How to Spot a Potential Online Dating Illegality
With the online dating industry now ballooning to include every niche market know to man (Truck drivers, Mennonites and cat lovers have now been taken care of), the issue of online security and safety is rearing its monstrous head again.
Just what can you do about the seemingly never ending Nigerian scam artists, the dangerously alluring Russian "ladies" and the Philippine women with visa troubles? If the media is to be believed, the online world is a scary place, a world that demands racial profiling and draconian security measures.
Will any of this work? Especially when it can be just as hard to catch potential online dating scammers as it is catching future peeping toms in the "real-world"? Fact is, despite the best efforts of the industry, and of the media, there are still people being ripped off, defrauded and hurt.
These fraudsters though, make up only a small percentage of the singles using Internet dating services.
While staying alert and smart (by never giving money to anyone) remains the best safeguard against fraud, there are still some telltale signs to help you know if the person you're dealing with is a fraud.
Here are some clues on how to spot a potential scammer.
Beware the Newbies If you encounter a person who is brand new to the service, or someone who has been a member for a while but only uses it infrequently, be careful.
Online dating scammers frequently create multiple profiles and alternate between them, which gives the scammer's fake persona the illusion of being someone new.
Lost in translation If a person claims to be American, you should be able to converse with him or her in English.
If you see that a so-called North American member is having trouble with the language though, be on guard.
This isn't to say that everyone with spelling or grammatical mistakes is a scammer, but as most fraudulent online dating profiles originate from foreign countries, they are often written in poor, broken English.
Fake or "perfect" looking pictures A good rule of thumb when looking for scammers is to see what sort of photographs they are using.
If a picture looks too good to be true, or if it looks copied form the Internet or a magazine, you should be very careful...
especially if anything else seems amiss about the profile.
Also, fraudsters rarely have more than one picture on a profile; so if you encounter someone with a fishy photograph, ask if they have any more.
Getting away from the site If you have just met a single, and he or she asks you to leave the site for a personal email address or instant messaging system, please proceed with caution.
Online scammers regularly employ this tactic to avoid having any interference from the dating site, and to remove evidence of their scamming to site administrators, who would remove the profile.
Move away from the site with caution, making sure to correspond only with people you have taken the time to get to know and trust.
A long, strange email Some scammers are in the habit of using long, pre-written email messages that they send out in bulk.
These usually will involve strange situations and the description of some sort of problem (often involving being trapped in another country, or having to pay for a hefty hospital bill).
Typically, these emails will be written in broken English, and will ask that you reply to a different email address outside of your dating site.
Emails like these should be forwarded to your site's customer support department and not responded to.
Living Abroad The easiest way to know something might be up with a profile is an indication that the single is not in the country he or she claims to be living in.
Often, scammers will pretend to be Americans and then try to make members believe they are trapped, stuck or otherwise unable to leave a foreign country.
Usually this ploy involves African countries, so be careful if you hear anything similar.
Remember, you are on a dating site to meet your perfect match, not to pay for someone's travel expenses.
As long as you remember never to send money (or personal information) to anyone you just meet online, you should be fine.
Nevertheless, scams and fraudsters are a very real part of the online dating world, so it's best to stay alert and careful.
Remember though, just because one or two of these signs is present in a profile, doesn't mean you're being scammed.
Everyone, as they say, is innocent until proven guilty.
Just what can you do about the seemingly never ending Nigerian scam artists, the dangerously alluring Russian "ladies" and the Philippine women with visa troubles? If the media is to be believed, the online world is a scary place, a world that demands racial profiling and draconian security measures.
Will any of this work? Especially when it can be just as hard to catch potential online dating scammers as it is catching future peeping toms in the "real-world"? Fact is, despite the best efforts of the industry, and of the media, there are still people being ripped off, defrauded and hurt.
These fraudsters though, make up only a small percentage of the singles using Internet dating services.
While staying alert and smart (by never giving money to anyone) remains the best safeguard against fraud, there are still some telltale signs to help you know if the person you're dealing with is a fraud.
Here are some clues on how to spot a potential scammer.
Beware the Newbies If you encounter a person who is brand new to the service, or someone who has been a member for a while but only uses it infrequently, be careful.
Online dating scammers frequently create multiple profiles and alternate between them, which gives the scammer's fake persona the illusion of being someone new.
Lost in translation If a person claims to be American, you should be able to converse with him or her in English.
If you see that a so-called North American member is having trouble with the language though, be on guard.
This isn't to say that everyone with spelling or grammatical mistakes is a scammer, but as most fraudulent online dating profiles originate from foreign countries, they are often written in poor, broken English.
Fake or "perfect" looking pictures A good rule of thumb when looking for scammers is to see what sort of photographs they are using.
If a picture looks too good to be true, or if it looks copied form the Internet or a magazine, you should be very careful...
especially if anything else seems amiss about the profile.
Also, fraudsters rarely have more than one picture on a profile; so if you encounter someone with a fishy photograph, ask if they have any more.
Getting away from the site If you have just met a single, and he or she asks you to leave the site for a personal email address or instant messaging system, please proceed with caution.
Online scammers regularly employ this tactic to avoid having any interference from the dating site, and to remove evidence of their scamming to site administrators, who would remove the profile.
Move away from the site with caution, making sure to correspond only with people you have taken the time to get to know and trust.
A long, strange email Some scammers are in the habit of using long, pre-written email messages that they send out in bulk.
These usually will involve strange situations and the description of some sort of problem (often involving being trapped in another country, or having to pay for a hefty hospital bill).
Typically, these emails will be written in broken English, and will ask that you reply to a different email address outside of your dating site.
Emails like these should be forwarded to your site's customer support department and not responded to.
Living Abroad The easiest way to know something might be up with a profile is an indication that the single is not in the country he or she claims to be living in.
Often, scammers will pretend to be Americans and then try to make members believe they are trapped, stuck or otherwise unable to leave a foreign country.
Usually this ploy involves African countries, so be careful if you hear anything similar.
Remember, you are on a dating site to meet your perfect match, not to pay for someone's travel expenses.
As long as you remember never to send money (or personal information) to anyone you just meet online, you should be fine.
Nevertheless, scams and fraudsters are a very real part of the online dating world, so it's best to stay alert and careful.
Remember though, just because one or two of these signs is present in a profile, doesn't mean you're being scammed.
Everyone, as they say, is innocent until proven guilty.