A common type of fraud involving parcels and delivery services (3 photos). A common type of fraud involving parcels and delivery services (3 photos) What you should be wary of

The emergence of dating sites has inevitably attracted a large number of scammers preying on lonely hearts. How do people cheat on dating sites? And is it possible to avoid such a fate?

Petty charlatans

Robots and fake pages

Blatant ransomware

Danger in reality

SMART diagnostics of a swindler

4 safety rules

Selection of a dating site

How to get scammed on dating sites

There are plenty of deceivers on the Internet who use any means to extract money from naive and gullible citizens. As for sites specializing in dating, it is much easier to find such a victim here.

We care about users of dating sites and have created a blacklist of users especially for you. Come in and take a look so you don't run into them.

Depending on the degree of arrogance and lack of conscience, several types of scammers can be distinguished.

Petty charlatans

These are mostly women or members of the stronger sex who hide their true faces behind fictitious female profiles, as they scam men on dating sites out of small sums of money. These specimens do not have large profits. They can only lure a wealthy applicant out of a small gift, money for a mobile account or before payday, etc.

Robots and fake pages

Here, too, they sell the attractive appearance of a young lady. First, a robot that has already been programmed with standard phrases will communicate with you. The answers will be simple and monotonous. If you want to double check, ask the same question several times. Guaranteed to get an answer to each one.

After several messages, Internet scammers will offer the candidate to switch to another site, from which it will supposedly be more convenient to communicate. Needless to say, you will have to pay for access to such a site. In addition, a false page can send viruses or all kinds of advertising brochures.

Major dating scam

This category of swindlers prefers to spend more time processing the victim, but they also win a bigger jackpot. The objects of their sighs are women over 30 years old, who are already losing hope of getting married. There are several options for making a big deal on dating sites:

• A citizen of a foreign state simply goes crazy about his new acquaintance and is looking forward to visiting her. In order to buy yourself a ticket to the groom, they suggest going to the ticket ordering site. Naturally, the site is fake, and the money will go straight into the swindler’s pocket.
• An enviable foreign groom is already on his way to meet his beloved. But suddenly some minor trouble happens on the way, for which you urgently need money. He will definitely return everything!
• Fraudsters also use online dating to send “gifts”. Only for some reason the future husband forgot to pay the fee for sending this gift, and the transport company will not deliver anything without payment. But the gift is worth it!
• Particularly cynical “suitors” scam their victims out of large sums of money, which they allegedly do not have enough for treatment. Having received the funds, the swindler “falls into a coma” for a while, and then returns again and tries to lure at least some more money from his beloved.

Blatant ransomware

Such individuals gain the trust of their interlocutor and fraudulently obtain explicit photographs or videos from them. Then the only thing left to do is to find out the real pages of the chosen one(s) on social networks and blackmail the victim by distributing these very intimate photos and videos in the circle of her closest friends. They may threaten to send the photo to their boss at work or to their parents.

Danger in reality

Dating on the Internet carries dangers in real life as well. This happens after the relationship moves into personal communication, and representatives of both sexes can become victims here:

• New acquaintances can take men on shopping trips, dinners in restaurants and relaxation in nightclubs, where the man will pay for himself and for his companion. In some cases, clonidine and similar drugs are used, after moving away from the effects of which the groom will discover that he was simply robbed.
• What will an online acquaintance with a swindler entail for a woman? She may be unexpectedly left in a restaurant, forced to pay for a delicious meal, or drunk to the point of insanity for the purpose of rape. Often the same clonidine is used on the weaker sex in order to stock up on incriminating evidence, which will later be an excellent means of blackmail.

SMART diagnostics of a swindler

Even decent people do not write the truth in the “About themselves” column. What can we say about scammers? How to recognize? Is it really true that we all have the same brush – under suspicion? What about the presumption of innocence?

Of course, there is no need to fall into paranoia about this. There are millions of profiles. The vast majority of their owners are normal people. And in general, if you are afraid of wolves, don’t go into the forest. And yet, a dating site is a convenient resource for scams. Fraudsters operate here with great pleasure. Someone - alone. Others are companies. And everyone should be checked for lice. And those who look like just “darlings” - especially.

