As if we didn't have enough stress to worry about in dating, we now have to worry about whether or not that cute guy or girl who just winked at us or emailed us even exists at all. Romance scams and sneaky tricks by dating sites to get us to subscribe are on the rise as online suitors chase our money, not us.
Recently, I had a cute guy wink at me on a dating site. And I'll be honest, he was really cute- exactly the kind of guy I find physically attractive. We traded a few emails and from the beginning I was a little suspicious. He gave up a lot of personal info up front, was far too flattering and convinced that I was "the one" and the grammar and spelling in the email did not match the profile he had written for the dating site. He also didn't answer my direct questions and when he did, the answers were vague or off. We traded emails for about a week until I got the one that confirmed my suspicions. He casually mentioned a 12 year old daughter in France who was coming to live with him. I knew when I read that that soon the request for money would come. Some way, some how, he was going to ask for money to help bring her to the States. I contacted a friend who is a Federal Prosecutor and she directed me to the local FBI field office. The FBI confirmed my suspicions and advised that I end all contact immediately. Needless to say, I did. Four days later I got the "did I do something wrong?" email from him, with another photo- this one so blatantly pulled off a modeling agency web site that I had to laugh. Since there was no direct request for money and I didn't pay anything, the FBI advised me to file a report on the ic3.org web site to at least report the incident and enter the scammer's info in a DB for future reference. Overall, I was lucky. No money changed hands and the only thing the scammer knows about me is that I live in Dallas, my name and where I went to school. I was very cautious not to give out employment info or my address. In researching romance scams online, I was amazed to discover the number of people who lost tens of thousands of dollars in such scams and completely ruined their finances. All from someone who contacted them through a dating website with a fake profile.
Unfortunately, not all fake profiles on dating web sites are from scammers. Some are posted by the dating website themselves. One of the largest dating web sites in the country is currently fighting a group of people who want class action status for their lawsuit. In their suit, they claim that the site creates fictitious profiles and uses them to contact people as potential dates. Then when the person subscribes so they can email back the potential date who contacted them they discover the profile is gone. The suit claims to have internal documentation and testimony from former employees supporting that the site regularly engages in this practice to garner subscriber fees. I wasn't shocked to hear about this practice. Last year I noticed a flurry of interest and contact activity when my subscription to a Catholic dating site was ending. I wondered then if the activity was fake and an enticement to get me to subscribe again. After finding out about this suit, my suspicions about that site and their practices are even greater than before. Logically, if one site engages in this practice, isn't it possible that it's the industry standard rather than the exception.
So when you're out there in the online dating world, please be careful. That amazing person who just contacted you may be after not your heart, but your money instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment