Online dating becomes more and more popular among people from all around the world. Of course, not only good people use dating websites and not only to find a match. Many scammers have started a real hunt on people. Those scammers search for people who belong to different demographical groups. If you believe that some perfect dating websites will keep you safe, you are wrong. Of course, trusted websites have nice administration and tools that allow them to monitor and ban scammers, but this all takes time, while scammers usually act very fast and efficient. Senior citizens are also vulnerable to these types of schemes and it is imperative to keep elderly people safe from dating/romance scams. This is why we should talk and educate them about this threat.
Signs that you are talking to a dating scammer
1. Strange Profile
There are certain indicators that you can find to know that you are talking to a scammer. For example, your online dating partner may have a few photos, but all of them will be with glamorous and model appearance. You will easily say that those photos were made by professionals and went through Photoshop.
2. Region Of Search And Nature
Pay attention to the fact that your new online “friend” lives in a different country, but is searching for a partner from your region. Lots of scammers search for ways how to explain this. Thus, they may tell you that they are students, sailors, or soldiers. But the reason behind this is very simple: they search for places with relatively rich people.
3. He Or She Wants To Go Away From A Dating Website
Dating scammers usually try to drag their “prey” from dating websites. They will ask you to go on any other messenger or social network, because, as we have mentioned before, trusted dating websites have tools to monitor and block scammers, so scammers use dating websites only to search for victims, and then they finish their scam on some other website or messenger.
4. The Show Their Feelings Very Fast
In a couple of days, a dating scammer may confess his or her love to you. He or she will find many reasons why you are so special to explain to you why he or she falls in love with you so fast. Again, the answer is very simple: a scammer doesn’t have much time to “work with you.”
5. You Can’t Meet Offline
For an online dating scammer, your offline meeting will mean failure. Thus, by any means, they avoid meeting you. Those people have many reasons why you can’t meet in the real world.
6. They Don’t Want To Have A Video Call
According to statistics, most of the dating scammers live and work in Nigeria, Ghana, or Malaysia. Thus, for example, when you want to date an Asian girl online, you definitely don’t expect that she will be talking with a Nigerian accent, right? Of course, they don’t want to have video or voice calls with you, because the girl you have been talking to for a couple of dates is actually a man from Malaysia.
7. They Ask For Money
Normally people are too shy to ask for money from other people. Your online dating partner will never ask you for money because he or she will simply be afraid to look poor or bad in your eyes. A dating scammer doesn’t care about your feelings, because all he or she wants is money.
8. They Involve You In Money Laundering
This dating scam is simple. Your online “partner” sends you money via some service and wants you to send it back via another service. Of course, they will never tell you that that money was earned on children slave labor.
9. They Send You A Link
Another scheme is when a scammer sends you a link with a very interesting comment about it. If you follow this link, in the best-case scenario, you will be asked to manually fill your vital financial data, while in the worst one, you will catch a virus on your computer, and it will steal your data by itself.
10. A Gift
A scammer says that he or she has sent you a gift (usually a very expensive one), but has to pay for delivery or customs. Of course, there will be no gift, and you will just transfer money to the scammer.
