February 26, 2009 Scams & Frauds You Should be Aware of
There are many HIV+ gay men (and hets as well) getting conned and scammed every single day. Seniors and disabled people are prime targets. Other scammers go for a broader range of people. The old telephone scammers use the Internet because it has become easier for them to get your personal information. In the old days we could just hang up on them. These days they can grab information from your computer in seconds. Disconnecting is no longer an option either since most viral software stays on your hard drive waiting for you to turn on the computer.
The baiting tactics starts in emails to you or by visiting malicious websites (porn sites are the most common). Scammers find their targets in groups, blog sites, forums sites, personals sites, and social network communities. They also use the search engines on the Internet to find their victims. Some social networks and online dating sites allow their members’ profile to become part of the Internet search engines. Not all but most. Some social networks, such as POZQUEERS (Snapp networks), HIVTRIBES, NING, THINKPOZ, allow community owners using their platforms to exclude their members’ profiles, homepages, blogs, forums & groups from showing up in search engines.
Online scams are aimed at getting your email address, by almost immediately asking you to email them outside of the social network in the first or second communication, usually after you have approved their friend request. Typically they’ll capsulate themselves & their message with something similar to this: “Nice to meet you. We share similar interests. I am outgoing, kind, responsible and confident. I have many hobbies, such as traveling, singing, dance, reading, sports and so on. In my eyes, the world is full of beautiful things and I love the world as I love my life. If you are interested, please leave message at (telephone number removed) or contact me by email, (email address removed) off this site. I am also **** on AIM or Yahoo Chat, add me as your friend there. I'm looking forward to hearing from you."
By getting your email address, the scammers are able to add it to a list with others and sell the lists to scam and spam companies. Same holds true for your telephone number & AIM/Yahoo Messenger. Your registered email box will soon flourish with all sorts of stuff! You'll get calls on your telehpone or text messages on your cell. You'll start getting requests to add all sorts of people to your AIM/Yahoo Messenger Contact lists.
Common sense should always be used whenever there are requests for paypal donations, other donations and soliciting for personal information. However, there are many people out there who are fooled. The recent Madoff scandal is one prime example of intelligent people getting conned, on a much larger scale. It’s human nature to want to help others and the Madoff scandal is a prime example of how easily people can get conned out of money while thinking they are helping others..
Most people who are scammed or ripped off usually do not report it to others for varying reasons. Usually out of fear of reprisals, being discredited by the scammers & rip off artists and out of embarassment. Dating sites and social networks are the prime hunting grounds. A scammer can be a one person operation or be an organized crime operation employing many people. Scammers will ask for money or goods for their “charity projects” or for financial help for themselves, often giving sob stories or promoting themselves as legit organizations. There are quite a few out there who have dressed up their websites, often claiming to be “partners” with bona fide organizations and legitimate businesses. Some even place copies of banner ads from HIV drug companies to give it “more shine.” They’ll embed a link on those images which sometimes redirects itself to a phished site, and then you computer gets hacked. Scammers are also now using some social networks such as MySpace & FaceBook and YouTube to promote their endeavors. They set up their homepages, build up the friends lists and then place links to their social network “personal homepages” and YouTube pages on their websites, another deceptive tool to lure innocent people into “signing up.”
Scammers use the old bait & switch tactic. Bait and switch scams are common on “free” dating sites and porn sites. Free usually translates to “you have reached your daily free limit of sending messages and viewing profiles (videos & photo galleries in porn sites).” Some even go as far as generating alerts that you have “new messages” – you get to read the message but they ask for the credit card to “view the profile.” It’s tempting and many guys take the bait. It can also be very difficult to cancel the credit card billing as well even though many sites tell you it’s easy to do. And when you do cancel the account, many of these sites keep your profile and photo(s) active for others to see, bait to entice others and you are the bait!
Quite a few make claims of being gay (and HIV) owned and operated. In fact they are not. If you run a WHOIS domain registrant search on some of these sites, you’ll discover some of these so called “gay owned” sites are in fact owned by private companies who have ownership of similar sites for heterosexuals, oriental men & women hook up sites, hot Russians, etc. Many of them have the same “bait photo profiles” across several sites. Some even tell you in their small print that “one’s appearance on this site does not reflect their sexual orientation or HIV status.”
