a plane - with the caption: 'Me flying on first HALO jump'

'ROYAL BODYGUARD' WOMANISER

Love rat: An ex-girlfriend of Beau Plantard broke up with him after rumbling his SAS hero charade

Beau Plantard, 49, who also goes by the name John Pugh, claimed he was an SAS hero who worked as Princess Diana's bodyguard so he could lure women into bed.

He pretended he was a veteran paratrooper who had once been asked to assist with the rescue of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria by Boko Haram.

Plantard would play friends videos which apparently showed him jumping out of planes and even had a tattoo of Parachute Regiment-style wings emblazoned across his shoulder blade, with the word 'airborne' inked above.

But the Walter Mitty-style character, from Blockley, Gloucestershire, had actually served as a private in the Royal Artillery.

In August, one of his ex-girlfriends also claimed he was a serial love rat, who began dating her while he was still in a relationship with his partner of 17 years.

Second World War historian Amy Jelfs, 36, who dated Plantard for five months, said she broke up with the ex-serviceman after rumbling his charade, branding him 'disrespectful'.

NHS BOOB SCROUNGER'S NAVY FIB

Extension of the truth: Josie Cunningham said the Royal Navy wanted her to be a warfare specialist

Wannabe glamour model Josie Cunningham, who sparked outrage by boasting that she had her breasts increased from a 32A to 36DD courtesy of the NHS, was exposed by the Walter Mitty Hunters Group after claiming to have worked as a warfare specialist in the Royal Navy. 

She listed it as a former occupation and said she only left after falling pregnant at the age of 17, a year after joining. The group said there was no record of her, to which she reportedly told them it was classified under the Official Secrets Act. 

More recently Cunningham told The Sun she had applied to the Navy and that she impressed her bosses so much they wanted her to be in charge of weapons. 

She said: ‘I did so well the Navy wanted me to be a warfare specialist, which would have involved being in charge of the big weapons on the front of the ship and the coordinates. I also passed the fitness test with flying colours. It had been my dream to join the Navy. I wanted to sail round the world, see amazing places and be on a beautiful ship.’

‘Then there are those who attempt to con service charities for free hand-outs. This in turn drains precious resources from those charities as they now have to go through quite stringent checks to make sure money is going to genuine ex-servicemen and women.’

But all have one thing in common, he adds. ‘They have lied and deceived people, sometimes the very people close to them – wives, girlfriends, sons and daughters.’

After a receiving a tip-off, the group gets to work. When it comes to exposing someone there are two types of Walter Mittys: Bloaters and Cumpers.

The former is a term for those who have served but go on to fabricate their service history to make it sound more interesting, while the latter was named after the first ever Walter Mitty of the Year, Tony Cumper.

BUILDING A BUSINESS OFF HIS LIES

Empty boasts: Richard Lee was never in Marines

Richard Lee, then 31, was exposed last year after it emerged he was never in the military despite having launched a worldwide endurance race on his reputation as a former Royal Marine.

He had boasted of serving with the Royal Marines mountain troop as he built the Spartan Race series into a multi-million international business.

But the former £26,000-a-year King’s School Ely pupil later resigned from his job as UK director of the company when it emerged he never wore the green beret.

TV SAS MAN WHO NEVER TRIED OUT

TV fraud: Bob Spour built his career off SAS claims

Bob Spour, a TV regular, radio presenter and magazine columnist from the Birmingham area, built up a business empire bragging about his service in the SAS. 

But he was later exposed as a fake who never even attempted Special Forces selection. 

Spour claimed to have seen action in the Falklands War, Northern Ireland and South America while serving with G Squadron between 1977 and 1984. 

He actually spent two years as a regular infantry trooper. 

A Cumper is someone who has never fought for their country, the ‘hunter’ explains, but will make all sorts of claims based on books they have read or stories they have heard.

‘We ask for several pieces of evidence before we fully commit to an investigation,’ the anonymous member goes on to say when asked about what happens following a tip-off.

‘Normally screenshots of pictures from the suspect’s page along with their claims under the picture.

