Thread: Has any one been scammed by on line dating ?

I want to help women so they are not fooled by on line dating scams

I’ve done online dating myself but am also a scambuster and have found so many scammers. An estimated 50% of profiles on dating sites are fake, and it’s up to 75% on some sites, mainly the free sites. it’s not just women - men get scammed just as often

There are a few simple rules you can follow to protect yourself from scams
1 - NEVER communicate offsite until you have met the person. I don’t care if it takes 6 months to meet. You only communicate through the dating site to protect your privacy and identity. Only a scammer will ask you to immediately start chatting through IM, email, etc. Just say no. Tell them that you will only communicate on-site until you meet
2 - NEVER give your real name, birthdate, home address, phone number or any other personal details to a person until you have met in person and KNOW you want this person to have this address. There are plenty of people you meet online that seem great,then you meet in person and never want to see them again - and you certainly don’t want them to be able to contact you again. Only a scammer will give you all of their personal details
3 - The minute they claim to be working in Nigeria or Ghana or anywhere else that is different from the location listed on their profile, dump them. If they were really in Nigeria then their profile would say they were in Nigeria, not in Chicago or London or wherever they pretend to be from
4 - if the profile looks like a male model,it’s a fake profile. Real men who look like models DO NOT go on dating sites. These are fake profiles with pictures copied from amateur modeling sites
5 - ONLY a scammer will start using pet names (honey, love, sweetheart, darling) with a person they have never met, claim to love you, talk about a future together, etc before they have ever met you in person. As much as people want to believe in fairy tales, it doesn’t happen
6 - Don’t spend too much time online. The more you do,the more unrealistic a picture you build up of this person which is never going to match the reality. I learned this the hard way - I spent almost 6 months chatting to one guy on the site and we couldn’t meet because of both of our work schedules. I should have taken that as a sign. Online he seemed perfect - when we finally met it was a complete letdown for both of us and we never contacted each other again - and I feel I wasted months chatting to him when I could have been chatting to other people during that time. My rule now is that if they won’t agree to meet for a quick coffee at Starbucks after 3-4 emails, then I move on. It’s no use wasting time online if you are going to find out later there is no chemistry in person. It’s better to meet right away and if there’s no chemistry you have not really wasted any time or emotional energy
7 - NEVER send money to a person you have ever met for ANY reason. It doesn’t matter how desperate they sound.This is ALWAYS a scam. NO exceptions. NONE. I personally don’t understand why anyone would do this, but Americans alone lost over $100 million to online romance scammers last year so there are a lot of stupid people out there