A newer scam going around social networks are the scammers who send you a "hot photo" of themselves and then ask you to "text message" or "call them" on their cell phone. That's dangerous and can wind up costing you a lot of money on your cell phone bills. The most common scams of course are the ones designed for your wallet and other assets. Spammers & scammers have started targeting smaller social communities such as thinkpoz, hivtribes, pozqueers, and they continue to target Yahoo groups as well as MySpace and other social network sites. The articles below are the best ones I found on the Internet.
As the technology changes on the Internet, scammers will keep up with it. More often than not, these high tech thieves keep up with it and develop the viruses and techniques that keep their coffers flowing. That’s why it is important to have anti virus software installed on your computers but that alone does not prevent you or your computer from being scammed/hacked. Virus protection is developed after viruses hit the Internet. Just look carefully before you click on a link to someone’s email, keep your personal information private. If someone insists they would rather talk to you privately via email or insists on text messaging their mobile device opposed to doing it on any social network’s private messaging feature, that may indicate something is not right if you have just recently met them.
The bottom line is that the Internet has become the new highway robbery paradise for dishonesty. This will continue regardless of how often people are warned. As a Yahoo Group and social network owner, I see this happening frequently.
Most of us who own Yahoo Groups and social network communities continue to allow others to promote efforts and endeavors who want to make a difference. Our criteria and guidelines vary and at times we come under criticism or become targeted ourselves for disseminating information or exposing them. Most people have no idea what we have to deal with in running our groups and communities when it comes to battling the scammers.
This is the first of a series I will be doing on scams and frauds that are common. I am starting with phishing and dating scams. I’ve condensed it as much as possible using the best material I could find. Future articles will focus on other scams and frauds, specifically those that deal with “cures” and other forms of scams that include identity theft and other frauds. Jim
PROTECT YOURSELF FROM PHISHING SCAMS
5 SIMPLE STEPS FOR USERS TO AVOID BEING PHISHING VICTIMS
By Tony Bradley, CISSP-ISSAP, About.com
Phishing attacks have become more sophisticated and users need simple steps they can use to protect themselves from becoming victims of phishing scams. Follow these 5 steps to avoid being a victim and protect yourself from phishing scams.
Be Skeptical: It is better to err on the side of caution. Unless you are 100% sure that a particular message is legitimate, assume it is not. You should never supply your username, password, account number or any other personal or confidential information via email and you should not reply directly to the email in question. Ed Skoudis says “If the user really suspects that an e-mail is legit, they should: 1) close their e-mail client, 2) close ALL browser windows, 3) open a brand new browser, 4) surf to the e-commerce company's site as they normally would. If there's anything wrong with their account, there will be a message at the site when they log in. We need people to close their mail readers and browsers first, just in case an attacker sent a malicious script or pulled another fast one to direct the user to a different site.”
Use The Old-Fashioned Way: An even safer means of verifying if an email regarding your account is legitimate or not is to simply delete the email and pick up the phone. Rather than risking that you may somehow be emailing the attacker or mis-directed to the attacker’s replica web site, just call customer service and explain what the email stated to verify if there is truly a problem with your account or if this is simply a phishing scam.
Do Your Homework: When your bank statements or account details arrive, whether in print or through electronic means, analyze them closely. Make sure there are no transactions that you can’t account for and that all of the decimals are in the right spots. If you find any problems contact the company or financial institution in question immediately to notify them.
Let Your Web Browser Warn You: The latest generation web browsers, such as Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3 come with built in phishing protection. These browsers will analyze web sites and compare them against known or suspected phishing sites and warn you if the site you are visiting may be malicious or illegitimate.
Report Suspicious Activity: If you receive emails that are part of a phishing scam or even seem suspicious you should report them. Douglas Schweitzer says "Report suspicious e-mails to your ISP and be sure to also report them to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.ftc.gov".
PROTECT YOURSELF FROM SPYWARE
5 EASY STEPS TO HELP YOU
If its not one thing, its another. That is one of those ridiculous phrases that pretty much goes without saying. Like "wherever you go, there you are." But, in this case it seems appropriate.
Allow me to elaborate. Computers on the Internet are almost constantly bombarded with viruses and other malware- so users employ antivirus software to protect themselves. Email inboxes are constantly flooded with pathetically useless spam- so users employ anti-spam programs and techniques to protect themselves. As soon as you think you have things under control you find out your system has a myriad of spyware and adware programs silently running in the background monitoring and reporting on your computer activity. Hence, "if its not one thing, its another."