Checking the "face"

Step one is photo verification. Make sure the photo and owner match. First, run the photo through Google and Yandex search engines (to do this, you need to type the query “search by photo” in Yandex). Secondly, ask to send a recent photo “especially for you” - with some specific gesture. It is possible that instead of a specific gesture you will receive an indecent gesture - for example, fuck. Nothing. He immediately showed his true face - “rude”.

Isn't it on the list?

Life hack - if you type in a search engine “blacklists of grooms” (“marriage scammers”, “list of scammers”), you will get links to sites and forums where scammers are brought to light and their photographs are pilloried. Of course, scammers often change accounts. But there are also lazy ones among them. We are all humans. And it won’t hurt to read other people’s stories. This is the case when it is not better to learn from your mistakes.

Copyright

If your romance novel began with his/her lavish pitch letter, check this literary masterpiece for plagiarism. You can use portals such as text.ru, content-watch.ru, antiplagius.ru - here you enter text and check its uniqueness. If something similar comes across the Internet, the program will hand over passwords and logins. But 100% uniqueness is not a reason to applaud. Yes, you really were approached individually. The question for what purpose still remains open.

I want to see you

Invite your interlocutor to a private chat - for example, to talk on Skype. By video call, of course. The scammer will refuse. The swindler doesn't have that much free time. We need to engage in fraud, and not “sharpen our hair.” And anyway, why glow? There is definitely no need if the stigma is a cannon. Or the photo and face do not match. Does this mean that every “refusenik” is a scammer? Not at all. But questions arise.

The inconsistency came out

Attention to detail. When communicating with a scammer, inconsistencies and discrepancies arise every now and then. He is alone. There are a lot of you. You can’t remember everything you said to whom. Moreover, if he approaches the process with soul, he processes the victim according to an exclusive scenario. There will definitely be misfires. Because a person, not a robot. What kind of person is another question.

At first sight

Did you fall in love quickly and forever? A lightning-fast declaration of love is a serious reason to turn on increased vigilance. Scammers often use the “at first sight” scheme. They mix confessions, compliments and promises in a shaker and treat them. And such a cocktail usually makes your head spin. If you feel sick from love, run before you lose consciousness from the “feelings.”

There is everything except you

Spiritual outpourings in the style of “there is everything but you” are another obscure, but often exploited scheme for processing victims. In general, people prefer to remain silent about money. Or talk, but in a narrow circle of loved ones. Fraudsters talk about their material wealth immediately, in detail and thoroughly: a house on the seashore, a couple of yachts and a very profitable business. But there is no happiness. I'm looking for you and it seems I found you.

Enter from the rear

There is nothing to complain about, but your soul is restless? Create a second account and communicate with your new bride or groom from a different perspective. You can learn a lot about the interlocutor. For example, what approaches everyone with the same maneuvers. Or, on the contrary, his testimony is strikingly different. Here is a long-distance sailor, and there is a retired officer. Is it indecent to have two accounts? When it comes to personal safety, all means are good (within the framework of the criminal code, of course).

Four safety rules

We recommend you take a look. You can run into slavery or bankruptcy not only on a dating site. And outside the Internet, people lose money, honor and dignity. In addition, in virtuality it is easier to spot a fraudster. And in general, if you follow the safety rules that you need to know, like the multiplication table or traffic rules, everything will be fine.

Keep it to yourself

There are things you need to keep to yourself. Firstly, this is a passport, bank card numbers and other identification documents. And if your interlocutor asks to send a scan - to buy tickets or book a hotel - send the interlocutor a cookie. There is no need to remind you that intimate photos should also be kept to yourself, right? Here you can also find your residential address, place of work and other personal information.

No empathy

Empathy is a good thing. If a person were a complete egoist and acted solely out of his own interests, what would happen to the human race? Who would be the “crown of nature” today? Fortunately, the human nervous system is designed in such a way as to “mirror” the feelings of others - to empathize. But if you are on a dating site, forget about empathy. Of course, you can sympathize with the sufferer, but without a bank card in your hands.

