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Scammers: How to spot a dating site scammerBy Glen Murphy, Founder of PricelessPartner.com |
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If you have used a dating site in the past, it is likely you have come across a dating site scammer at some point. If you haven't, you are either very lucky or maybe they were not uncovered by you at the time. You may even have been conned into sending a scammer hundreds or thousands of hard earned dollars, never hearing from them again. A dating site scammer is a person who may contact you in order to obtain money. They will use a false name, age, country of birth, occupation and most cunningly, they will have a misleading purpose for contacting you. They will appear sweet, caring and in-need of your help. Dating sites are very prone to dating site scammers. Generally they will prey on people who are prepared to "open their heart" to the scammer, often being "sucked into" the scammers lie. The ultimate goal of their lies is to receive money from you - often in large quantities. As the operator of the dating site Pricelesspartner.com, I have come across every story, every username, every lie that a scammer could possibly think of. I thought it would be useful to share my knowledge of dating site scammers and to write a "How To Avoid" guide to dating site scammers in the hope that it may save you both time, possibly money and give you a more enjoyable online experience on dating sites. In no particular order, here is a list of what to look out for when dating online.
The Email Address From my experience, the most popular email service used by dating site scammers is Yahoo! Mail. At present very few scammers use Hotmail or Gmail, although they are both not immune from being used as scamming email addresses. The email address will often contain a username similar to their registered dating site username. See below.
The Username The next most obvious sign of a dating site scammer will be his or her username. Generally, their username will consist of love related or relationship related terms. Common terms include 'luv' or 'love' or 'real' in combination with a common generic name such as 'Bob' or 'Jane' or 'Jennifer' etc. Often the username will also contain a string of numbers at the end, perhaps helping them exhaust a range of memberships or registrations with a site. For example 'Bob4real' may have '001' at the end. Here is a tiny sample of random usernames I have rejected:
The Description The personality description used by the dating site scammer is probably the biggest giveaway and sometimes the most humorous (when you have gone through thousands of profile registrations like I have, you need to have the odd giggle here and there). Most commonly, the dating site scammer will use the following phrases or word combinations in their personality description:
The Photo The photo used by a dating site scammer is often very professional - almost too professional. Photos will be very clear and appear to be a "pose" by a professional model. Alternatively, many male scammers from African countries will send a passport-like photo of themselves. It will be very grainy and somewhat aged. Some photos may also appear to be everyday snaps, but are very tiny - almost thumbnail in appearance.
The Message The message sent to you by a dating site scammer is almost always your first contact with them. In most cases, the message is likely to be very self contained and not just a simple "Hi, want to chat?". It will include many of the keywords and phrases used in their personality description (see above) and will often request you contact them directly via their email address or to add them directly to MSN or your computer's Instant Messenger. A good example of a typical message would be similar to the following:
So, what do I do if I think I have found a scammer? If you believe the person contacting you fits the descriptions listed above, do the following three things:
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