Dating Scams - Save Yourself A Heartache ... And Money
Dating
scams have made the news several times. Scammers give the dating
industry a bad name. But you can avoid them.
These
scam operators are people (not necessarily women) who make a living of
abusing the feelings of those who try to find a wife through Internet
dating. These scammers are not interested in love. They just want
money, which makes them one of the major dangers of online dating.
Most notorious are dating scams performed by
Russians. Russian scammers have made hundreds - and more likely
thousands - of victims already. If you are not prepared, you can be the
next one.
Scammers benefit from the fact that email
communication is quite anonymous. Ask yourself: Do you really know who
the Russian (or Brazilian, or Asian, or ...) lady is you are writing
to? And is all she (?) writes really true?
The answer is: it's just a matter of believing her
or not, as long as you haven't met her.
The strategies of dating scams are simple
and effective. But you can recognize them.
Usually
a dating scammer pretends to fall in love within a few letters or
weeks. And then out of the blue, something terrible happens: she writes
her victim she can't afford her Internet service anymore, her mum is
nearly dying and needs an expensive operation, she has lost their job
and so on. In one word: disaster!
The only remedy is that you send money, by using Western Union or other
worldwide money transfer services that do not require a full identity
check.
Once payment has arrived, the victim will never hear from his 'lover'
again.
Another scenario. "Your" lady tells you about some
friend or acquaintance who works at a travel agency and can arrange
visa plus a plane ticket for her. But she has no money. Who's gonna
pay, you think? And how?
Well, keep this in mind: it is almost impossible for single Russian
women (or any other mail order bride) to get a tourist visa for the US.
There are even (mainly Russian) marriage agencies that are nothing but
dating scams.
You
think you write one of their Russian ladies, but in fact you write the
owner. The woman you like doesn't really exist, or she doesn't know
about you. She might even be a photo model who doesn’t know
she’s on this website.
Scammers often use false names and/or false postal addresses. If
needed, they switch from alias to alias.
The
best advice to avoid dating scams is simple:
Never send money to a lady you are
corresponding with, until you have met her in person and know that
she's reliable.
Remember:
although your heart might tell you otherwise, you do NOT have a
relationship with a mail order bride you have never met.
One more advice: You should always make sure to
have a lady’s full address and, if available, phone number.
It’s a clear red flag if she doesn’t want to give
her address. In that case: don’t write her anymore.
There’s an excellent way to find out if a
woman is who she says she is. Use a flower delivery service to bring
her roses. On your request most of these services make a photo of her
with her gift. The photo will be mailed to you. If the lady on the
picture is the same as the lady on the Internet, she will hardly be a
scammer.
The
past few years dating scams got a lot of attention in the media. There
are also several websites and discussion groups on this subject -
although even the reliability of these websites is sometimes questioned!
Reading all this, you might get the impression that chances are big you
will run into a scammer. Real mail order brides have serious and
honest intentions.
Don’t have nightmares. Prepare yourself instead.
Order The
Complete No-Nonsense Anti-Scam Guide
Back To Home Page
|
