Avoiding Internet Dating Scams

I often wonder about internet sites that have very attractive people who are supposedly looking for a partner yet mostly never answer or if they do, it is very promptly but never anything of consquence. Nothing that lets you get close (Never get: “let’s meet” or “call me on the phone sometime”) I get the feeling they work for the company to keep a potential paying customer interested.

I was the recent target of a Nigerian scam on Match.com. Thanks to a good friend, I realized it just in time. I didn’t lose any money, but I DID decide to turn the table and “play” with my scammer a bit. SO — LADIES..have some fun!!!! I sent him down to Western Union not once, but TWICE looking for money which wasn’t there. Then told him I was personally flying to Lagos to bring him and his invented son a ticket along with 12K since he’d “gotten robbed”. Of course he INSISTED I not come due to “safety” in Lagos. I told him I was licensed to carry a gun on the plane and safety would not be a problem. I really poured it on near the end! I laughed so hard I thought I would die! He was buying MY scam, the scumbag. I ended with a grand finale of telling him I REALLY worked for the Cyper crime division of the FBI, and that we’d gotten the pics we needed of him when he went to get the money at Western Union; that his Nigerian government had “sold them out” and given US authority for arrest, extradition and full prosecution under US law of these scammers etc…. It was so much fun. Watch out ladies..their modus operarendi is the same. This guy got to me by being a “widow – having lost his wife and both parents in a plane crash”. (I’m a widow also so fellow widows — BEWARE..they will hit you where it hurts). Anyway — be safe, careful and once you know you are being scammed — yank THEIR chain for awhile. HA. Turn-about is fair play when it comes to something like this.

I’m currently on Match and it seems that in the last year or so it’s gotten very bad! In my case I AM a widow and it’s a shame because I’m leery of any/all widowed men who wink or email me. The good news is that I can pretty much tell from the get-go.

1. Their profiles are sometimes a little too detailed. Who cares if his parents got divorced when he was 7… his wife died of renal failure (most widowed members do NOT talk about their deceased spouses)… he was born overseas… yadda yadda

2. Their command of the English language is shoddy at best.

3. They’re not particular about their criteria.

4. They either have only one photo posted or several which is more appealing in a search… BUT when you open the profile, it’s actually two or three of the same photo.

Thought you all might be interested in a case study we did about fake ads in the Craig’s List personals.

http://www.onlinepersonalsfraud.com

Thanks.

Thanks Tom for the link; I’ll take a better look at this later when I get a chance.

Fred, yes, there are people who work for these companies to draw/lure people in (I used to be one way back when, believe it or not), but its not as common as it used to be. Most of the time, these really attractive folks who never answer are either (a) overwhelmed with responses and extremely picky with whom they reply to, or (b) fake profiles that the website owner has plugged into the database to make it look like there are more people signed up than there really are. Try sticking with the larger, more reputable dating sites to avoid these issues where possible.

Carol, I hear where you’re coming from. Some of what you’ve listed are red flags. Maybe try signing up with another dating site to see if the clientele it attracts is more up your alley?

Sharla:

Your story sounds the same as mine. I actually turned the tables the beastie scammer and sent him to western union at least three times. This guy has a vivid imagination too…he is a male pippie longstocking. If anyone on here recognizes the name David Steel…let me know.

Hi! I recently met a widower with a son who was raised in a German Catholic orphanage, plays the saxaphone, is a geologist, got a contract in Nigeria, ran into trouble, needs money etc etc. loves me and wants to be with me forever….and it did sound nice at first especially sipping wine in the jacuzi and reading shakespeare…name Lawrence Philip…son, Nick…..beware…. is sounds really great at first.

Hi I have just been scammed too…..but I have now turned the tables on them as well…I will have embassy drop the money off at the hotel…..!!!! NOT!!
the problem I have is that the photos they use
..in this case a white man and his daughter….very religious…all that jazz…
most probably dont even know their photos are being used….
The emotional damage they cause is very bad because there are many many lonely people just wanting to genuinely meet someone…..and then these low lifes prey on them……anyway I lost my heart to a picture but I did not lose any money!!!!

I was just scammed by a man I met on match.com. The name he uses is Salvester Bruno, he says he’s from Malta, heading up a construction project in Ghana. His accent is African, but I don’t know what a Maltese accent would sound like. His English is poor. He tried to scam me after about a month, but I didn’t send him any money. His story was good, though, not the usual. He had to satisfy the Board of Engineering requirements before he could get paid, and that was a hefty fine, $78,000. He asked me for $12,000, then $4,000, then $800. His photos are gorgeous – he looks Italian — but that’s probably some model’s photo. Watch out for this one. He said he lived in my town for a year, but could never provide evidence or a reason for coming here. My town is small and barely on the map, it would be an odd choice for someone from out of the country to relocate to, let alone find. So many things didn’t add up, even though he seemed so sincere. Watch for those who want to bypass the dating site email immediately, that should have been the first clue.