Be realistic

Keep yourself in control and close to the ground. Many people tend to wishful thinking. And you will see that this is real. And be especially vigilant if you suddenly feel: “this is my soul mate,” “as if I’ve known him/her for a thousand years.” As a rule, such euphoria is a consequence of the filigree work of the fraudster. If you suspect your heart is on fire, take a cold shower. Stand under cold water until you cool down. It's better to have a cold than a heart attack from the collapse of hopes.

Don't trust anyone

The word is not only a means of transmitting information. “The word is man’s most powerful weapon,” said Aristotle. Don't take words to heart. Don't take them at face value. To get to know a person, you need time, not words. And you can write and say anything you want. In general, “in our time you can’t trust anyone, sometimes even yourself (film “Seventeen Moments of Spring”).

We offer you to watch several videos on the topic of the article:

Someone is having a good time on dating sites, someone is looking for a husband, and someone is deceiving gullible users. By manipulating feelings, swindlers easily use one of the proven schemes to get rich. Most often, scammers on dating sites, for example, on Mamba, Photostrana, are quite harmless and quickly disappear as soon as they realize that they have been exposed. The most common methods of deception have been developed over the years, and they are not difficult to recognize.

Scammers on dating sites: we suggest you study the most popular scam schemes and find out what to do if you fall into the hands of a scammer.

How scammers work on dating sites

How do scammers operate on dating sites? As a rule, women who dream of starting relationships with foreigners become victims of scammers on dating sites.

The first letters from scammers are very different from all the others: they are polite and thorough. They will tell you in detail about their hobbies and work, hint about their financial well-being, and give you several pleasant, but not vulgar, compliments. Next, you will be showered with declarations of feelings and will soon be offered to transfer communication from the website to email.

You should be wary if:

• immediately after meeting you, you are asked to leave the dating site in order to continue communication via email or social networks;
• does not write new stories, does not talk about how the day went, etc.;
• immediately after meeting, the interlocutor declares his love;
• the foreigner does not answer your questions, writes lengthy letters with an abundance of compliments and confessions of his feelings.

Important! Sometimes deceivers correspond with several victims at the same time. As a rule, they use the same templates without even bothering to read the victim's letter.

Popular fraud schemes and methods of extortion on dating sites

Let's look at several fraudulent schemes on dating sites.

Swindling money

This is the simplest deception. There is enough interest shown on the part of users of the dating site. Moreover, scammers can “process” the victim for quite a long time until the desired result is obtained.

Often the gigolo tries to evoke a feeling of pity. He writes that he wants to meet someone and introduces himself as a single man who loves to travel or spends time on business trips.

If the deceiver feels your pity for him, he may ask for money directly or somehow hint about it. As a rule, this is expressed in a request to cash a check, send a bank transfer, send a parcel, etc.

Scheme with a “gift”

Fraudsters can also use other fraudulent schemes. This option is, in principle, no different from the previous one, but in this case, scammers lure money out not by direct, but by indirect methods.

A “gift” scheme is often used. Ladies become victims in such a situation. The scammer poses as a wealthy foreigner or Russian working under a contract in Europe. Users begin to correspond, while the seducer constantly gives compliments and is “sincerely” happy about any message.

During communication, the scammer finds out the residential address, usually explaining that he wants to send his lady an expensive gift in the form of a necklace or watch, smartphone or tablet. Next, the deceiver reports that the gift has been sent, you only need to pay customs duties. Usually the scammer provides payment details in the same message. Most often, the victim is asked to transfer funds through a Qiwi wallet, which is common among scammers.

Important! Under no circumstances transfer money to your online acquaintances, even if you are sure that they are not committing fraud. Do not share your personal information with anyone and only open links through a search engine.

Shared trip

The scammer invites his new acquaintance to spend time on a luxury liner or just come for a visit. You will only be asked to purchase tickets at a discount. In this scheme, the swindler uses fake websites. They are similar to real ones, but are considered phishing scams where they obtain your data and extort money.

