I am looking for information from people who have been scammed by people they have met online. I am not talking about people using dating sites for business purposes. I will be the first to admit I am a greenhorn at online dating. A connection I thought was going well suddenly headed into suspicious territory. I would like to get some feedback from people who have been down that road. I want to believe this person, but all of a sudden things aren't adding up and money has come into play. I will be grateful for any information I could get, or if anyone has had similar experiences.

If 'money' has come into play at all I would look at it as a red flag. