Getting scammed in the online dating game is very real. And it’s even more so true when it comes to the free online dating sites. More often then not these online scammers will target the daters that are lonely and single. They will usually send them flowers and gifts that they bought with what is probably a stolen credit card. Unfortunately many lonely women fall for these tricks immediately. They believe that they are in love after getting a gift, only because how lonely they felt. When the time comes, the scammer will convince the girl or even girls who are crazy about these ‘men’ who they think they love and they think loves them, and ask the girls to go them a favor for them.
And, once again, unfortunately scammers sometimes target certain groups to scam. Mainly Christian singles. Christian singles often believe that they can trust other christians, having a false sense of security online because of this. Not saying that’s a bad thing though, trust is something the world needs more of, but the scammers will use this to their advantage. No matter who you are, you can be a target.
One of the ways you can determine whether or not you are dealing with a potential scammer on an online dating site is by reading the messages they send you. Examine them. Are they hard to understand? Perhaps not making much sense? Vague? Would you get messages back from them as soon as you sent one out, even though they had no idea you were even on? Are the messages badly written? Grammar off the fritz? Do their messages ever change in tone or style? These are all red flags. Another warning would be if emails appear to be generic responses, as if cut and pasted.
Finding someone online that seems very interested in you and likes to ask questions about you is great, but you need to make sure they can speak about their own family and life just as easily and fast as you, if it takes them time to tell you, they may be making it up! If you speak and give out a lot of information about your own life, but find that the other you know barely anything about, you may be dealing with a scammer. The second they ask you to wire money, cash orders, re-shipping packages or setting up a paypal account for them, you know for sure they are probably a scammer.
No matter how good or plausible their story may sound to you, and no matter how heartfelt or sad their messages seem, don’t do it. Be sure to always report abuse to the online dating site where you met the scammer. Just so the site can prevent other folks who are more gullible than you were from falling for the same scam they almost got you in. There are actually some websites that were made for and by victims of scammers, where the visitors can share the photos and information about the scammers and their experiences with them. So when you think you are in the middle of a scam, don’t hesitate to call them out for what they are and spread the word about any questionable encounters you may have had. But don’t let this get you scared, not all dating sites will be full of scammers, just like you, there are real people on those sites as well looking for someone. But if you want to go the extra mile go to a pay dating site. Sure it costs money but there wasn’t one case I heard of about a scammer on one of those sites.