Important! Women who have been deceived by scammers willingly provide their personal information. The Internet is full of photos and profiles of scammers.

Blackmail

The next group of scammers operate in a different way. Captivated by the romance of communication and flirting, the woman transfers intimate photos at the request of the scammer. At the same time, communication often moves from the web resource to social networks.

After a certain time, the victim of deception is contacted by a stranger who links to a website where screenshots of the conversation with intimate photos are posted. This will be followed by conditions for the provision of a certain amount for the removal of incriminating data.

Often, deceivers use a different scheme. They find out from the victim the details of his personal life and are primarily interested in those who have a family but are looking for a relationship on the side. After the extortionists have received intimate photos or explicit correspondence, they threaten the person to send the screenshots to their spouse.

As a rule, those frightened by extortionists, especially married ladies, prefer to transfer money to the deceivers, and are immediately subjected to constant blackmail in the form of regular extortion of money.

What to do if you fall into the hands of scammers on a dating site

How to protect yourself from foreign and Russian scammers on dating sites?

1. Be careful and don't let your guard down.
2. Check information on Google about a new acquaintance by entering the name and photo in the search bar. You can check the photo using the anti-plagiarism program. Fraudsters often use pictures of people that are posted online.
3. Pay attention to errors in the letter, especially if a new acquaintance is posing as a foreign citizen. Russian men often write that they are foreigners, although in fact they are our compatriots.
4. Never send intimate photos to a stranger to avoid becoming a victim of blackmail.
5. Do not transfer funds, do not give your address, bank account and card details, or passport.
6. Do not react to emotional messages: a child is sick, you need money for medicine, help a refugee.
7. Do not send money even if the person has passed all the checks.
8. Check your passport.

Summary

It is possible to fight such scammers. If you are blackmailed, such actions fall under Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and are called “Extortion.”

If you voluntarily send money, it is more difficult to deal with scammers. Blackmail using personal information is a criminal offense. Mention this to the scammers, it often works.

To get the most detailed advice on the issue of fraud on a dating site, you just need to use the online chat, fill out the feedback form or call us.

Well, I started dating on the Internet. Although a year ago I was confidently indignant about dating sites, considering it a pure gamble.
A psychologist I know, who spent more than a single hour with me, made a disappointing diagnosis: “You subconsciously find the most unsuitable men and build the most unpromising relationships with them. You are a confirmed female bachelor!”
The diagnosis has been made. But you really want love! And out of curiosity, I begin to look through the profiles of applicants on a dating site. What I have? Several portraits from a photo shoot where the photographer made me smile like I’ve never smiled in my life... Inviting and erotic! So…

Waiting for a miracle.

If you start looking for partners on the Internet, be frank - you are looking for a miracle. This is neither bad nor good. It’s just a miracle – it’s from a fairy tale. Closer to reality - horny men(photo on the beach with a naked torso of Schwarzenegger in retirement) or elders, whitened by life experience (average income, living with their parents, or, more often, with their ex-wife and children).
Having shoveled through the rubble of the Russian spill, I ran into virtual sex players several times. So I'm starting to consider options with foreigners. They are more presentable in appearance, and meeting such a betrothed promises adventure. And my friend excitedly told me how she flew to London at the expense of her potential groom. The search for a miracle rushes overseas.

Dreams Come True?

“My sweetheart, I missed you all night, I felt so bad without you last night, I want to be next to you, lie in bed hand in hand, hugging tightly, kissing every centimeter of your adored body. You are my bliss..."
Tell me, what a huge relationship path you need to go through with a man to hear such words? Alas, most of our ladies, even if they are preparing to celebrate their silver wedding with their husbands, often have never experienced such treatment. Their love passions end in the literary field. The chest heaves with excitement and the heart contracts with pulsating jerks inside when they are immersed in a woman’s novel, reading Juan’s fiery confessions to Juanita...
I received a passionate confession on the Internet already on the second day of meeting a young man whose photo reminded me of my first love. The attraction turned out to be mutual. He wrote that all his life he dreamed of meeting someone like me. Nice! And yet I was tormented by doubts. After several mutual letters, I called a friend to ask: “Is it really possible to meet a decent, non-drinking, non-smoking English sailor of Spanish origin who fell in love with me after just a couple of virtual dates?” His life path before meeting me is sad. Parents died in a car accident. He grew up in an orphanage. Graduated from the naval school. Now he is on the ship. But soon the contract ends, and the sailor returns to the mainland, where no one is waiting for him. The once beloved wife, without waiting for her betrothed, ran away with another man. And then he finds me! And, if I’m ready to move to live in Liverpool, then he would like us to live in a private house, and as a wedding gift he offers me to buy a BMW.
After hearing this, my friend lit a cigarette loudly. "You know! Why should we always and everywhere see meanness? What if all this is true! Well, it happens!”

