Online Date Scams

a few years ago i logged into my msn and saw this girl in my contacts list. i dont remember if she added me or i added her, but she was there. and when i opened the conversation window to check out who it was, i saw her display picture... this beautiful girl! i didnt care how she got there, i just wanted to meet her! so we started talking and we became very close friends. she supposedly had left the city and was living somewhere else, far away, so we never could meet in person. we talked for over 6 months. around the year of chatting, we fell in love for each other but nothing really happened since we never met in person. we kept chatting for around 2 years only to find that she really never existed, or at least the person talking to me was not the person it said it was. how i found out is another story, the deal is she was a scam!

time went by and guess what? another beautiful girl appeared in my life, online of course... but this time, this girl gave me a phone number to which i called and a girl answered me. the voice seemed to match the picture so i took it for granted she was real. time went by and our friendship grew as months passed. however, this girl was more sexually intrested. she was very horny, but so sexy! however, while hi5 was still hot i was surfing through people's profile and i suddenly found the same girl but in another country far away from here! then i researched a little bit of all what this girl had told be about her life to find out she never existed here, nobody knew her. another fake girl...

months passed and another girl appeared and same story went by. the funny thing is, this has not only happened to me but to various people. lots of people, only guys as far as i know. but when i started talking about it i found out that a friend had the same "relationship" with one of them, last week i found my brother was into one of them too! and they are haunting the online communities like myspace or facebook. its kinda creepy.

That's the problem with online communities. You can make fake profiles as long as if you pics and good imagination. I have caught people making profiles out of my pictures before, because I've got an online portfolio of my pictures. It's something you can't really prevent because people can say anything they like about themselves. If you are in doubt about whether the person you are talking to is the one in the photo, you could ask for a salute (also known as fan sign). Have the person take a photo of him/her holding a paper indicating his/her myspace id, friendster id or what-have-you. Above all, don't put too much faith into an online relationship. Online friendships are fine, but if you want something serious, you had better confirm his/her identity or you will suffer from disappointment and waste of time.

yeah its risky... although my current girlfriend i met online, and we have been together for a happy year now. so there is stories with a happy ending too

If a girl is unwilling to meet you say after 6 to 8 months
of chatting online or perhaps over the phone, I'd be fishy!

Women these days (if smart enough) do not get into a
relationship with a man until they meet. Cos virtual
relationships are only....virtual in the end... sigh....

There are many me/women who break off the online
relationship before they even met so what's real?

I often tell my friends not to take things TOO seriously until
they meet in person cos when you get hurt, you feel hurt!
The feeling's real!

P.S. Ever met someone who says he is cheerful and
happy-go-lucky but reacts negatively to almost everything?

TRUST THE PERSON'S RESPONSE - NOT ONLY WHAT'S
BEING WRITTEN.

That is also why it's wise to meet up only after months of
getting to know. You'd know better if a person gets easily
more upset at certain thing/situations than in others', and
also you'd know if the person is as what he/she says he is.
And you'd also know if you want to take the friendship further.

Although people are entitled to fake profiles (you should find
out the dangers of identity theft), people should also recognise
that scammers or fakers sometimes want to meet quickly
because of the intention of jumping into sex, etc. I'd be fishy
if someone wants to meet me too soon too!


P.S. You CAN'T CONFIRM THE PERSON's IDENTITY - you
don't have his social ID/Passport details to do it! So go with logic
and instincts.




This post has been edited by wordpress_lover: Jul 27 2008, 10:05 AM

It is very hard to know who is on the other side. I suppose many people like to create a new version of yourself online. You can be whoever and whatever you want - and nobody has to know who the real you are. The easiest thing is to be yourself. Creating and keeping a story about a "new" person alive can be hard, especially remembering facts and stuff like that. The annoying thing is that even though the display picture seems to be a different person, you never now if he/she has created a new personality or if they actually say what they want or think.

It is easier if people show a display picture. In those cases you can ask that person (just like bishoujo said) holding a sheet of paper with something written on it... it is harder to know if the person is just faking the personality, because many do. It is just a risk you have to take if you are meeting someone online. Yes, some stories have happy endings, but to be honest it would not be something I would ever think of doing. I understand that people can develop relationships online, but please keep in mind that people can be very different in real life. If anyone for example met me they would probably not think it was me, because I can be kind of different.

It gotta be horrible for those who actually get scammed.

It's easy to see if the person is the same
as the photo he/she shows. Chat via
webcam (although I don't recommend
this to be often even with my friends).
I don't want to feel "blind" if I just
text chat.

Other than this, there's NO WAY to know
marital status and other personal info of
a person unless a friend of a friend
knows this person, unless you have the
passport info of the person!

It is just not safe to post too much real
personal info of yourself online. Hackers
relish in genuine info that helps them
hack into computer networks and such.