What Are Romance Scams And How You Can Avoid Them
There are millions of singles looking for love all around the world. The hope of finding a soul mate is what drives many to search in common places. Those who are tired of the dating scene, or loud crowded bars, are turning to the internet to find a more concentrated way to find Mrs. Right. There are many advantages to searching the internet for romance, and then there are some disadvantages. There are not many other things in life that make you more vulnerable than love, or finding it. Those, who are looking to take advantage, have discovered that tampering with dating sites is a great way to do so. Using all the tools at your disposal to pair with the woman of your dreams is important, but not knowing when you are being scammed can be disastrous. So what are romance scams and how can you avoid them?
What are romance scams?
Romance scams are the way in which scammers use the pretense of love to con men into doing things they normally wouldn’t. Sometimes when men think that they are going to get sex, or find the woman they dream about, they allow all common sense to fly out the window. Unscrupulous people will use dating sites and chat rooms to get into the personal lives of men and use their identity, their personal information, and their reputation to cause harm. When using these sites, it is crucial to know what some red flags are, that signal they are a target of romance scams.
There are many different types of romance scams. The key to them is being able to get you to communicate off site. Romance scammers will start to correspond with you via your profile or chat room, but will quickly ask for your email account to begin to contact you outside of the site. Once there, they will begin to try to solicit you for money. Setting up scenarios, they will attempt to get money from you in very harmless ways. Either by insisting that they are lost somewhere, or that they lost their wallet and need your assistance. Once they have you believing that you are in a relationship, they use that relationship to take advantage of your wanting to please them. It all begins with a fake profile, and them perusing the chat rooms looking for lonely men.
How to avoid romance scams
The biggest way to avoid these scams is to not be taken in. If you feel like something may not be credible, go with your gut. Many fake profiles will have pictures of women that look more like modeling photos. The scammers look for profile photos on the internet that are the epitome of beauty, and then use them. If you have a woman who is out of your league begging to contact her, think about it realistically. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. Profile photos that look more like modeling shots should be avoided.Another red flag is them asking you to contact them off site. If you meet someone on a dating site and they ask for your email, you may want to question why they no longer want to continue to converse via the site. If they will not use video conferencing, that is also a cue that they may not be who they say they are. In this day and age, it would be very unusual for someone to not have a camera on their computer. Most likely they can’t verify who they are. If they won’t show themselves to you, proceed with caution.Many of the romance scammers use different aliases to get onto dating sites. They will use one, and then when found out, will switch to another. If you are being contacted by someone who hasn’t signed on but a couple of times, or is new to the site, you should be careful. If you think that you are being a target of romance scams, it is important for you to notify the dating site immediately. If you are wrong then you have nothing to lose. If you are right, you have everything to lose if you don’t report them. Dating sites are a great way to meet other singles, with the potential to find the woman of your dreams, just don’t be stupid. Everyone wants to find love, but believing that things that sound too good are real, will only lead to trouble. Don’t ever allow someone into your personal life until you have verified that they are who they say they are. There is no way to know who is on the other end of the keyboard unless you are able to speak video chat to them directly.
