Ok, so I've been around a couple of sites, putting myself out there and making friends ect...

I hear people refer to "scammers" - someone please help educate me? What scams?... am I dumb, or just lucky not to have run into that (or maybe I have and not realized it...)??...

ya know I'm with you

I have not run into it either!

Spammers are usually sommeone trying to get money or account information.
Just don't give out any of this info.

I just need your credit info & i'll tell you all about it

^^ There's an example. There's also the "we'll pay you to take surveys" scam. People who want you to provide your bank account number so they can transfer "a fortune" from your unknown deceased relative, or sneak money into the country. Magazine subscription scams. There's really too many to name. If we hear of a new one, I'm sure we'll tell you about it.

If it is too good to be true...on the internet it is, well, usually. Case and point:

I am Mr. ***************, a Chief Accountant with Standard Bank of South Africa.
On 14 October 1999, a German Property magnate. Mr. *****************
Made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve (12) calendar
Months, valued at US$ 31.3 Million United States Dollars in my branch but I
want to first make the transfer of $18 Million United States Dollars? Upon
maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got
no reply. After a month, we sent a Reminder and finally we discovered that
Mr. ********************* was dead. He died in the plane crash of 31 July2000,
below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

I therefore made further investigation and discovered
That Mr. **************** did not declare any next of kin or relations in
all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank.
This sum of US$18, Million United States Dollars is still sitting in my Bank
and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of
each year. No one will ever come forward to claim it. According to South
African Law, at the expiration of 10 (Ten) years, the money will revert to
the ownership of the South Africa Government if nobody applies to claim the
fund as unclaimed fund.

Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a
Foreigner to stand in as the next of kin to Mr. **************** so that
the fruits of this old man's labor will not get into the hands of some
corrupt government officials. I will prepare
the necessary documents and affidavits that will put you
in place as the next of kin. A bank account in any part of the world that
you will provide will then facilitate the transfer of this money to you as
the beneficiary/next of kin. The money will be paid into
your account for us to share in the ratio of 70% for me and 30% for you.

There is no risk at all as all the paperwork for this transaction will be
done by the attorney and my position as the Branch Manager guarantees the
successful execution of this transaction. All I require is your honest
cooperation to enable us see this business if you are interested Please
observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that this transaction would
be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to
invest my share in your country.

Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details
and relevant documents that will help you understand the transaction.

--Really no different than your typical e-mail scam other than they usually use something along the lines of the above to get you to pay them for family deaths/bills/criminal charges/citizenship/etc. Again; if it is too good to be true, it is.

My scammer....supposedly had a great job (an architect), he was good looking (that should have been my second clue)
and all he wanted was a LOAN so that he could get on a plane.

I am not as stupid as he thought I was.
Surprisingly enough, after I didn't give any $$$$.
I never heard from him again.

IDIOT!!!!!

thanks everyone... my imagination was working overtime about what possible scams were out there on dating sites... but, this makes me feel better...

while on a different site, i came across my own version of "scammer".

no, he wasn't after money...but he WAS trying to collect as many hearts as he could.

we talked regularly, and i also conversed with derrick's hot brother (on a friend level). being very active in the forums back then, i ran into a few other peeps...

anyhow, one day derrick said that his brother was leading some woman on. he asked me to enter jarrod's account and message the lady in question and let her know what was up.

well, i already suspected what was going on, since the word patterns were so similar. soooo...i entered the account and started reading all the way through it. i found emails where he had signed his name as "derrick", "jarrod", "derrick jarrod" and so forth. i then went to the original email address associated and found that it had the same log-in...but there were several more profiles associated to that account.

TONS of profiles. tons of women, all believing he was going to marry them. each one planning to move to his area...several had already flown there to meet him and had him not show.

when confronted, he swore that i was the only one that he loved. he promised to cancel all his accounts...and he did, sort of. he signed up for a new email address (confirming with the old one, heh) and used THAT address to make a new profile.

he turned out to be mentally ill and severely agoraphobic. he didn't even HAVE a brother...and his picture was that of an old co-worker before he became home-bound.

being mentally deranged, he followed me around on a variety of sites and used my phone number to sign up for all sorts of offers...telemarketers constantly hit me up as a result.

he made a pact to hurt a certain amount of women in my honor, and would send me emails to show how he'd broken another poor girl's heart. apparently, this was all MY fault...and it would only stop if i would agree to speak with him again. i ended up contacting his local authorities and sending them the long and scary voicemails he had left threatening bodily harm on these women...

i recently ran across his profile on myspace. same false picture.

Oh baby,just help me a bit this month with my cell ph bill.
I'd love to get together with you, but I can't afford a plane ticket.
The baby is sick, I can't afford a real doctor.

All the way up to the slick multinational scammers.

you will call her babi

and she will call you papi

Not really a problem on here They get dealt with pretty quickly

wow! sorry you had to go through that, but you sound like a good private investigator...

Don't forget the nice Russian female doctors from Kiev.

I didn't give her the chance to tell me she was a Dr.
I Googled her name, she was on several dating sites, same profile word for word. She lived in Texas, Holland, Germany, Poland.

have never been aproached by scammers on mingle.the few I've seen were from other sites.
"you should check out my webcam!" or "I owe the hotel for rent, can you help?"or whatever

Me - "how are you doing?"

Scammer - "not good"

me - "why?"

Scammer - "My mother is very ill and my family can not afford a dr"

oh and these scammers say they're from the U.S but they end up in Nigeria and they have very broken English