The more benign spyware and adware simply monitors and tracks your the sites you visit on the web so that companies can determine the web-surfing habits of their users and try to pinpoint their marketing efforts. However, many forms of spyware go beyond simple tracking and actually monitor keystrokes and capture passwords and other functions which cross the line and pose a definite security risk.
How can you protect yourself from these insidious little programs? Ironically, many users unwittingly agree to install these programs. In fact, removing some spyware and adware might render some freeware or shareware programs useless. Below are 5 easy steps you can follow to try to avoid and, if not avoid, at least detect and remove these programs from your computer system:
Be Careful Where You Download: Unscrupulous programs often come from unscrupulous sites. If you are looking for a freeware or shareware program for a specific purpose try searching reputable sites like tucows.com or download.com.
Read the EULA: What is an EULA you ask? End User License Agreement. It's all of the technical and legal gibberish in that box above the radio buttons that say "No, I do not accept" or "Yes, I have read and accept these terms". Most people consider this a nuisance and click on "yes" without having read a word.
The EULA is a legal agreement you are making with the software vendor. Without reading it you may be unwittingly agreeing to install spyware or a variety of other questionable actions that may not be worth it to you. Sometimes the better answer is "No, I do not accept."
Read Before You Click: Sometimes when you visit a web site a text box might pop up. Like the EULA, many users simply consider these a nuisance and will just click away to make the box disappear. Users will click "yes" or "ok" without stopping to see that the box said "would you like to install our spyware program?" Ok, admittedly they don't generally come out and say it that directly, but that is all the more reason you should stop to read those messages before you click "ok".
Protect Your System: Antivirus software is somewhat misnamed these days. Viruses are but a small part of the malicious code these programs protect you from. Antivirus has expanded to include worms, trojans, vulnerability exploits, jokes and hoaxes and even spyware and adware. If your antivirus product doesn't detect and block spyware you can try a product like AdAware Pro which will protect your system from spyware or adware in real time.
Scan Your System: Even with antivirus software, firewalls and other protective measures some spyware or adware may eventually make it through to your system. While a product like AdAware Pro mentioned in step #4 will monitor your system in real time to protect it, AdAware Pro costs money. The makers of AdAware Pro, Lavasoft, also have a version available for free for personal use. AdAware will not monitor in real time, but you can manually scan your system periodically to detect and remove any spyware. Another excellent choice is Spybot Search & Destroy which is also available for free.
If you follow these five steps you can keep your system protected from spyware proactively and detect and remove any that does manage to get into your system. Good luck!
TEN TIPS TO PREVENT IDENTITY THEFT
PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
How much information does someone really need to know in order to impersonate you to a 3rd-party? Your name? Birth date? Address? Armed with easily found information such as this, and maybe a couple other key pieces of information such as the high school you went to, your dog’s name or your mother’s maiden name, an individual might be able to access your existing accounts or establish new loans or credit in your name.
Recently, reports of security breaches in which customer data and personally identifiable information (PII) were somehow compromised seem to appear almost daily. Choicepoint, Lexis Nexis, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Ralph Lauren / HSBC, Bank of America and more have all reported massive amounts of compromised or ill-gotten customer information just in the past couple of months.
However, most identity theft or compromises of PII, including a couple of the major breaches mentioned above, have nothing to do with the Internet or lax computer or network security. Unpatched operating system vulnerabilities or hacking wizardy are involved in a relatively small number of the total cases. The Choicepoint breach resulted from poor processes to identify that the business asking for consumer information had a legitimate reason. The Bank of America breach resulted from a data backup tape being lost in transit.
Information can be pulled from your trash can. Waiters can swipe or simply write down your credit card number when you make a purchase at a restaurant. There are a variety of laws related to securing customer information including Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, GLBA and others. Congress is currently investigating the breaches at Choicepoint and Lexis Nexis and considering further legislation aimed at allegedly protecting customer data. But, social engineering and good, old-fashioned theft still pose a larger threat than network security and it is up to you to monitor and protect your personal information and your credit.
Below are some tips you can follow to help secure and protect your personally identifiable information and ensure that your identity or your credit have not been compromised.
