How To Spot Dating Scammers

Do you want to know how to spot dating scammers? You’ve seen the commercials. Harry and Joan met online in 2006, and are now happily married. Christina and Josh started out as chat buddies and are now engaged. And on and on. It’s becoming more and more apparent that a lot of successful relationships begin online nowadays.

If you’ve used a dating site before or have created an online profile, it is likely that you’ve come across a dating scammer. What is a dating scammer? It’s basically anyone that uses a dating site to con you out of your money. There are many different scenarios in which this happens, and unfortunately, it is quite common.

 How can you protect yourself from a dating scammer? It sometimes takes more than just a little common sense.

1. The profile picture. Often, a dating site scammer will use a professional-looking photo. If this is the ONLY photo on their profile, beware. They have probably stolen this from someone else, or simply used a random Internet image of a model.
2. The email address. Since most scammers prey on more than one person at once, they need several different email addresses. Look for addresses that are too generic-sounding, or have random numbers at the end (i.e. Bobby4U3498574).
3. The first few conversations. If a sob story is immediately presented, be careful. Dating scammers like to prey on your emotions and sympathy. If the words “love” “forever” or “heart” are thrown around right in the beginning, that’s also a sign. They want things to get deep and emotional as soon as possible.
4.  Location. If your new online fling is overseas, be very careful. Scammers often use common scamming countries like Nigeria or Russia as their country of origin. And don’t be fooled if they say they were born in US or England, but currently residing in one of these countries.

If anything seems fishy, immediately cease contact with the potential scammer. Do NOT give any personal info, and definitely don’t give them any money. Contact the site administrator and report their behavior.

Do not allow the presence of scammers to deter you from meeting your soul mate online. Just practice a little restraint and be careful to protect yourself. The old adage “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is” definitely applies in this case.