From Russian brides to Nigerian date scams, romance scams are rampant on the Internet.

Avoid these scams by being suspicious. Don’t allow your desire to find that special someone to cloud your judgement. They will promise you the world and say whatever it takes to keep your interest.

This is how I think of the Internet: There are billions of people on the Internet. You have a great chance of meeting someone especially for you somewhere in the world. With 7 billion human beings 3.5 billion being the gender of your choice there are likely more than a dozen perfect fits for you. Its true, but for every one of your soul mates that has put their bios on Internet, there are a thousand false profiles pretending to be that perfect someone.

Romance scams are especially vicious because they are reach for your wallet/bank account through your heart. Once they have you hooked they are after your money.

ONLINE DATING SCAM TACTICS:

Step 1) Take the Bait

You meet someone on a dating site (Adult Friend Finder, Match, okcupid, etc). This person has posted a picture of themselves and they are gorgeous!
Their profiles says something like:

I am a caring ,loving, honest, respectful and i believe in god and real people to hop to meet meet my real love here

There profile seems perfect. They sounds sweet, loving and caring. Their picture (if they have one) looks incredible. They seem to live pretty close.

What’s really going on? More than likely it is some ugly dude from a third world country who just learned to use a computer. They found a hot picture and posted it on the dating site. They are the exact opposite of what ever they said on their profile: they are uncaring, dishonest and don’t respect anyone… not even themselves.

Step 2) The Out of Country Story

You send them a message. They reply and tell you that they’d rather talk to you on email (usually hotmail or yahoo). They then proceed to tell you that they are currently in another country (Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, England), but they have some sort of connection to the states in your local area. They’ll say they’re relatives are there or they do business their and they’d love to meet you sometime.

What’s really going on? They really are outside of whatever country you are (usually Nigeria, Ghana, West Africa – this is one of the top scams in that region).

Step 3) Relationship Deception

What they do next is get a steady relationship with you. They will send more pictures. They will want to know more about you so they can cater to your ego. They will tell you they love you, tell you how good you look, how great you are. Basically, anything get the relationship going.

What’s really going on? They are lying to you and 20 other people on 5 or 6 different dating sites.

Step 4) A Crisis: they Need Money

There are various lies they may use to get money. They will ask for cash to buy the ticket to come visit you or they will tell you a tragedy has occurred and they need your help maybe even with a promise to pay you back.

What’s really going on? They are attempting to take your money and spend it on bullshit.

Clues to Spot Dating Scams:

– Pictures look too professional. Magazine quality photos should be a dead give away. If they send a series of pics and each one looks like a “model posed” photo shoot, be suspicious.
– BAD GRAMMAR & SPELLING. They are typically not very well educated and it will sometimes come through loud the clear via very choppy English and slight stupid logic. Sometimes it is as bad as a 3rd grader (a dumb 3rd grader).
– Western Africa. Be suspicious of ANYTHING from from Ghana, Mali and especially Nigeria.
– Too much love, too fast. They will almost immediately start talking about “I love you”, “I miss you” – don’t be flattered… they don’t love you… trust me.

Disclaimer: Miracles do happen. Maybe you’ve just met a West African supermodel, with bad grammar, who has fallen madly in love with you in the course of two or three emails.

Conclusion:
I’ve dealt with these scammers on ebay, email, dating sites and in chat rooms and one thing I’ve noticed is that they are actually not very smart. They are just ruthless. They take advantage of people’s trust, kindness and generosity. They are not so much predators as they are parasites that jump from host to host. They feed on the infrastructure and wealth of Western Civilization and have nothing at all to contribute to humanity but ignorance and greed. The sad thing is that these few greedy, idiots are giving ALL West Africans a bad name on the Web and these nations (particularly Ghana & Nigeria) are among the richest nations in Africa with the greatest potential of having great success in any and all endeavors. Its a real shame.

If you are looking for real relationships online, here are some good resources on how to make it happen!