1. Watch for shoulder-surfers. When entering a PIN number or a credit card number in an ATM machine, at a phone booth, or even on a computer at work, be aware of who is nearby and make sure nobody is peering over your shoulder to make a note of the keys you’re pressing.
2. Require photo ID verification. Rather than signing the backs of your credit cards, you can write “See Photo ID”. In many cases, store clerks don’t even look at the signature block on the credit card, and a thief could just as easily use your credit card to make online or telephone purchases which don’t require signature verification, but for those rare cases where they do actually verify the signature, you may get some added security by directing them to also make sure you match the picture on the photo ID.
3. Shred everything. One of the ways that would-be identity thieves acquire information is through “dumpster-diving”, aka trash-picking. If you are throwing out bills and credit card statements, old credit card or ATM receipts, medical statements or even junk-mail solicitations for credit cards and mortgages, you may be leaving too much information laying about. Buy a personal shredder and shred all papers with PII on them before disposing of them.
4. Destroy digital data. When you sell, trade or otherwise dispose of a computer system, or a hard drive, or even a recordable CD, DVD or backup tape, you need to take extra steps to ensure the data is completely, utterly and irrevocably destroyed. Simply deleting the data or reformatting the hard drive is nowhere near enough. Anyone with a little tech skill can undelete files or recover data from a formatted drive. Use a product like ShredXP to make sure that data on hard drives is completely destroyed. For CD, DVD or tape media you should physically destroy it by breaking or shattering it before disposing of it. There are shredders designed specifically to shred CD / DVD media.
5. Be diligent about checking statements. This actually has two benefits. First, if you are diligent about checking your bank and credit statements each month, you will be aware if one of them doesn’t arrive and that can alert you that perhaps someone stole it from your mailbox or while it was in transit. Second, you can ensure that the charges, purchases or other entries on the statement are legitimate and match up with your records so that you can quickly identify and address any suspicious activity.
6. Pay your bills at the post office. Never leave your paid bills in your mailbox to be sent out. A thief who raids your mailbox would be able to acquire a slew of critical information in one envelope- your name, address, credit account number, your bank information including the routing number and account number from the bottom of the check, and a copy of your signature from your check for forgery purposes just for starters. Drop your bills at the post office or at least in an official U.S. Postal Service drop box to ensure that doesn’t happen.
7. Limit the information on your checks. It may be convenient to have your drivers license number or social security number imprinted on your personal checks to save some time when you write one, but if it falls into the wrong hands it reveals too much information. In fact, some recommend that you only include your first initial in the name space of your check, such as “T. Bradley” rather than writing out “Tony Bradley” so that if someone did get one of your checks they would not know your full name.
8. Analyze your credit report annually. This has always been good advice, but it used to cost money, or you had to first be rejected from receiving credit so that you could get a free copy. Now it is possible to get a free look at your credit report once per year. The big three credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) joined forces to provide free credit reports to consumers. The web site, annualcreditreport.com, is currently available for the Western and Mid-Western states, with the Southern and Eastern states being rolled out later this year. You should review it to make sure the information on it is accurate and also make sure that there aren’t any accounts on there that you aren’t aware of or any other suspicious entries or activity.
9. Protect your Social Security number. I don’t personally believe in Social Security or any attempts to repair or reform it. I have no illusions that it will actually be around to pay me when I retire. But, whether that comes to pass or not, the Social Security Number has become the one thing they had always promised it wouldn’t- a sort of national identification number. It is often suggested that you do not carry your Social Security in your wallet with your drivers license and other identification. For one thing, although they expect it to last your whole life, the Social Security card is issued on very flimsy cardboard that doesn’t hold up well to wear and tear. Aside from that though, knowing your full name, address and full Social Security Number, or even the last 4 digits in many cases, can let a thief assume your identity. You should never use your Social Security Number as any part of a username or password that you establish and you should never divulge it to telephone solicitors or in response to spam or phishing scam emails either.
10. Caveat Emptor. I will offer my apologies in advance, and I mean no offense to smaller businesses just building themselves up or getting established, but I recommend you not do business online with companies you don’t know anything about. You can feel relatively secure doing business online with Amazon.com or BestBuy.com or any web site affiliated with well-known, national or global merchants. But, if you are buying something online you need to have some level of trust that the company you are doing business with is legitimate and that they take the security of your personal information as seriously as you do. When you do make online purchases, read the companies online privacy policy first to ensure you agree with it and make sure you are on a secure or encrypted web site (symbolized by a small padlock at the bottom right of the screen in Internet Explorer).
