Online Dating Scams: What to Look for and How to Protect Yourself
If you are looking for love online, you may well find it. Every day, more and more people are joining the search, and thousands can now testify to happy, lasting relationships that have formed as a result. Sadly, thousands more have fallen victim to online dating scams.
Here are secrets to spotting these scams, as well as specific ways you can protect yourself.
Online dating scams take a variety of forms, but they have one thing in common: money. If you have met a genuine person in your search for online romance, it should be a long time before the subject of money comes up.
But people who may be working a scam will try to raise the issue as soon as possible. They may take a few weeks to try and seduce you, often through email and chat, but they can afford to invest only so much time in any one possible target.
So, if the subject of money comes up relatively quickly with a prospective partner, you should be wary.
The subject of money can take many forms. Some people may will ask you straight out for cash donations (often to help them deal with supposed emergencies) but others will be more subtle.
Often the money you stand to lose will take the form of payments to what seems like a third party, as in telephone online dating scams. Telephone dating scams often involve the prospective partner asking you to call him or her on a particular number, which is secretly charging you several dollars per minute. These scams can cause you to run up huge phone bills, but because you do not see your bill immediately you may not realize what is going on until you are already in serious trouble.
One of the most common scams is a variation on the ‘Nigerian’ scam, which you may well have encountered before in email. In this online dating scam, the person whom you have an interest in, who often claims to be living in an African country, will tell you that he or she has received some money in the form of money orders that can not be cashed there. The person will then ask you to cash the money orders in your bank and wire the money. The money orders will be forgeries and you may even find yourself charged by your bank for submitting them; however, they can take several weeks to process, so many people fall for these online dating scams and wire the money before they find out what is truly going on.
If the person you have met online lives far away, one of the most tempting ways to spend money is on travel, to enable them to visit you. Many online dating scams take advantage of this with set-ups that enable this prospective partner to pocket the money.
You can avoid these online dating scams by never sending cash and never allowing the other person to determine exactly what travel arrangements or agencies will be used.
While you should not allow these scams to put you off when looking for love online, it is important to be aware of them. Remember that any genuine person you meet will know about these scams, too. If they care about you, they will respect your need to be careful.
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well update on one man with several FAKE names
NICK JAMES
ROBERT HALE
JOHN SCOTTZZ
fred Young
Maxell Yas
Michael Parson
Beware of Steve Lenon, or Steve Smile, they are the same guy. He is a scammer. Please be careful.
Wow, these scammers are really swift. I am finally getting over the heartbreak I went through when I found out that Paul Thomas from NorthBrook IL scammed me. His talk was poetry that really tugged at my heart strings. We talked for a few days and then he had to go to Malaysia to finish up a job. He was a contractor and had to finish the Shopping Mall he was building. He would be gone for three weeks. I was just recently seperated from my ex. and this guy was everything my ex was not. He was going to take me shopping in Italy cause that is where he was born. In Milan. I was new to the dating sights and did not even think of scammers. I saw his good looking face pop up and I am wanting him to wink at me, I thought he is to good looking for me for sure I am not what he is looking for. Low and behold he winked. I felt my heart start racing and I replied back. It took a couple of days and then he said he loved me and wanted to live with me.
He wanted us to move to Florida when he got back.
The first red flag should of been when he was so madly in love with me. the 2nd one was when I heard his voice and had a heavy accent. I asked him how come his accent was so heavy, he said you have to talk like that to get the jobs over seas. There were so many red flags but he had me in his spell. whew what a spell I was in. I thought life is good.
Well then the real red flag came. As he was out shopping for me and he went to pay the taxi his wallet was gone. I really believed him. I said is there anything I can do to help, he said yes buy me a ticket so I can get home and get my other credit card. cause he needed to pay for the supplies that were coming. I said “oh man” then he said well the materials are 5thousand if you could send that I could get home sooner to you. I said OK. He told me to send 2500 in his name and 2500 in another name and tell western union it was a sibling. Well, I tried to do it on the phone and my credit card was denied,(thankfully) I told him my credit card wont let me do it and he said why why why. I said I did not know. I got to thinking for awhile and said to myself what the heck are you doing. This guy supposedly is worth millions and he can’t figure it out for himself. Right then and there it clicked. This guy is scamming me. I said to him You got me didn’t ya. He started going off and said forget don’t send money just get me a plane ticket home. I went off on him and told him to go find his next prey. How can you talk to me like that, He said I am in the bathroom crying. I said boo hoo and left. I tell ya I almost did it, but he broke my heart into several pieces. I felt so stupid for crying. I fell in love with my fingers and his doing the talking.
This all happend the end of Nov for a couple weeks. I am getting over it. I feel so dumb letting myself get carried away like that. I am just waiting for the next scammer to come after me.
Sorry this is so long but I had to let it out.
Would love to know if anyone else was scammed by this guy. Oh he was not married and did not have any kids. his wife hurt him real bad five years ago and his pastor told him it was time to start dating again,.
Ladies beware of this guy he is bad news..on many different dating sites. Met him on blackpeoplemeet in jan 2012, but he is on, okcupid,tagged,match,asia. adultfrienfinder and probably many more. His name on blackpeoplemeet is ja66ba18..his email is lvnbuchanan@yahoo.com. He used me for money, using his kidney transplant as a way for me to feel sorry for him..almost daily he was asking for money for some reason..sent him alot of money in which he was going to return when he received money from a supposed law suit. which i believe was all a lie. we met in person on 3 occasions..i really enjoyed this guy but had speculations about him. upon his last visit he stole my jewelry..totally devastated me. He is from Minnesota. Ladies he is bad news.