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How to Spot Online Dating Scammers
Not everyone on Internet dating sites is looking for love; some may be hoping to scam their next potential victim. There are typical ways in which online dating con artists work. The Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com have compiled a list of common warning signs to look out for, such as bad grammar, posing as a professional working overseas and creating stories to elicit money.
They’ve got to get far away from you, so that they can’t meet you. Scam artists often meet their potential victims on dating websites. The scammer might be working 50 or 60 women at one time.
Warning bells should go off if anyone overseas asks you for money — or offers to send you money and have you handle the banking in the U.S. This is a creative one. Instead of saying, ‘Send me money,’ what they say is, ‘I want to send you money.'” That amount can be quite large, and the con artist might ask for a portion of that money to be sent to him or her — but what victims may not realize is that they’re dealing with uncollected funds. Because the scammer is international, it takes 30 days for that check to bounce, and when it bounces, the bank comes back and collects it against your money.
If you're looking for love online, watch out for sweetheart scams. In these common scams, con artists strike up relationships with potential victims through dating sites or chat rooms.
Often, they pose as missionaries or professionals who are working overseas. Once they establish a relationship with a potential victim -- these usually involve quick pronouncements of love -- they begin concocting stories to elicit money. One victim sent cash abroad when her online sweetheart told her a relative had been injured in a car crash and he needed money for hospital bills.
Online dating scam artists use common ploys. They:
* Run scams from overseas. Be wary of people who claim to be American professionals traveling abroad.
* Have poor grammar and spelling. They may use instant messaging or TTY services for the deaf to help mask their broken English.
* Profess to be in love with you almost immediately.
* Plagiarize love letters or poetry to bewitch victims. Be wary if love letters don't match a writer's usual style -- and use online searches to ferret out lifted phrases.
* Provide few concrete details about their lives or work.
* Send a fake photo. Scammers mask their identities by sending shots of strangers they pull off the Internet. Some use photos of models.
* String you along for weeks or months before asking you for money.
* Send flowers or candy if you seem lukewarm about the relationship. (These are often purchased with stolen credit cards.)
* Want to see you on a Webcam - even though their Webcam never seems to work. They want to make sure you're not law enforcement - and to keep you from seeing them, since they aren't going to look anything like the photo they sent.
* Concoct an emergency and ask you to wire money to them. (Wired money is as good as gone the minute it's sent.)
* Ask you to wire them money so they can be with you.
* Ask you to handle checks or banking for them in the United States. The latter may draw you into being a middleman in a scam.
* Ask you to buy items in the United States, particularly electronics, and send them overseas. Many companies won't ship to scam-beleaguered countries, so scammers might use you as an unwitting fence by directing you to forward property they've bought with stolen cards.
* Ask you for personal information or passwords that can get them into your online accounts.
* Try to victimize you all over again by pretending to be fellow victims of a dating scam or law enforcement officers pursuing dating scammers. Law enforcement agencies never ask victims for money or ask for sensitive personal information (like account and Social Security numbers) via e-mail.
If you lose money in an online dating scam, report it to:
* The Internet service provider and/or networking site the scammer used to contact you.