Predators lurk online
In the modern quest for love, many have turned to the Internet in search of their own Prince or Princess Charming. Last year alone, 17.2 million people used the Internet for dating. For some it works out. They meet their, for lack of a better word, soul mate. But for most, it is just another disappointment in the world of dating.
One distinct problem with online dating is that you never truly know what you are getting. The young man who is a doctor with a Porsche may, in reality, be middle-aged and unemployed with a Princess Leia fetish. It is so easy to lie and create a new identity online.
According to Joe Schwartz, author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Online Dating,” online daters are divided into seekers, nesters, hormones, butterflies and dabblers.
The dabbler is looking around while the nester is looking for someone to settle down with and start a family.
Hormones want physical attention, butterflies want to increase their social networks and seekers are interested in dating but aren’t certain about what they really want in a relationship.
You never know the true level of involvement with the other person. They may say that they love you and that you are the one they have been searching for their entire lives, but you do not know if it is real. With a wide variety of daters, you never know exactly what you are getting. This could lead to further heartbreak when that person is not as emotionally invested as you are.
I am not saying that everyone on the Internet is a liar. However, due to the nature of the Internet, it is difficult to tell if the person is really who they say they are.
There is also the worry of online predators. Sexual predators are not limited to pedophiles. Identities can be stolen and rapes can even occur. People are so trusting when it comes to online dating that it is not hard for online offenders to take advantage of people. Women are especially vulnerable to online predators.
What is even scarier about online dating is the amount of personal information on the web and the little effort it takes to find it. One story tells of a woman who was dating a guy online. He showed up on her doorstep before she ever gave him her address.
The smallest bit of personal information is all most predators need to exploit online daters. It may be a piece of information that you never even think could give anyone access to personal information. People underestimate how trusting they really are and get taken advantage of this way.
It is important for online daters to listen to their gut feelings. Most daters who have been taken advantage of say that they did not listen to their instincts about the person they are dating. That is a huge risk in online dating.
Many people lie about how they met their significant other because they are ashamed or embarrassed to say they met on the Internet. The romantic stories about dating in high school or a passionate meeting in Paris are being replaced with Match.com and E-harmony stories. Being ashamed of how you met is a good indication that you are not completely comfortable with what you are doing.
The world of online dating is scary. You never know exactly who you are talking to and what they want from you. It is not entirely impossible to meet your soul mate online. But, with all the anonymity of the Internet, dating becomes even shadier than it is in real life.
Because of these fears, online dating has been frowned upon. It is thought that meeting people through the Internet for the purpose of romance is fake, pathetic or even dangerous.
Most of the suspicion surrounding meeting people online is unfounded. Online dating can be a way for people to meet mates with similar interests that they may not otherwise encounter in daily life.
Of course some fears about online dating are based in fact.
Sonja Flarehty, named Las Vegas’ sexiest person in 2004, reported being raped by a man she met online.
“People lie. And they will say whatever they need to to sell themselves. They’re creating a picture of who they think they are and putting it on the web,” she said in an interview with KVBC/DT news in Las Vegas.
Yes, people do lie. One study published in the January 2006 issue of the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication found that many people in online dating environments portray themselves as they would like to be, not necessarily as they are. Middle-aged Susan may shave 20 pounds off her weight or 25-year-old Josh may say he makes $15,000 more per year than he actually does.
However, lying occurs in real life dating environments as well. Individuals at a bar may lie about their profession, dating history or marital status. It is just as easy to meet a married man masquerading as single during happy hour at a bar as it is on an online dating forum.
What is different is that, when meeting someone in person, there may be a false sense of security surrounding that person. If you have seen someone in real life and interacted it is harder to believe that that person may be dangerous or dishonest. Online there is a natural suspicion about others that is not always present in real life. Usually, people only meet in real life after interacting several times via the Internet or telephone.
True, Flarehty was raped by a person she met online. However, people are raped everyday by individuals that they meet in bars, parties and other face-to-face situations.
The idea that online dating is pathetic and only for those who can’t otherwise get a date is also false. Online dating is an excellent way for those who are too busy for the bar scene or singles nights to meet other people looking for love. It is also a way for those who are older or otherwise removed from the main dating pool to find others in similar positions.
