pinkjellybeans
Layton, UT
64, joined Mar. 2007
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I've sent this to a couple of other sites where I am a member, so my apologies some minor details may not be applicable here. I have noticed that this site is more conscientious and aggressive in removing the scam profiles. Still there are a lot here that you're probably not aware of.
Dear Site Admin:
I can't recall the particular scammer that I first notifed you of, but I do hope by now he's gone from your site. However, from your response I am not certain you recognize the magnitude of the many fake profiles on your site. I am not actively participating or using your site to find a relationship, even though I am single. I came to your site to obtain details on a scammer that is posted on the website that I moderate for, romancescam.com. The first day I created a profile here I was bombarded with scammers - more than authentic men. Of course I know nothing of the fake female profiles because I am female, but I am certain there are probably even more fake females than there are males.
These fake profiles go way beyond the scope of mere insincerity. Do you really understand what they are doing and why they are creating profiles on every possible site they can get to? It used to be that the fake females were Russian and Ukrainian young men, often IT students, who actually went as far as hiring young Russian girls to pose for pictures while the Russian men wrote for them. Their scam was begging for airfare or visa expenses from their victims, or translation service fees. But now I believe they are being phased out by Nigerian organized crime.
I'm sure you're familiar with the Nigerian 419 advance fee fraud, lottery and inheritance scams. Plus they've nearly ruined the internet classified services with their fake buy, sell and forged check scams. Today the highlight of their crime/scam industry is the romance scam. Very rarely can they be prosecuted for this because it's no crime to ask for money or to deceive a lover. Victims always end empty handed having parted with their money out of a sense of compassion or charity and always out of love.
The way a love scammer works is he creates an enticing profile, usually of a white American and appears to be temporarily out of the country working while looking for a new relationship. They communicate with hundreds of potential victims at one time and divide those who respond amongst others in their gang of scammers. They actually work shifts around the clock from grimy internet cafe's, mostly from Lagos, Nigeria. However there are many in Ghana and Malaysia as well. It's a growing industry in all African countries.
The scammer begins by spamming out messages expressing romantic interest in their targets. They call this the format and the targets are their 'jobs'. Those who respond are romanced with compliments, poetry and sincere sounding plans for meeting and living happily ever after. When these scammers are romancing men, they offer prolific sex and often engage their 'job' in sex chat. With their female jobs they usually pretend to have children in desperate need of a mother. Always they will spend whatever time is appropriately necessary to secure the affections of their target. At this point the inevitable disaster will occur. Whether it be a business problem or a medical problem, it always requires money. Often they don't even ask their target, they cunningly wait for their victim to volunteer to help.
Our website, which was established 5 years ago, has approximately 28,800 members. At least 90% of them are victims who have reported and exposed their scammer. The average victim loses around $1,000 before realizing they're never going to be with the person they've sent money to. A few never do send money but all are emotionally damaged and scarred. Some victims have lost tens of thousands to clever scammers, a few over $100,000 and one male victim reportedly lost the equivalent of $1.2 million dollars (the victim embezzled from his company's pension plan). These people all believed they were in a valid relationship with their one and only true love. Based on these statistics, I think we can safely say that romancescam.com's membership represents at least $30 million in American dollars sent fraudulently to Africa. Now consider that there are many other anti-scam web sites that are also supporting victims and trying to end the business of scammers.
Most social websites do not actively try to eliminate the scammers from from their memberships. In many instances this would drastically reduce their membership and therefore their attraction for new members. The best we've been able to achieve is that site admins remove profiles that have been reported. But even this doesn't happen enough because of fears of deleting an innocent member unjustly accused. However, I am sure you are aware of the financial drain that scammers place upon your site when they either hijack paid member accounts (via password phishing, usually) or charge membership fees to stolen credit card accounts that are later reversed.
Some sites do filter and block African IP addresses. Many don't even do that (match.com being the biggest and worst offender). However, filtering is not as effective as you might think based on the number of fake profiles we see even on sites that claim they filter. I would suggest you contact [email protected] for a very current and continually updated list of scammer IP addresses, African IP ranges and bad proxy IP's that have been meticulously collected over the past 5 years. The cost for this list is $35 and with that I believe Wayne offers assistance on the best ways to implement the IP list for maximum protection against the scammers.
Ultimately, all the precautions we can take will do nothing to eliminate this problem. I see the answer in education. Your members must be alerted and warned that they will likely be contacted by people intending to get money from them. You should place more emphasis in your advertising that you do not tolerate fake profiles and remove them when discovered, but you also educate and warn your members. Members should be taught how to keep themselves safe and the importance of proving their partners credibility before losing their heart and money to a scammer.
You are also welcome to post links to romancescam.com where we offer many free resources to detect scams, including free digital photo recognition services, as well as members who actively support each other and respond quickly to questions.
Romancescam.com is a free, public service web site that runs off donations and ad revenues only (the fee for the comprehensive bad IP list being the only charge).
Thank you for all you do,
Pinky
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ars178
Decatur, TX
60, joined Jul. 2010
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In the last month I have come across three scammers on this site. I received a phone call on Friday and traced the number back to Nigeria. The scammer user ID is tinkep on this dating service.
Everyone be cautious when anyone is requesting money.
Thanks and good luck,
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truckerjames
Charleston, AR
42, joined Feb. 2011
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Dear Administrator. I'm new to the site and find it enjoyable. The problem is I met this girl johnsonlena17. Wildwood see the sweetest thing that you could ever imagine. A I noticed you gotta have a little common sense when your on these conacytnd only after a couple days of being sweet talked do I really think that maybe this girl might be the 1. I'm supposed to keep this short. She lives in ghana africa. Needs a new web cam for only 50 dollars. I just think of all the things we can do with that web cam.lol. people don't let your heart or other make you loose your common sense. How I relized was that she had to go to bed was midnight. Well nowhere on this continant was it midnight at 7 pm central time. Goodluck beware.
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wnicola1972
Venice, CA
44, joined Mar. 2011
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It's funny, their always in Nigeria. I get alot of these too.
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mainelyhere
Lisbon Falls, ME
30, joined Feb. 2011
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of course its all nigerians, its the only part of africa with an internet connection.
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