I love... not you.

Even an inveterate misanthrope and bachelor dreams of loving and being loved. The only question is where the feeling comes from and where it goes. It creates energy like oxygen. I’m not Tsiolkovsky, of course, to start inventing a rocket, dreaming about space... But plans to move to Liverpool grew with threatening mania. I began to relate to everyday problems more easily. I don’t care that the washing machine is broken – I’ll soon shake it all off my feet. You probably don’t have to worry about where to get money for a new car. Yes, and do I need a fur coat? Maybe winter clothes won't be useful. It seems there is no frost in Liverpool... My world has expanded, and time has become denser - the three of us (also with Google Translate) spent hours on Skype, discussing news, friends, stories from childhood, parents and the country. I took an anti-cellulite massage course, bought new underwear, found out the prices for 4-star hotels in Moscow, wondered whether I would be able to take a vacation from work, and how long it would take to obtain a visa. We have already discussed whether we should first meet in a visa-free country to enjoy love? The future family castle collapsed quite quickly. My, I already considered him as such, fiance asked for money. At first, he said that he desperately needed $900 to settle some problems with the bank. Then he said that his ship captain would lend 300, so the amount needed for happiness was reduced to “only $600.”
I refused. Only for a simple reason - I don’t have free money. He did not give up and wrote passionate letters for a whole week, calling her his wife, interspersed with pitiful messages on the topic of 600 dollars in the name of love and happiness. Animated cards with doves and rings gradually gave way to messages of reproaches and insults. And soon our correspondence began to resemble a kitchen squabble. Where have the tenderness and romance gone?! The amorous flair instantly dissipated. I had to block contacts and blacklist the subscriber...

I will not hide that before I finally admitted that I was a victim of an Internet scammer, I tried several times to send money. But the way in which I was asked to do this alarmed me. It was necessary to send money via American Express to the name of a certain Arab living in Ghana. Considering that my fiancé introduced himself as a British citizen, a very original option. But that's not the point.
After researching the Internet on this topic, I found out that scamming– a very common phenomenon nowadays. Technological progress has also given rise to a new type of fraud. The forums are filled with stories of how dreamy ladies fall into the tenacious claws of “marriage swindlers,” like partridges. Having received a marriage proposal on the second day of communication, as well as a postcard with a picture of rings, some groom-seekers turn off common sense, concentrating on emotions. The heart longs to love!
On the other hand, I thought: after all, everything worked out, and which of us became the victim? The scammer who tried to deceive me with fake love messages or me, basking in the rays of ecstatic amorous fantasies? A month of dreams and delightful emotions is also a gift of fate. For the pseudo groom it’s hard work, for his victim it’s a real pleasure!

Nadezhda Matveeva

psychologist

Even if you run into a manipulator and swindler, remain yourself. Forge your own line. The path of the victim is our own choice when we commit actions against ourselves. Beautiful declarations of love often turn into dust, even if they are spoken from the heart. Following the advice of the sages, live Here and Now! It doesn’t matter that a theatrical performance is unfolding in front of you, disguised as sincere feelings.

“Scammers” (from the English scam - deception) try to make money by manipulating the feelings of people who want to find a soul mate via the Internet and offering them to send money.