The thought that online interaction is somehow not as real as face-to-face interaction is also misguided. In fact, online dating can sometimes be more real than “real life” dating. One study published in an edition of the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication found that relational intimacy developed faster in online relationships than face-to-face relationships.
Online, first impressions that take into account a person’s appearance, voice or social awkwardness can be discarded. Instead, people can get together over common interests, passions and life experiences. Two people who may not have even talked with one another in a real life situation can join together online and discover how much they have in common.
Similarly, those that may not live in an area with a large dating pool, such as those in small towns, suddenly have access to thousands of potential mates on large online dating sites.
Online dating isn’t for everyone. Some will insist on parking themselves at the bar and waiting for Mr. or Ms. Right to come their way. However, online dating can be an excellent way for individuals to meet others with similar interests without the pressure of the bar scene.
Copying Profiles Growing Problem for Online Daters
A growing number of online daters are seeing their profiles copied by someone to lazy (or unoriginal) to do it themselves. In some cases, online daters are seeing text from their profile not copied once or twice, but rather dozens of times.
What these online dating thieves are taking is your personality. They read your profile, like what they read, and think if they use it they'll have better success. They have no regard for the act being illegal or for the fact that they are lying to people who view their profile.
Studies already show that the majority of online daters tell, at the minimum, little white lies within their profiles. Now some are taking that to a whole new level and lying completely about who they are. And it's not like noone will notice. It's like putting a picture of you from 10 years ago online then going on a date and hoping the person won't see the difference.
Here are some steps online daters can take to help protect themselves:
1) If you see someone copy your profile then email a complaint to the service you are using.
2) Don't lie in your profile. Lies will be discovered, truths make you more attractive.
3) Rewrite your profile every few weeks. It keeps your mind (as well as your profile) fresh.
Online dating scams repeat historical trends
It's always fun to learn how our American ancestors got scammed. In the 1870s, Lydia Pinkham marketed a vegetable compound that was supposed to cure feminine complaints. It probably did a good job, too, since it was almost 20 percent alcohol. In the 1820s, Rev. Sylvester Graham invented the Graham cracker as part of a diet to repress carnal urges, which he thought caused disease. These little insights into our nation's gullible past are fun; as modern students of history, we know that we know better. Obviously, you don't need to complicate things by mixing vegetables with your alcohol to get rid of PMS - straight vodka will do the trick. And everyone knows that Graham crackers are best used to repress the insatiable lust for s'mores.
Unfortunately, though, our society is no less easily hoodwinked now than it was then. Lydia Pinkham Herbal Tablets are still available from places that sell products for people afraid of aspirin. E-mail users can't seem to overcome their desire to help out every Nigerian prince that needs their bank account numbers and their social security information.
The most recent scam causing Americans to throw their wallets blindly into cyberspace involves online dating.
Online dating is already a kind of scam, of course. Companies such as match.com and eHarmony.com have convinced lonely people that they will find true love if they pay a small monthly fee to look at the mostly fabricated profiles of other lonely people, filled with photoshopped photos and reading lists too esoteric to be true.
It's not surprising that scammers realized that match-making sites were like barrels full of gullible fish waiting to be shot, or in this case, extorted for money.
Patrish Giocolo was a victim of such a fraud. According to a CNN.com story, she fell in love with a man she met on the Yahoo Personals site. When he said he was going to Ghana to help build roads, she agreed to give him $500 and a new pair of working boots. He kept on asking for money, until she realized that the love of her life was probably not in love with her at all.
Giocolo said that in many cases of online dating fraud, the emotional hardship is worse than the resultant financial loss. "These con artists are intelligent, kind, and people are losing their hearts," she said, trying to explain why she fell for a man who couldn't come up with a better fake career than doing construction work in West Africa.
She now helps moderate the website RomanceScams.org, which is designed to help people similarly impaired in common sense.
CNN.com wrote that the website warns that an online dater might be a scammer "if their spelling is horrible, they use emoticons heavily and they appear to be available at unusual hours for your time zone." In this case, the scammer might also be a seventh grader on AIM.
