To avoid online dating scams, your best bet is to stick with the major online dating sites that have been around for a few years and have a large member base.
Personally I have seen some of the smaller or more obscure dating sites ‘pad’ the website with fake profiles and even go so far as to send a message to their members from this ‘fake’ person in the hopes of generating more activity on the site.
The larger, more well known dating sites have no reason to do this and generally have employees whose job it is to monitor new accounts and weed out the spammers and the scammers. The larger sites also have a public image to protect, which works in your favor.
If you suspect someone of being a spammer or scammer, make sure that you report them immediately to the website’s support team.
How to identify fake profiles
Take Baddo for instance, the great thing about the site is that it sync’s your current location with the other party. It even tells if you passed by a user unexpectedly. Great stuff, yes?
Well, some people have used this opportunity to defraud a lot of others by lying about certain sensitive information and even go as far as posting seductive pictures stolen from the Internet just to decieve.
They go online and prey on unsuspecting visitors – Female and Male alike.
It’s easy to catch these fraudsters due to the following red flags:
1. The culprit is likely to put up not more than one profile picture. Chances are they may not even be the person on the image.
2. He/she gets agitated when you ask for their phone numbers and may even tell you that they don’t have a phone (really) to reach them with.
3. Female Fraudsters tend to post more provocative pictures with little or nothing on, while their male counterparts post images showing wealth and looking ridiculously handsome to stir up arousal.
4. The location of the culprit may not tally with her profile information. For instance while chatting he/she tells you they’re in Sweden but the locator for the app shows you that the person is actually in Iyana Paja.
There may be others but for the purpose of this essay I stop here.
Remember to always be conscious about giving out sensitive information before you confirm that the person you’re talking to is actually legit.
Happy hunting!!!