‘The admin team, which comprises a broad spectrum of all three of the Armed Forces, convene a conference on a closed group in order to weed out the less serious cases and those deemed with any obvious mental health issues.

Caught out: Beau Plantard, who also goes by John Pugh, issued an apology after being exposed online

‘Once an investigation starts we screenshot everything and search pages they [the suspected Walts] like for comments made, particularly on pages dedicated to the Armed Forces.

‘We then search the WWW or Osint "Open-Source Intelligence”. For an example, when we investigated Antony Church the Oxford town crier we only needed to search the London Gazette as he had claimed he was awarded the BEM and MBE.

‘Had he been awarded them then these would have been listed in the Gazette. He also claimed to be a veteran of the Falklands War and so awarded the South Atlantic Medal. A check via our contacts at SAMA 82 showed, like the London Gazette, his name was nowhere to be found.

‘We then use several means to cross-reference everything via contacts still in the Armed Forces to make sure we're 100 per cent accurate.’

As the ‘hunter’ has explained, many of the cases brought to the group’s attention feature those who have deceived wives and girlfriends.

‘If the suspect is a serial love rat who's taken women for a ride and conned money out of them by using the forces as a backdrop to their story to gain sympathy, then we will set up a honey trap,’ he says.

‘Once we have profiled the sort of girl the suspect goes for the honey trap will join the page the suspect likes and start up a conversion. Nine times out of ten it goes to a private conversation.

THE CANCER LIE PARA FUNDRAISER

'Despicable': Jailed father-of-four Martin Heaver

Father-of-four Martin Heaver, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, was jailed for six months in March 2013 after pretending to raise money for a dying five-year-old girl who did not exist.

Sentencing him, Judge Sean Morris described Heaver's acts as ‘despicable'.

He said: 'You conned people into believing you were raising money for a little girl to send her to Florida to see Mickey Mouse, presumably, before she passed away.

'I can't think of anything as low as that.’

During the period of his deceit Heaver pocketed between £900 and £1,000 from around 100 unwitting members of the public.

BOGUS SAS GOVERNMENT ADVISER

Dreamer: Bogus SAS veteran James Shortt

James Shortt was exposed as a bogus SAS veteran who was used to advise on Cabinet Office security. 

In his 50s when he was outed, Shortt had boasted about having served with elite military units across the world. 

But despite being pictured wearing berets of the SAS and the Paras he belonged to neither. 

In fact, he was a medic in the Territorial Army who left within months. Shortt’s exposure in 2009 created a storm when it emerged he was allowed access to the highly sensitive government building to advise on Cabinet Office security.

‘The chat normally starts off with "I cant tell you about what I do as it’s secret" then ten minutes into the conversation they go on to tell how they were the second man on the balcony of the Iranian embassy or have killed over 200 men after free falling from 58,000ft into the sea. We have heard some right whoopers!’

It is at this point a suspect is confronted by the group.

The hunter adds: ’Once we have everything and are satisfied, we contact the individual and ask them why they have lied about serving.

‘Some become quite aggressive claiming we have breached the Data Protection Act and Official Secrets Act. Only problem with that defence is they have no official data in those units or the Armed Forces in general, so nothing is breached!

‘Those who claim to be ex-SAS normally inform us we won’t find anything on them as their records are classified and are either held in a secret vault or were destroyed on the orders of the Queen, which is just pure fantasy.

‘Some will use bits of paper they have printed off their computer or certificates they have bought off eBay to convince us we have got it wrong. 

ARMY FANTASIST'S PHONY CAREER

Exposed: Military historian John ‘Jack’ Livesey

To friends and colleagues, John ‘Jack’ Livesey was a military man who had served his country with distinction in the Paras and had been awarded a medal for gallantry.

But despite the then 57-year-old claiming in 2011 to have served with the Parachute Regiment, seen action in the Falklands War and undertaken six tours of Northern Ireland, a investigation revealed his Army career amounted to a short stint in the Catering Corps.

Livesey, of Purley-on-Thames, near Reading in Berkshire, later admitted inventing a ‘fantasy’ world.

He was investigated by police after producing false references following a conviction for benefit fraud in 2004. Livesey was subsequently jailed for three years for perverting the course of justice.