Another victim of a romance scam, Julia Abrantes, warns that no online dater should be overconfident. "I'm an intelligent person. I'm college educated, I work for a law firm, but I knew nothing about dating scams," she said. She also didn't know that it is not a good idea to give money to someone you've never met in person. For that matter, she didn't know that even when dating someone you have met, it is generally not a good idea to give that person large sums of money early in the relationship, unless you are dating a prostitute. Surely one day our ancestors will reflect on our own gullibility. They will laugh at our willingness to throw away our money in hopes of finding love, curing PMS or owning a box set of Christian rock music advertised in an infomercial. But just as surely, as they laugh at us, they will be on their way to buying an elixir that promises eternal youth. But that might actually work because it will be the future.
A Closer Look at Online Dating Scams and Fraud
Online dating scams and fraud are almost as old as Internet dating itself. It's a battle that online dating services have to wage every day and one that online daters are growing weary of.
There are various scams that specifically target online daters and online dating services. One scam is where a person from another country emails you and, over time, forms an "online relationship" with you. They may even hire a girl to talk to you on the phone. As you become more attached, the scammer then asks for money to come see you. There's various excuses for the money, including "have to get a visa" or "my family is poor," or "my mom just went into the hospital," etc.
According to the National Consumers League, the average loss of an online dater being scammed is more than $3,000. They have a name for this scam too - the "Sweetheart Swindle".
“The Sweetheart Swindle is often a long, drawn out process in which the con artist nurtures a relationship, and eventually convinces the victim to send money repeatedly over an extended period of time,” says Sally Greenberg, Executive Director, National Consumers League. “Scammers lurk in chat and on online dating sites, attempting to earn someone’s affections and trust so that they can persuade him or her to send money,”
Many online dating services have a hard time dealing with scammers, outside of issuing warnings to their users to be alert for anyone you've never met asking for money. Until last year, LavaLife actually had a good handle on scammers and spammers because it charged a per credit fee for people to communicate. They changed that to a monthly fee, however, and now scammers and spammers are just as active on LavaLife as they are on other online dating services.
One thing the best scammers have going for them is patience. They are not afraid to take time cultivating a relationship via email. A man may think he's communicating with a beautiful young russian woman, when he's really likely communicating with another guy that is in a small office with other guys also doing the same scam. Once a scammer can get you to declare your love, they know they have you. Some operations are quite sophisticated with trained actresses that will talk to you on the phone to convince you they are real.
Scammers virtually always initiate first contact with you. And many of them will ask you to email them outside of the dating service. Here's an actual email (I've removed the email address) of a scammer:
"Hi, I'd like to get to know you closer if you don't mind. I am looking for a friend, love and friendship.If you are interested, please respond [email address removed]. Hopefully hear from you soon."
Scam emails take various forms, so not all will be like the above. However, if in a first communication, you are asked to email the person at a particular email address , immediately delete (or report) the email.
“Consumers need to use caution and common sense when dealing with someone they haven’t met in person. Remember to never send the person money in any form, no matter how compelling or heart-wrenching their story may be,” says Greenberg. “Don’t let your ‘love’ for your online suitor to allow you to be robbed blind. While they may not love you, they would love to take your money, so be sure to only consider giving money to someone you’ve met in person, have known for a long time, and can truly trust. Or be prepared to kiss your money – and your special friend – goodbye.”
Other online dating scams are aimed at getting your email address, by almost immediately asking you to email them off of the service. By getting your email address, the scammers are able to add it to a list with others and sell the lists to scam and spam companies. Your email box will soon flourish with love letters from people you've never heard of.
In general, online dating services are having problems dealing with scammers. The reason is because they allow users who pay a monthly fee to communicate with anyone. So for $39.99 a month, a scammer has access to tens of thousands of potential victims.
Right now, most services deal with scammers and spammers through a report abuse feature, putting the pressure on online daters to police. Others are more proactive, looking for patterns of scammer behavior (i.e. lots of emails in short period of time) and deleting them quick. Some services go as far as trying to block certain countries from accessing their service.
If you're an online dater, always be on your toes and try to keep your dates local. If you're an online dating service, do more to educate online daters on what they can do and on what you're doing to avoid the "sweetheart swindle".
Signs of an Internet Dating Scam
No one wants to think they could be taken advantage by an internet dating scam, and yet hundreds of thousands of people are every single year. In fact, the US Embassy to Russia receives reports every single day from people concerned they've been scammed by a Russian single looking for love, and the U.S. Postal Service has created a video about the same topic on its FakeChecks.org website.
So how do you avoid falling prey to an internet dating scam in the first place? Take heed of the following red flags and you'll be much more aware, prepared and ready should someone try and take advantage of you.
