8/24/11

Falling Prey To An Internet Dating Scam

By Harrison Jones Edwards


The government receives reports on a daily basis that a new scam is being run on internet dating websites on the unsuspecting victims who have entered the world of online dating. And yet, no one thinks they will fall prey to a predator that is an internet dating scammer.

Protecting yourself from falling victim to an online dating scam can be as simple as proceeding with caution and taking notice of those things that do not seem right from the beginning. When exchanging emails with person you have met at a dating website, take notice of their response time. If they always seem to be online at the exact moment you send an email, they may be using an email account set up to automatically respond with a series of responses that are cut and pasted from a predetermined script. In addition, ensure that their spelling and writing style is consistent in all of their correspondences. Not everyone can put together a grammatically correct sentence or even spell correctly, however there should be some sort of consistency in each reply. When sharing personal information about yourself, make sure that they are willing to provide you with the same amount of information about themselves. Often scammers focus their conversations on the victims in order to build trust, which they will later use to manipulate the relationship.

In order to set up a relationship with their potential victims, scammers take their time and build a thorough profile on dating websites. Once they chose their victim or victims, as they often run their con on more than one person at a time, they do whatever they have to do to gain the victims trust and build confidence in their relationship. They may even send them gifts such as flowers or candies. Once they a solid relationship with their victim is established, they will find themselves with a dilemma that only their victim can help them out of.

Often, the scammer poses as an American citizen who just so happens to be working overseas in places like Russia or Nigeria. They love their jobs and make decent money; however their boss pays them in money orders, which they cannot cash in the country they are currently in. So, they ask the victim if they could send the money orders to them in the States to cash and then wire the money back to them.

At this point, the victim is more than willing to comply. These transactions usually occur numerous times until one day the bank contacts the victim, who is now legally responsible for the money.

The scam consists of the purchase of a money order for a specific dollar amount, usually a small amount. It is then tempered with to appear like it is for a larger amount. The victim, who cashed the money order, is often left bankrupt while the scammer chooses their next victim.

Internet dating continues to grow in size, as does the number of dating scams that crop up throughout the globe. Enter each relationship on-line with the same amount of caution as you would with any new relationship. Trust in yourself more than you trust in another. If something feels wrong in the relationship, it usually is.




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