FAKE FALKLANDS PARATROOPER

Liar: Jim McAuley quit his military job in disgrace

Jim McAuley boasted of being part of the SAS team that stormed the Iranian Embassy in 1980 and a paratrooper at the bloody battle of Goose Green in the Falklands War. 

He had also served in Iraq and Afghanistan and claimed to have killed more than 100 men, he said. And just to convince doubters, he posed for a photograph wearing the paras' famous maroon beret and wings.

In truth, the closest McAuley had come to frontline troops was preparing their meals as an Army cook. His lies were exposed when he was caught in a ‘honeytrap’ by a veteran posing as a female research student. 

McAuley subsequently resigned in disgrace from his most recent military post - as a cadet instructor at Fulwood Barracks in Preston - and issued a grovelling apology to all the real heroes he may have upset.

‘Only problem is that with over 45,000 club members made up of mostly serving and ex-serving members of the Armed Forces it’s easy to establish fact from fiction.’

When ‘caught out’, a Walt has 24 hours to acknowledge their deceit and issue an apology. If they fail to do so, the dossier compiled against them is published on the Walter Mitty Hunters Group Facebook page.

Such methods of public exposure - and the way the ‘hunters’ go about gathering evidence - have been criticised as excessive by some, but the group maintains it is hard but fair.

The anonymous member said: ’As far as taking it too far, we do nothing more than any normal tabloid does.

‘Someone lies, we investigate and get all the facts. We then present these facts to the individual. Only difference is, we give them a chance to avoid the full exposure.’

He added: ‘The only people who ever complain are mainly those exposed or relatives of those who find it hard to believe.

‘They unusually cry bully or witch hunt on us.

'WOUNDED PARA' WHO DECEIVED ROYAL BRITISH LEGION MEMBERS

Misled: David Reeve (right) fooled RBL veterans

David Reeve convinced his wife and veterans from the Royal British Legion, who invited him to sell poppies with them and march alongside them at a Remembrance Sunday parade, that he was a wounded ex-Para.

In reality, although Mr Reeve signed up for the Parachute Regiment in 1997, he served just eight months before being discharged due to ill health with stress fractures in his legs.

He then continued to claim he was a former Para and trained sniper who had served on top secret missions.

Mr Reeve, from Hyde, Greater Manchester, was applauded as he hobbled on crutches alongside Royal British Legion members at his local Remembrance Day march.

He apologised for his actions but was branded ‘heartless’ by members of the town’s RBL branch.

LORRY DRIVER WHO LET CANCER-STRICKEN WIFE DIE BELIEVING LIES

Mark Izzard lied to his partner Tracey for 15 years that he was a British war hero. She died believing it

In November it emerged a doting wife had gone to her grave believing her 'veteran' husband Mark Izzard was a British war hero. In reality, her children later discovered he was nothing more than a fantasist lorry driver.

Izzard lied to partner Tracey for 15 years that he'd fought for his country in Iraq and had his knee obliterated in battle.

To perpetuate the lie he posed for 'official' photographs in a fancy dress beret while gripping a BB gun - and even sent himself letters through the post confirming his discharge from the SAS, which he asked his wife to open, as he manufactured an entirely fictional past for almost two decades.

She fell for every word he said, and died of cancer three years ago content she'd spent the best years of her life married to a decorated military hero.

‘One was happy to pull the wool over ex-servicemen and march with them during a Remembrance Day parade along with rank, SAS wings and medals he had not earned, gaining lots of praise and attention. Yet once exposed he was not happy with the attention.’

When asked about the reactions of the Walts when they’re exposed, the hunter said: ‘Some know of our reputation due to watching the page like a hawk and are quick to apologise, knowing we only expose when we have all the facts. We give them 24 hours to think about what they have been doing. This action prevents a full exposure.

‘Some are in complete denial to the facts due to doing it for years, even when the evidence is overwhelming.

‘Others tried to ride it out [by] making empty legal threats to the club, hoping we would back down.’

The Walter Mitty Hunters Group have now released a list of their top 10 Walts for 2015. The vigilantes are accepting votes on their Facebook page and a winner is set to be announced this week.