The Taiwan News reported earlier today data from the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) under the National Police Agency, and who was most affected by fraud in 2008. According to the information presented, it wasn't elderly folks living in rural areas that were the most susceptible to online dating fraud, but rather urban women in their 20s and 30s.
Of the total 41,093 cases of fraud reported last year in Taiwan, 5,803 were 'interactive dating fraud' -related, while 2,183 were 'online interactive dating fraud' -related. (Sorry folks, I wasn't able to determine how these differed from one another. Perhaps one refers to face-to-face dating contact, while the other only online dating interactions?)
But if that weren't surprising enough, the CIB also collected data about the astrological signs of those taken advantage of via dating scams. From their statistics, they determined:
"... an individual's sign of zodiac did not offer any insight into a person's vulnerability to fraud because there were no significant differences between the signs in the number of people who fell victim to online dating fraud."
Related Content:
- About.com's Guide to Astrology
- Signs of an Internet Dating Scam
I believe you are right about the difference between interactive dating fraud and online interactive dating fraud. Interactive dating fraud is giving false information about yourself in person (usually to sleep with them without them ever being able to track you down) whereas online interactive dating fraud is misrepresenting yourself online. This can be for several different reasons including sleeping with someone and not wanting to see them again, scared to display real information about them self, wanting to appear better than they actually are and various other reasons.
In a study I read, it was found that one quarter of people using online dating services had misrepresented themselves in some way online.
This is a major fear of many online daters, but it was also found that people online tend to be younger, better educated, more likely to be employed and more likely to earn higher income than the general population. In addition, online daters tend to be more sociable. 24% belong to a religious organization, 41% belong to clubs, 82% visit family or relatives at least once a month, and 53% go out with others for social or leisure activities more than once a week.
In my opinion, online dating is more efficient and well worth any risks. Users just need to use common sense to stay safe.
No.1
You will get frequent emails like this from bootycall@onlinebootycall.com
“XYZ,
You have new booty call invitations waiting for you at OnlineBootyCall.com.
Click Here to log into your profile and discover who sent the invitation.”
When you check your account there is no invitation there. This is only to get you to login to your account. So when someone searches your account shows up as last online xyz time ago.
No.2
You will get booty calls from very attractive people. When you check they profile, they will be half a world away from you.
Why would someone request booty or accept booty calls, if you are in America and they are in Australia?
No.3
You’ll notice that 70% of the attractive people online are from a specific location (like Dawes Point, NSW (which is in Sydney Australia). If you invite them they will accept quickly. Next will be a live chat (may also ask you to add them on your yahoo messenger buddies), in which they will give you a link saying, it is of they webcam 100% free (for sure). When you go to that link, it will ask for Credit Card for age verification (that’s where the trap is). The one who chats to you online says “Don’t worry, if you cancel within 24 hours no charges apply (you bet ya).
Contact Online booty call via “Report Profile” and you never get a reply even if you report 100’s of them. Why?
Well’ this is all a part of the game. To contact people who invite you, you have to get membership ($$$). These fake people work for Online Booty Call. So who are you reporting to whom?
Check these out – all fake members
http://www.onlinebo..2FxqV0%3D
http://www.onlinebo..XKxOh4%3D
http://www.onlinebo..KmUE88%3D
http://www.onlinebo..vpGnd8%3D
http://www.onlinebo..TkeE1t0%3D
These are indeed frightening, but realistic statistics. That is why the trend today is away from online dating sites to dating networks where all the singles are connected through friends, so you can check up on the person behind the profile. I work for a very good free dating network called http://www.Meezoog.com and work very hard to give our members the social networking tools they need to stay safe.
With the rising number of singles in America and abroad, so too has the number of scam attempts against unsuspecting singles. Online dating sites have become a highly susceptable venue, favored by those who seek to defraud. Most dating sites are taking extreme measures to thwart these efforts by blocking countries such as Africa and certain South East Asian locations. But its an ongoing job because the would be scammers use proxy servers based in other countries along with various other methods to avoid detection.
Its important when choosing an online dating site to make sure the management takes an active stance against this type of perpetuation.