Have you ever exchanged emails with someone you met through an internet dating site, just to wonder if its the same person who is replying to your messages each time? Or perhaps you've briefly thought to yourself that the person on the other end of the communication really needs to employ a spell-checker.
Neither of these email discrepancies are cause for alarm; a lot of people aren't very good with spelling and grammar, and they may be writing English as a second language. But if more than one of the following email discrepancies pop up during the course of your communications, it may be an internet dating scam.
Communication is vague, difficult to understand or is repeated.
Immediate (within 15 minutes) responses are received every time you send a message, with no discussion beforehand as to when you'll be online.
Email messages change in tone, language, style or grammar throughout the communication. This could evolve over time, or it could be apparent in just one email.
A sob story is shared early on that changes quickly from an annoyance into an emergency - and only you can help.
It can be very heady to have an ongoing email chat with someone who is focused entirely on you. In fact, this is a great sign that the person on the other end of the conversation is truly interested and invested in learning more about who you are.
Where the danger lies however, is not their interest in you as a person, but rather that they don't offer any detailed, personal information about themselves in return, or doesn't really answer your emails in a personal manner, but rather changes the topic with each contact.
Appropriate responses are integral to determining whether or not the relationship you are creating is based in reality and not a potential internet dating scam. Could the person emailing you be merely copying and pasting responses from a pre-determined outline or script, or do their emails really seem to "get" you and offer some sort of individualized attention?
Most singles who have tried meeting people from online dating sites have come across this telltale internet dating scam sign: being asked to either cash someone's check or money order for them, or being asked outright for money. The story varies somewhat with each internet dating scam, but the intention remains the same: robbing you of your hard earned cash.
If somebody asks you to wire them cash online - no matter what the reason, no matter how plausible or sad it sounds - don't.
Although cliche, the saying holds true for internet dating scams: if the person's photo looks too good to be true, that's because it probably is.
Of course models, actors and other extremely attractive people want to find love too, and you may very well have lucked out in the attractiveness category with the person you are communicating with online. But if your online date also falls into one of the other internet dating scam categories listed here, then you may want to do a bit more investigating, first.
Finding a Safe Dating Personals Site
Wherever you go lately on the Internet, you'll probably run into a dating personals site advertising free access. With the recent explosion in free dating sites, it's definitely hard to keep up. Keep in mind most are not really free!
What the people who sign up for these services are getting, essentially, is a way to have complete strangers contact them. But what most singles don't realize is that dating personals sites don't screen their 'free' membership - they offer a trial to anyone who decides to stop in. Users could be sexual predators, convicted criminals, or dating scam artists just waiting to meet the right person to be taken advantage of.
Here are some points to consider when signing up at a dating personals site, so that you don't get burned by someone with less-than-reputable intentions.
Privacy Policy Posted?
Does the site you are browsing at have a privacy policy? Usually you'll find a link towards the bottom of the page. Does the company protect your information? Do they sell your email address to "like-minded companies"? Also take a peek at their terms of use page, if they have one. Are users screened in any way?
Copyright is Current?
A simple way to check the age and veracity of any website is to look for the copyright date. If it's older than the current year, you may want to look elsewhere.
Layout Looks Lovely?
Browse around the dating personals site as much as you can without actually signing up. Is the site clean, easy to navigate and clear of any annoying pop-ups, advertisements or missing graphics? A poorly developed site usually means poorly managed information - something that you can't afford to risk. Surf elsewhere if this is the case.
There are some exceptions to this rule, mostly free dating personals sites looking to create an income from Google ads.
Search for Some Sample Singles
Review the people that fit your dating criteria; are the personal profiles well-written, or do they seem nonsensical? Are all of the users model-like, or are there real looking people in the smorgasbord?
Chances are, if it's a newer site with few members, they've padded the user base with fake people just to get the ball rolling. Alternatively, if you find a lot of profiles in the dating personals site that just smack of ridiculousness, it shows that the management team doesn't review their users at all. Find another, more reputable site if this happens to you.
WEBSOURCE OF ARTICLES: http://onlinedating.typepad.com/industry/2008/04/dating-scams-in.html and http://dating.about.com/od/onlinedating/ss/datingscams.htm and http://netsecurity.about.com/od/security101/a/phishprotect.htm
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