Online dating: how to avoid falling for scammers' tricks

Dating via the Internet is becoming an increasingly popular way of dating from year to year. They are so common that many of their supporters have forgotten what it's like to meet people in real life. It is possible that acquaintance through dating sites can really become the beginning of a serious relationship between two hearts in love with each other, but, alas, cases of disappointment and the appearance of various complexes in a person after this kind of “communication” are more common. You can read in more detail about all the reasons and disadvantages of online dating in my last article “Online dating”. And now we will dwell in detail on this question - it is no secret that not all users registered on dating sites have a good goal - to meet a guy / girl to start a relationship and further create a family.

As you know, the majority of victims of unsuccessful online dating (about 95%) are women. Why? Yes, because most men are looking for the possibility of an intimate relationship on such sites, and women are looking for love relationships and starting a family. No one claims that there cannot be women among scammers, but men are more vigilant in this regard, and at the first sign of deception they interrupt communication. They will not be fooled by tender words and prospects of romantic love. Therefore, this article will be addressed to those girls who, due to various reasons, have chosen dating sites as the best way to meet a person.

So, what types of “personalities” can be hidden on dating sites behind photographs of successful people. Let's look at the main ones:

1. Woman? No, man! Not all girls are looking for online dating with the opposite sex for further development of relationships. Some of them already have boyfriends, and they just want to meet other girls for friendship and hanging out together, or to create a group of interests. Moreover, in their profiles they clearly express this desire with the phrases “not interested in meeting men” or “I would like to meet girls who share my interests” - the wording may be different. But for most unscrupulous men this is not a hindrance. If he likes a girl, he creates his own account under a name, for example, Oksana Ivanova, uploads a woman’s photo, and writes interests in the profile that match the girl’s interests. And then everything is simple - he draws the girl into his “net”, and she sincerely believes that she has found a friend, a kindred spirit. But imagine her further disappointment when it is not Oksana who comes to meet her, but Leonid, and even with offers to meet. This is fraught not only with stress and the awareness of wasted time, but very often it can be extremely difficult to get rid of such individuals posing as people of the opposite sex.

2. Liar. This is a very common type of user. When corresponding with their “victim,” they adapt to her interests, share her views, and it seems to the girl that this is her ideal, but when they meet in person, it turns out that he still has to grow up to the image that the person created for himself on a dating site and grow. By the way, both women and men fall for this bait equally. Only in the case of men, everything is even simpler - there is no need to adapt to interests and views, to correspond with your interlocutor for a long time - just post a photo of a blonde with a third bust size on your profile - and he “got it”. So men shouldn’t relax either.

3. Pickup artist. They can be difficult to identify; their main goal is to seduce a girl with further virtual and, ultimately, real sex. He is not at all interested in the feelings that the girl has for him, just as he is not interested in the girl’s condition at the moment when he leaves her life forever, putting a tick next to her name on his “record.” If you are looking for a relationship on the site with a further continuation - creating a family, you should bypass pick-up artists “by the tenth road”. How to calculate them? It's not easy, but it's still possible.

A pick-up artist can be identified by the following signs:

A) He has a pleasant, attractive appearance and an exceptional sense of humor;

B) The pickup artist keeps the conversation under his control;

C) Often talks about sex, sometimes talks exclusively about it (since this is his main goal);

D) The pickup artist is very persistent;

E) Strive at any cost to obtain the “victim’s” phone number;

E) When discussing a meeting place, he appoints it himself and does not give the girl the right to choose;

G) Be the first to make a date;

H) Disappears for several days, and sometimes weeks, after the first victory.

Beware of pick-up artists, because if you fall for their bait and realize this, you will feel used and crushed, you will develop hatred for men and, accordingly, your chances of a happy personal life will decrease.

4. Troll provocateur. The only purpose of registering such users on dating sites is to get into the dialogue of several people and begin to incite conflicts between them. The troll gets indescribable pleasure from this. As soon as the troll sees people’s emotional discussions on certain topics, he immediately inserts his “two cents” in the form of insults, provocative statements, sarcastic remarks - everything that can spark a conflict between normal participants in the dialogue, for whom the purpose of the dialogue is the exchange of information. Dealing with trolls is simple - identify them and ignore their comments. Seeing that none of the conversation participants react to his teasing, the troll goes in search of another victim.

