Very true. I am writing a book about online dating and it is estimated that 60-70% of all people dating online are cons or scammers. It costs them nothing to contact you, and if they can weave themselves into your heart, then they have a good chance of separating you from your pocketbook. Once they do scam you it is next to impossible to catch them. Most come from Africa where corruption is high and not monitored. They have recently spread to Great Britain and UAE. Some of their traits are as follows:

They claim to have fallen in love with you rather quickly.

They try to quickly move the conversation AWAY from the dating site to a IM, usually Yahoo (but not always).

They have some sudden "accident" where they need you to send them money quickly.

They refuse to use a webcam.

Their profiles consists of pictures of very young and good looking "people".

They claim to live in a city from the U.S. but they are never there (always traveling, usually to Africa or Great Britain).


The bottom line is that you should NEVER send money to anyone that you have not met in person. When one of these scammers approaches me (usually from Ghana) I tell them up front that the first time that they ask for money - will be the last time that they ever have an opportunity to get to know me. That is the last I hear of them. They just move on to another victim, and that saves you from not wasting your time.

I'm thinking about a guy

Thanks for pointing out my flaws....