Online Dating Safety Tips – How To Avoid Scammers
Just say no to scammers
Wouldn’t it be great if we could trust anyone completely? If we knew that everyone out there – whether we knew them or not – had our best interests at heart? Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works, and until it does, you need to look after #1 (that’s you) because you can’t count on anyone else to. The same applies with online dating, so we want to give you some tips and advice on how to spot a scammer and how to protect your online identity.
1. Protect your password – You would never give your bank card number and password to someone just because they asked for it. Think of your personal ID the same way. Don’t share your password with anyone inside or outside of the online dating site, and the only page you should ever enter you user name and password is on online dating site’s login page.
2. Sharing personal information – You should never put your personal contact information in your public profile, as everyone will have access to it. Once you feel comfortable with another member, you can always choose to pass along your contact information.
3. Off-site communication – Be cautious when people try to lure you off of the site and onto another, usually one that requires credit card details to enter it. If this happens to you, please contact the site’s customer service department with that user’s name so they can investigate them further.
4. Trust your gut – It always knows best. Your instincts are the most accurate indicator when it comes to talking or meeting someone, and you should never ignore them. The moment you begin to feel unsure or unsafe about another user on this site, end communication with them immediately and report them to the site’s customer service agents.
Here are a few last tips on how to know you’re dealing with a scammer:
- They aren’t interested in getting to know you, and will usually deflect any personal questions about themselves.
- They will ask you for money or credit card information for various reasons, or they will try to lure you away from the site.
- Their profile pictures may look “too good to be true,” meaning the picture looks like it’s been taken by a professional photographer and the person featured looks like a model.
- Their profile may be incomplete, or may just contain sexual preferences and nothing about their personality.
- The best way to verify someone’s identity is on Video Chat. Insist on seeing current photos when contacting other members, and remember to give others the same.
Thank you ,I have non linear memory,{partial amnesia from Car crash-injury/surgey 1983 -2002 don’t exist for me . came back in 02 In 2004my ihss nurse told me want to date -GO-ON-LINE So any information is most helpfull. Real information is pricless. instead of point of view from individuals…..have a beautiful day .bye Rudy
Adult sites, especially online dating sites are therapeutic. They inspire people to feel better about themselves, meet people, get laid! These are all good things for society. All the best Sara
hi i have a friend from the internet come from another country and sent her immigration for one money, now she says she is arrested and requires bail . no proof from any police department was given nor a police e-mail address she keeps on asking for another ammount 10 X more than the first. dose this happen often and how is it dealt with legally?
John: Sounds like a scammer in my opinion. Have you ever met this person in real life? If she was in jail, how could she email you? Do yourself a favor and don’t send any more money to this person, because if it is a scammer, there is no way to get back the cash you’ve already sent. Any body else with an opinion on this or who has been in this position, feel free to comment.
Dear all!
Well it is nice to know that about scameers.
But it is a bit to late for me.
Because I lost over 50.000 EUR till I find out that it is scam.
Our police cannot help me.
SO PLEASE: Can you give me some contact to help me get money back, because scammer is stil responding to me.
BR, Marjan
Hi,thanks to all the stuff behind this scammers backup programme i am really impressed and happy and also believing that definately i will be safe down here to chat or to make up down here. i will be happy if this whole stuff will continue forever okay. keep the good works up byeeeeeeeeeeee.
Hi John that is a well known scam. They flirt online they say they’re in love then they ask for just a little money. After they get the little money then they ask for 10x more. Its almost always a variation of your story. Money for a plane to come meet you / live in your town. Has gone to school just need to “move to the US for a job.” Once they have a little of your money they know they have you hooked. All talk about love and romance etc. Then suddenly there’s trouble with immigration. They won’t let her go and are holding her ransom for a larger amount.
Beware of IM’s from another country – Nigeria, Ghana, etc. They always seem to have “one parent from the US and one from (country).” I suspect it is to cover speech idiosyncrasies. Also look at their pictures, they always have some kind of picture to draw you in, a pretty face, a natural beauty. They always seem to look like they’re fresh out of a catalog, and they never have any pics of themselves with their mom, or with their friends, or with their pets, or doing anything having to do with real life.
Once they have you, your email address is actually a commodity. There are entire businesses set up around conning people, and they have cubicles of people sitting at computers doing nothing but pretending to be in love and tryiing to scam your money. It is virtually scripted for them. Your email address and contact information suddenly has value because they know you can be taken. Once they have your money, they will milk you until you’re dry or until you smarten up. Then they will SELL your information to another scammer who will try again with a different tactic!