I think my mom just fell prey to a scam artist! Of course he was in love with her from the begininng! He was over in Africa working as an oil rig engineer.. He had booked his flight to come see her tomorrow, but alas, his house caught fire and one of his workers was very badly burned and he just didn’t know how he was going to be able to pay for his ticket to see her! BULL!! He also played the widow card. He supposedly had a daughter in school in the UK. I feel so bad for my mom! I know she feels so horrible right now thinking that she was actually in love with this guy! I just don’t get it!

I was also in contact with Salvester Bruno with the exact same story and amounts of money he asked for. Everything is Sue’s (9) story was identical to mine, even the story about him living in the town near mine for about a year. I asked him where he lived there and even called to verify, but of course they never heard of it. Stay away from him.

Please beware of online dating scams. My sister who is on Match.com has now been hit by 2 scam artists, one named David Wayne, and one named David Thompson. David Wayne was supposedly in the jewelry business, and dropped his laptop in Ghana and asked my sister to send him a new one FedEx. Now the latest one is David Thompson email address davidjust4u001@yahoo.com He said he was a contractor building a gas station in Nigeria, got ambushed the day he was leaving and wanted my sister to send him $800.00. By the way, he is on Match.com and says he lives in Stockbridge Ga. Yeah right, these scam artists are preying on widows, you can bet that. But, my sister was smart and told them off. They all have phone numbers that can call you, but you can’t call them. Guess it is Vonage. Women, please be aware, these sharks are out.

I am currently communicating with a guy I met on BlackPeopleChristianMeet.com and he is [supposedly] from Walkertown, North Carolina. His profile said he wanted to meet a God-fearing woman to help him raise his 6 year old son. (Good looking man and cute son). We communicated for about a month before he asked for $6,500.00 to pay a security finance company for a lockbox his father left him in Malaysia with 4.5 million USD in it. Before that his mom got sick and needed bone marrow surgery for which he paid $38,000 USD, money he retrieved from him 401K. He didn’t ask for money to help with that, but right after her surgery he went to Malaysia to retried the money from his dead dad (he just found out died 2 years earlier). Supposedly the dad had left he and his mom when he was 8 and he never saw him again, but while he was in the UK visiting his mom, the lawyer called him and told him about his dad. His name is Martin Terri, supposed to be half British, half Jamaican. Has a 6 year old son Daniel. Said he worked as a stage director in North Carolina. Now he’s stuck in Malaysia, hungry, stranded in a hotel and needs money.

Yes, recently just days ago,,,,scammed or tried to get scammed by a man posing as a widow, 57, name Thomas Ehnert….only man by that name in Lynn Haven, FL is a 30 something pastor…Also, a Donald Dawson, UK/Colorado….language/spelling was horrible…big red flag, one profile pic and other pics he had of daughter (1 daughter) was of two different girls…go figure…BE CAREFUL!

I am a single mom and put a profile on singlemomsanddads. well I got a message from this very good looking man named Garry Gray so he said, he was a widow and had a little girl the same age as mine, well right after I messaged him back he said he had to go to London to work, well he got there and then his luggage was takem with his credit card in it, so he needed me to open him an account in texas so he could have his employer send his check to it, well I didnt do it so then he wanted his employer to make a check out to me to cash for 10,000 dollars, so a man called me from the Dominican republic said he was his agent and that a check would be coming to me, i immediately was suspicious, I really liked him he was good looking had a pretty daughter and said anything and everything I wanted to hear and he was in love with me and we had not even met just chatted online, He did not speak good english and said he was Honduran and American. I contacted the site and had his profile removed, but it just goes to show you they have no heart and will prey on anyone especially single moms.

David Wayne in the gems/jewelry business was on datehookup.com. He says he is traveling to Ghana Africa and then is very convincing on how much he is falling for you, etc. but out of the country on business. Then says he dropped his laptop and can’t do his business and can’t get it fixed. He wants you to send a laptop fed ex! be careful. His phone number is a pay by the minute, the number for the “hotel” is a pay by the minute. They answer Ritz Hotel, he talks a very good game. Don’t go for it! Question all of them! and check them out before you go too far.

I was just scammed also and I think Lynn was talking to the same guy I was but he used the name Reuben Jay a gem cutter from White Hall, PA. His profile was on Catholic singles. He contacted me, said he was a gem cutter and jeweler, when I pressed him to meet he said he had to travel to Germany but ended up in Accra, Ghana. Then asked me to buy him a new laptop because his was giving him problems. I didn’t and he kept talking to me for about 2 weeks then said he needed 5,000 because his atm card did not work in Ghana. The pictures he sent showed him in a shop with equipment for gem cutting. Unfortunately I fell for this and sent him $1,000. He then asked for $500 more. Then I caught on and started researching. I pulled back the last $200 I sent him and then the communication stopped. I never came across anything like this, and so I lost a little. Now I am educated and this will never happen again. So sad that these people exist.