Online Dating Scams Online Dating Secret Friends Guide
Online Dating Scams Requesting Your Money
By George Stenhouse
Online dating scams are all over the internet. If you
receive wild promises of love and romance, followed
by a request for money, then you should take precautions,
review your options and assume you are talking to a
scammer. Some of these scammers are in your local area,
pretending to live overseas in order to claim money
for traveling expenses.
Some may even have a sudden illness and out of the
blue, the family requests money for hospital expenses
and then funeral expenses. Quick promises of romance.
Sudden illness and death. Request for money. Now you
know how these scammers work.
Real Romance Takes Time To Develop
Real romance often develop over a period of time. Some
take weeks, months and even years. Friends can become
romantically involved and then may even marry. This
is how real romance develops.
This is why you need to take care when you receive
promises of love and romance and then a sudden request
for money, as you may be the next victim of online dating
scams.
Alerts Issued To Warn People About Attempts At Fraud
This has gotten so bad the U.S. embassy has issued
alerts to warn people about this. Here are the basics
from the embassy.
United States citizens should be alert to attempts
at fraud by persons claiming to live in Russia professing
friendship, romantic interest, and /or marriage intentions
over the Internet.
Sending Money To Online Dating Scammers
Typically, once a connection is made, the correspondent
asks the U.S. citizen to send money or credit card information
for living expenses, travel expenses, or "visa
costs". Sometimes, the correspondent notifies the
American citizen that a close family member, usually
the mother, is in desperate need of surgery and begins
to request monetary assistance.
Scams have even advanced to the point where the U.S.
citizen is informed of a serious or fatal accident to
the correspondent and the “family” asks for money to
cover hospital or funeral costs. Several citizens have
reported losing thousands of dollars through such
scams.
A Fictitious Online Persona
The anonymity of the Internet means that the U.S. citizen
cannot be sure of the real name, age, marital status,
nationality, or even gender of the correspondent. In
every case reported to the embassy, the correspondent
turned out to be a fictitious persona created only to
lure the U.S. citizen into sending money.
These scammers have created male as well as female
characters and entice same sex correspondents as well
as those of the opposite sex.
Posing As HIV Positive And Asking For Money
A disturbing recent twist are scammers who have connected
to U.S. citizens through chat rooms for HIV positive
individuals, posed as HIV positive individuals themselves,
and asked for money for treatment or travel to the United
States.
Correspondents who quickly move to professions of romantic
interest or discussion of intimate matters are likely
inventions of scammers. A request for funds almost always
marks a fraudulent correspondent.
Caution Against Sending Any Money
U.S. citizens are cautioned against sending any money
to persons they have not actually met. If they do choose
to send money, they can take several precautions.
For example, they may refer to U.S. immigration web
site for authoritative information about the immigration
process and the true costs involved. For example, U.S.
law does not require Russian visitors to have a certain
amount of "pocket money" or "walking
around money" in either rubles or dollars.
They may arrange to prepay for a plane ticket directly
with the carrier rather than wiring money for transportation
to the traveler.
If the correspondent provides an image of a purported
U.S. visa as proof of intention to travel, the U.S.
citizen may contact the United States Embassy in Moscow
to ascertain the validity of the visa.
Looking For Opportunities To Steal Your Money
Take these tips in your consideration, whenever you
are chatting online, online dating and even videochatting
on a web cam. Just be aware that the person you are
chatting online, may not be who they say they are and
may be looking for opportunities to steal your
money.
It is not only overseas scammers who are looking for
victims. There may be people in your local area pretending
to live overseas. Just like some of the bank scammers
are not based overseas, some of the scammers in your
area are also looking for victims.
These local scammers may be pretending to live overseas
in order to get more money from you, to pay for airline
tickets, accommodation and other traveling
expenses.
Need Your Money To Make Everything Right
If someone is making wild promises of romance and love,
comes back the next day and tells you a tale of woe
and everything in his life has suddenly turned upside
down and needs your money to make everything right again,
then you should take extreme caution and presume he
may be a scammer.
You work hard to earn your money, you should not make
it easy to lose your money to online dating scams.
About the Author:
George Stenhouse is an author of dating articles including
Online Dating,
How To Meet Women,
Dating Chat,
Personal Web Sites,
Alternative Dating,
Dating And Personals,
Dating Internet Service.
Keep a lookout for more articles coming soon.
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