Romance, Dating, or Sweetheart Scams ruin lives, destroy hope, and are am $800,000.00 a year business run by the dumbest people you can imagine. They get away with it because you want to believe! Be smart, verify, test, and know if they are real. Here are the basics of how to not be a victim, and what you can do afterwards.
1. BEWARE OF COMMON ONLINE
DATING & ROMANCE SCAMS
FROM ROMANCESCAMSNOW.COM
AN ON-LINE CATALOG OF SCAMMERS
www.RomanceScamsNow.com a McGuinnessPublishing® website
2. ROMANCE SCAMS ARE EVERYWHERE
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Who would have thought that something so beautiful as seeking true love
online could be turned into something sinister? Sadly, online dating has also
fallen victim to criminal minds who use it to scam unwary love seekers.
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Online dating scams have been so rampant that they have been dubbed the
“sweetheart scams.”
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On-line Romance Scams pollute almost every Dating website in the world.
There are only two types of sites that are relatively free of this:
• Those with psychological profiling, such as eHarmony.com
• Paid matchmaking services that physically screen each woman and man
• Ironically, there are only a few hundred scammers engaged in large scale
scamming – though thousands of individuals do it themselves
www.RomanceScamsNow.com a McGuinnessPublishing® website
3. WHO ARE THESE SCAMMERS?
www.RomanceScamsNow.com a McGuinnessPublishing® website
4. YOU HAVE MET & WILL MEET SCAMMERS
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Online dating scams can take many forms and for various reasons. The most
common of these reasons is money. Simply put, it is their job to scam you!
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It’s very important that you understand how these scammers work, so you’ll
know up front and can protect yourself from falling victim to these monster
scammers.
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Statistically, on most dating sites anywhere from 1 in 2 to as high as 8 out of
10 women you meet are frauds
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While there are almost always “tells”, the most difficult and dangerous are the
Real People Scammers. These are real people who live in countries where
you can’t touch them (or so they think).
www.RomanceScamsNow.com a McGuinnessPublishing® website
5. LEARNING TO RECOGNIZE
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It starts with their profile.
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These fraudsters usually copy and attractive write-up from someone else’s
online profile for themselves to lure victims. They pose as women that have
the attributes that appeal to their victims. But they are not all super attractive
or young.
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Watch for the “red flags” in every form of communication:
• Weird punctuation and capitalization
• Shifting language styles and odd phrases
• Heavy mentions of honesty and trust
• Calling themselves a “lady” and “God Fearing” and “Hard Working”
• Including email addresses in their first blind contact message
• Asking you to move to Yahoo or other chat immediately
Visit our website for more tips
www.RomanceScamsNow.com a McGuinnessPublishing® website
6. COMMON SCAMS
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Once they’ve made contact with you, these fraudsters are quick to build a
trusting relationship, usually via email and online chat rooms, but also through
text – since computer based texting is easy and cheap for them.
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The scams fall into fairly common types:
• First they always need a favor – usually money
• They had someone die, or a child needs something for schooling
• They have medical bills, or they are stranded and need to buy their way
out
• They want to come meet you but they need visas and passports
• They are getting a new job, but need help bridging the time till they get
paid
• They have evil family they need to buy off
• They have an ex they need to buy off
• Or they need you to buy them something like a laptop or a camera
Visit our website for more tips
www.RomanceScamsNow.com a McGuinnessPublishing® website
7. HOW THEY ASK FOR THE MONEY
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The request fro money will come quick – within days or a couple of weeks at
most from initial contact
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They will typically ask you to send money via Western Union or other Money
Transfer Service
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Of course to receive it, they have to use a real name, so they ask that it be
sent to the person they owe money – really themselves
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Western Union may in fact alert you asking if this person is someone you
really know – they can’t tell you about any past reports, but this is a major red
flag
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By the time you realize that you have been scammed, you’ll already be a
couple of thousand dollars into the scammer.
Visit our website for more tips
www.RomanceScamsNow.com a McGuinnessPublishing® website
8. QUICK PROOF OF LIFE TESTS
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Here’s what you need to know to test if you are talking to a scammer:
• Ask where she lives, then look up the place (assuming it’s not Africa) and
ask about the place – like a specific restaurant – come on, everything is
on-line
• Ask about education – many claim degrees or graduate degrees – they
really know nothing about these – get details – you can call any college
and university in the U.S. or Canada and confirm their degree
• If they say they lived in the U.S. check their state’s DMV – there are a lot of
records available
• Ask for recent photos of their place – their home, apartment, town, etc. African scammers don’t have any of this – the Real Scammers will
• Get them sending emails – look at the “properties” or “header” information
for the IP addresses then “trace” them. They will slip up on comfortable
victims and you will catch emails from wrong places
Visit our website for more tips
www.RomanceScamsNow.com a McGuinnessPublishing® website
9. BE CAREFUL
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Be careful about the information you give out – you may be helping them use
you and your photos as their next scam profile
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Never give our any financial information until you have know someone for
months
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Never give out detailed family history, such as parents’ names, children's’
names, etc.
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Be careful of friending them on Facebook – all your life is their for them to
take. Same for your photos online.
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But do look at their Facebook – look at their friends – are they all men of
about your age? Hint hint.
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How long have they been on social media, how much activity – real people
have a lot
Visit our website for more tips
www.RomanceScamsNow.com a McGuinnessPublishing® website
10. THERE ARE REAL PEOPLE OUT THERE
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Don’t give up, but be careful, and don’t trust without verification. A real person
will understand this – scammers will not – feel free to explain your reasons
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Remember, scammers mostly use the free trial periods to create new
accounts – be very caution about new accounts on a dating site
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Just exercise proper precautions and know you will meet a scammer, so why
not have fun with them?
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It is important that you report scammers to the website operator – when in
doubt, report
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It is also important to share the information you have on scammers – we
publish an expensive, detailed catalog of scammers, but we need your details!
We will never share your identity, just the scammers.
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Be safe, but more importantly be smart!
Visit our website for more tips
www.RomanceScamsNow.com a McGuinnessPublishing® website