Wise Up To Online Dating Scammers

The scourge of Online Dating scammers have become more apparent in recent years, with more and more people turning to chat rooms, online dating sites and social networking sites to meet new friends or find love and romance. These scammers, who are mainly from West African countries, see this growing trend as a great opportunity to weave their evil webs to a new unsuspecting audience. Many online dating sites are now taking the matter seriously and using more elaborate security techniques in an effort to keep these parasites from their databases. However, it seems that the scammers are also becoming more sophisticated in their endeavors, finding and exploiting every available opportunity. Although many people are aware of their presence and indeed tactics, it seems that the only way this problem will recede is when these low life individuals who prey on emotion, cease to be successful in finding naive victims. It is therefore extremely important that the word is spread to all those newbies (to online dating services in particular), and I for one, implore all dating site and social networking site webmasters to spread the word and pre-warn all their members of the presence of scammers and their evil agendas.

Although the area around Nigeria and the Ivory Coast seems to have been singled out as the scam capital of the world, the reality is that these online dating scammers (often referred to as romance scammers) are situated in many countries around the globe. There was a time when webmasters could simply block these visitors (using IP blocking scripts) from any one country, from joining their membership database. However, many of the perpetrators are now accessing the Internet via satellite servers, and using the IP of a neighboring country. However, the quality online dating sites have recognized the inadequacies in using IP blockers and are now taking action such as disallowing mass emailing, and monitoring emails for scammers language such as the word 'careing' (spelled like that) or referring to their victim as 'dear'. But online dating sites cannot carry the fight alone and it is important that all online users are well educated and informed on the subject of scammers.

Here is how the online dating scammer will typically set out his stall. He will simply log into an online dating site or social networking site, and send a standard message (using copy and paste) to all members that fit the particular chosen criteria. The message will very likely be flattering and lengthy (much longer than the usual ice-breaker), will often contain grammatically poor English littered with spelling mistakes and will typically invite the member to contact them outside of the dating site, usually through email or instant messenger. The scammer's profile will often contain photos that have been 'stolen' from elsewhere on the Internet and usually of high quality model shots, designed to be as appealing as possible. The scammer will then leave the site, and move to another possibly without ever returning so they are not worried about there membership being deleted, as their intended victims now have access to their outside email address. The agenda behind all of these schemes is either to have you send them cash, or to supply them with your personal information or banking information. The scammers will tell incredible stories of sick relations or money orders that simply need cashing, in an attempt to appeal to your romantic or sympathetic side.

Firstly you should never reply to an internal email that asks you to reply to a personal, outside e-mail account. Scammers are usually impatient but you are well advised to keep your first few interactions within the confines of the dating site. If you do receive an email which you are suspicious of, you should alert the website administrators, delete the message and block the user from making further contact with you. As with any new message you receive from a fellow member, don't be taken in by words and photos until you have exchanged regular correspondence and you feel more comfortable that this individual is genuine. Scammers will seldom waste time getting to know you, and will typically talk of love and romance in the first message. However, there are a handful of educated scammers out there.. who will stay on a dating site and try to build strong relationships over a period of time with multiple members. If your online dating site has a chat room or better still a video chat facility, you should use it as an excellent method of verifying that a member is the person in the photo on their profile. If they continually refuse to video chat with you, there is a good chance they are not the identity they claim to be.

A typical scammer's ploy will be to tell you they live in the US, Canada, UK or Europe, (coinciding with your location) but are currently in Ghana, Nigeria or the Ivory Coast either working or visiting relatives. They will say they are only away for a couple of weeks and want to meet you soon. If they have not wooed you into sending them cash or surrendering personal banking details within that time they will move on to concentrate on other potential victims.

Despite the obvious problems with scammers and indeed spammers, online chat, online dating sites and social networking sites still have a lot to offer in terms of keeping up with friends and meeting new and genuine people. Online dating sites are especially successful in bringing together new friends with more choice and selection than they would otherwise have. So allow common sense to prevail. Be a little skeptical, but also keep in mind that there are a lot of genuine people just like you who are looking for love and romance. Don't let the few rotten apples spoil your chance of fun. It is paramount that as many genuine people as possible are informed of the scammer's work. Without victims these scammers would have no choice but to move on to alternative deceitful areas..

Article Source: http://articles.safer-online-dating-services.com

Trevor Taylor reflects on his experiences in the Online Dating arena.
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