I once led one on for a couple of weeks. When she got to the asking for money part, I asked her for some real photos, her and her mom at holiday. She said she would get some. She never did. Then I started blocking her and hiding my online presence – and I noticed her online during hours she never had been on before. I imagined her taskmaster was probably forcing her to work overtime and days without sleep to make up for the time she wasted trying to get me to spend money on her.
If it really WAS a “her.” LOL
I’d REALLY like to get into combating them by launching cyberattacks to keep them so busy cleaning all the viruses, worms and junk off their networks that they’d have zero time to manage, much less initiate their scams…no matter what else changes, their IP address remains the same…Latetly, they’ve been infiltrating other dating sites, sending their same lonely hearts club letters…Sorry, I just hate ‘em with a passion!
I believe that this person using this account is a scammer. We met through Are You Interested application on Facebook. Claims to be a model from Los Angeles and is on a contract in Lagos, Nigeria modeling bikinis. Upon our first chat sessions she said she wasn’t happy with her career and going to quit and wanted to move in with me (I wanted to believe it). Things got bad and she said that her manager left without a word and she needs money to pay her hotel bills. She wants me to Western Union 570 US Dollars to her (like that’s going to happen). I don’t think that the person in the photo is the person I’ve been chatting to this past week. Upon our third chat session she wanted me to text her at this pager *XXXXXXXXX. I figure that if there was a way to publish the scammer’s pagers, cells to be placed on a watch list. We’ve texted once or twice a day. Plus chatting for a few hours for the past 7 days. I’ve archived our chats of the last 5 days, using Yahoo chat.
Everythink I’m reading here sounds so familiar. Beware of women (who really knows if they are) from Ghana and or Nigeria. No matter how nice they sounds, they are fake and are only intereste in your money !!
I know, because I got sucked in!
I met Henry S from Las Vegas and I was scammed by him for $3,000. My story is on http://www.ripoffreport.com. Just type in his name, Henry Scot, and my report on him will pop up. Please give it a read and pass it on.
If more people would do this, it might be easier to stop it. http://www.romancescams.com has a database full of scammers and their pics. Time consuming, but is definitely worth checking through them.
hmmm seems to me the most likely place to meet a scammer is on any dating site. It’s strange that so many scammers seem to slip through the net when it comes to posting bogus profiles. What I mean is, sometimes it is FUCKING OBVIOUS that there is something not quite right – the location is nonsensical, spelling and syntax is that of someone foreign to english, etc. My suggestion is that dating sites should screen their employees thoroughly in case they have some connection with scamming syndicates – or at least have some kind of common sense not to waste their time or that of members or admin.
Here is another cite to look at for scammers, one that i found when in contact with one for Eastern Europe…….again worth the time to read but there is no easy way to seach it other than reading through the entire list!!!
http://www.scamalert.freeservers.com/
i was asked to chat at webcams.com by ineedaanita she said that i would not be charged again since i already paid for this site. will i be charged?
specialsauce28, yes it is a scam. You would be charged. I had 4 girls try to get me on that site today so I could “see their videos” on videochat. Also managed to seriously piss one of them off, but thats a different story….
That’s great Don, “combating them by launching cyberattacks,” only most of these scammers are operating in 3rd world countries from an internet cafe where they pay $.50 to $1 per hour, so you are actually hurting the poor entrepeneur who is trying to make a living offering internet services to the general public. All the scammer is out is a few cents and they ask to move to another computer, or go a few blocks down to the next internet cafe. I read a story about a group of ‘vigilanties’ that scammed the scammer. That would, I think, be a more effective method.
I also got hit with that websites.com crap by Asianhottie, and afterward I canceled everything with the 2 sites she sent me to in part it felt totally wrong and because of this I really won’t do the chat option. Is the chat option really safe or is there a point in bothering to chat?
I must say at first it was quite tempting to get lured away but now one of my favourite past times on this site is waasting their time by saying that i’ll go to it, and then tell them i have a system problem and i’ll try again, i repeat this about 6 or 7 times. If we all do this then they might give up
hi,
just wanted to add a comment about scammers,they sure are real but some of us Nigerians that come online most of the time are honest and hardworking folks who want to meet real everyday pple like ourselves and establish social networks to better our lots and economic conditions, so i believe there are still some good pple out there who want sincere relationships.Thanks