Online Dating Scams

Online dating has made it possible for single people to meet new men and women, and perhaps find that wonderful partner they have been dreaming of.  In fact, I know of several couples who met, fell in love, married and now have children as a result of online dating websites.  These sites offer great possibilities for new relationships.  However, they also make it possible for scammers to take advantage of naive or lonely people.

Online Dating Dangers

While many of these swindlers are very good at conning other people, there are a few signs that should make you skeptical about your new romance:

They quickly tell you a sob story about how their family died in an accident, or they have a sick relative.

They offer to come visit you, but they don't have enough money.  Another version of this story is that they are at the airport, bus or train station, on their way to see you, and their credit card was mysteriously declined.

They are in the military and they need money for special papers in order to visit you.  (No such required papers exist.)

They want to skip the dating website, and communicate with you directly by IM or email.  They could be trying to get access to your computer.

They send attachments in their emails.  These could contain viruses.

They have heavy foreign accents.  They could actually be a scammer working from another country.

They want a lot of personal information.  This could be a ploy to steal your identity.

Recent Research on Dating Scams

Dating scams are a bigger business than you may realize.  Approximately 100,000 Americans will $800 million to romance scams this year.  The loss of this money can be devastating to most of the victims.  Some people are known to have lost nearly all their retirement savings to these fake romances.

If you are interested in reading more of the recent research on the subject, you can find the report at:

https://comparite.ch/romancescams

The author also highlights the romance scam hot spots around the country, where this problem is the worst, and gives additional tips on ways to identify potential romance scams.

In the meantime, here are some ways to protect yourself.

 
Online Dating Self-Defense

There are a number of steps you can take to reduce your chances that you will be hurt by someone you meet online.  These are actions you can take privately.  Taking these actions will reassure you and help you feel more comfortable about enjoying the experience of meeting potential future partners.  These steps will not guarantee that you still won't run into a bad apple once in a while.  However, they increase your odds of having a positive outcome. 

Use paid online dating sites.  People who participate in these sites have to use a credit card, which cuts down on the number of predators.  Some sites even run criminal background checks on their members, now.

Talk to them on the phone before you ever meet them. Someone may seem smooth on the computer, but their story may be full of holes when you talk to them on the phone, and ask a lot of questions.

Be very slow to give out any personal information such as where you live or work, or your last name.

Meet them in a neutral location several times, until you feel comfortable with them.  Invite them to group events, where there will be other people around.

Avoid long-distance relationships.  The person could be much further away than you realize.  Scammers try to work from long distances, often other countries, because they are less likely to be caught.

Make use of the websites that are available to catch scammers.  Here are some of them:

Tinyeye.com (upload their picture and see where else on the internet it has appeared)

Romancescams.org (see if they have scammed others)

Pigbusters.net (another site to see if they have scammed someone else)

Google.Lo (cut and paste portions of their emails into Google, and see if the same words show up on any scam websites.)

While none of these measures can guarantee that you will be free from a romance scam, they will go a long way towards cutting the odds that you will become another victim.

You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com/

Graphic of heart courtesy of: http://www.morguefile.com/