Now let's move on to the main thing - consider the main ways how to avoid being deceived on a dating site:

1. If you have the first suspicion that your interlocutor’s intentions are ill-intentioned, invite him to call or meet with you. As a rule, the scammer disappears after this offer, not wanting to show his true face. You can also offer to chat on Skype, which will also scare off the careless user.

2. Never give your email address to a scammer. A person who is pursuing a good goal on a dating site will never ask for your e-mail (why, because all e-mail functions are available on a dating site). Very often the scammer introduces himself as a resident of a European country, a native of Russia or Ukraine, and he is already registered on dating sites under several pseudonyms.

3. Don't send your photos. You never know for what purposes the scammer will use your photos. If you have photos on social networks, for greater security, delete them after asking to send your photos.

4. Carefully read the meaning of the messages sent to you by your new acquaintances. The fact is that very often scammers do not send you letters themselves, but do it with the help of a robot program that is programmed to send messages after a certain time. So, if at three o’clock in the morning you receive a letter “Sorry, I’m at work, I can’t answer” or something like that, you can be sure that the program is writing to you. For your own safety, feel free to remove the user from your contact lists and block him forever.

5. A week after meeting, check the availability of his profile on the dating site. If it is not there, it means that you were communicating with a scammer who was not at all interested in communicating with you.

6. Often the scammer writes to the victim that he bought an expensive gift for her and asks her to provide contact information (telephone and address). Free cheese only comes in a mousetrap. Do not give out your contact information under any circumstances. You can be sure that after a certain time the scammer will begin to insist on this - remove him from your contacts and block him forever.

7. If you are not sure whether the scammer is corresponding with you or not, start asking him specific questions, the more, the better. As a rule, the scammer gets lost and begins to give unrelated answers. There is only one result - delete it, and quickly.
And finally, a classic divorce: “Darling, now I’m far away, in another country. But I already miss you and want to see you soon. Unfortunately, the plane ticket is expensive and I don’t have that kind of money. Could you send the nth amount of money to the specified details so that our meeting can take place as soon as possible. I'm looking forward to it." I believe there is no need for comment on further actions.

You should also be vigilant when telling your interlocutor where and with whom you live. There was a case when a lonely girl living in Moscow wrote in one of her messages that she had no one and lived alone, which the scammer immediately took advantage of - he offered to meet on the other side of the city. Arriving at the meeting, the girl waited for her “interlocutor” for an hour, after which she returned home and was horrified to discover that the door to her apartment had been broken into and all her valuables had been taken out. Therefore, when making acquaintances on the Internet, remain vigilant and do not let scammers fool you. After all, every correspondence will end sooner or later, and its disastrous result (be it a broken heart and unfulfilled hopes, or a robbed apartment) will remain with you for a long time.

Ekaterina Fadeeva

How scammers work on dating sites

As a rule, the victims of scammers are users of dating sites who dream of marrying a foreigner.

The first letters of scammers are very different from all the others: they are polite and thorough. They will tell you in detail about their hobbies and work, hint about their financial well-being, and give you several pleasant, but not vulgar, compliments. Next, you will be showered with declarations of feelings and will soon be offered to transfer communication from the website to email.

You should be wary if:

1. The interlocutor does not address you by name, calls you bunny, cat and other diminutive words, as well as English-language equivalents, if he pretends to be a foreigner.
2. A new acquaintance immediately insists on leaving the dating site and continuing communication via email or social networks.
3. He doesn’t write new stories, doesn’t talk about how his day went, and the like.
4. Immediately after meeting, the scammer confesses his love.
5. The swindler does not answer your questions, writes lengthy letters with an abundance of compliments and confessions of his feelings.

Remember: sometimes deceivers correspond with several victims at the same time. As a rule, they use the same templates without even bothering to read the victim's letter.

The scammer's main task is to convince you of his sincerity. The scammer is willing to spend weeks, and sometimes even months, communicating with you. He won't ask you for money until he realizes that you're in love with him. And only after that he will come up with a false situation or problem and present it in such a way that you immediately want to help him.

The most popular methods of fraud on dating sites

Expensive gift

After several weeks of dating and heated correspondence with declarations of love, the potential groom sends the victim an expensive gift: a phone, laptop or jewelry. Then the man “accidentally” forgets to pay for delivery, as a result of which the gift cannot reach the recipient, and invites the lady to bear these costs herself. Who would refuse to pay a couple of hundred dollars for an expensive laptop, given that the man promises to return this money upon meeting?

The victim receives an invoice by mail or SMS with a link to the courier service website, but after sending the required amount, the scammer disappears along with the non-existent gift.

Despite the fact that the effectiveness of this method has decreased recently, an expensive gift remains one of the fastest and most popular ways to deceive a dating site user. In addition, it has recently been improved: now the groom can send a bouquet of flowers or a souvenir as a gift, and also promise that he has invested money in the parcel to cover unforeseen expenses. The amount for delivering such a package is correspondingly small, so people do not suspect anything.

Air ticket

If during the course of your relationship the idea of ​​going on a joint vacation appears, then sooner or later the question will arise. As a rule, the groom comes up with various excuses, such as a blocked account or the absence of an ATM nearby, in order to force the woman to pay not only for her flight, but also for him. When we meet, of course, he will immediately give back all the money, and even with interest.

To help organize the trip, the groom sends a link to the airline’s website to purchase a ticket, but, unfortunately, the resource turns out to be phishing. The money for the tickets will go to the scammer’s account, and the victim will not see either the tickets or the groom.

Don't fall for the scam, even if the tickets on this site are much cheaper than those you found. It’s better to overpay than to lose money altogether.

In trouble

Women love to help, and scammers actively take advantage of this. For several months they correspond with the victim, even make an appointment and buy a plane ticket themselves, but at the last moment the long-awaited date is canceled because the groom gets into trouble: he is arrested, not allowed to leave the country without paying a fine, doctors discover he has a terrible disease, and so on. . There may be many reasons, but the goal is one - to ask the bride for money.

As a rule, in such cases we are talking about thousands of dollars. The groom’s “relatives” often get involved in the scam, since some scenarios involve long-term sponsorship.

To avoid falling for the bait of such scammers, never send even small amounts to a person you do not know personally.

Officer

The scammer is posing as a military man serving in a hot spot. As in previous cases, the relationship begins with passionate letters and promises of marriage as soon as the contract ends.

After several weeks or months, the officer shares his discovery: he supposedly received captured antiques, which he wants to send to his beloved for safekeeping. It won’t help here - you need a diplomatic one, which does not go through customs control. But the problem is that this will require a bribe of a couple of thousand dollars. The officer does not have this money.

A similar scheme is used with a large sum of money allegedly received during years of service or as an inheritance.

Such scammers are easy to spot: just do an image search on Google. As a rule, scammers use photographs of real military personnel, information about which is available on the Internet.

Blackmailer

The simplest, but nevertheless effective method of fraud is blackmail. Most often the victims are young girls. The guy gains confidence, often sends messages and calls on Skype. After some time, he suggests moving on to a more intimate relationship, sending him explicit photos or dancing for him during a video call.

As soon as the scammer receives the video or photo, the second stage begins - blackmail. The swindler threatens to send pictures to all the victim’s subscribers on a social network or post them around the area where the girl lives if he does not receive the required amount.

The only way to protect yourself from this is to not send explicit photos and videos to people you don't know personally.

How to protect yourself from scammers on a dating site

1. Be careful and don't lose your head.
2. Check information about a new acquaintance on the Internet, enter the name and photo into the search engine. Often scammers use pictures of other people that they found on the Internet.
3. Pay attention to spelling, especially if the groom is posing as a foreigner. If he makes a lot of mistakes, then this is a signal: your fiance is not who he says he is. With “Russian” suitors, a good knowledge of grammar can also save you. They are often pretended to be foreigners, so if you look closely at the letters, you can find errors and expose the scammers.
4. Don't send intimate photos to someone you don't know personally.
5. Never send money, bank card details, account details, or passport details.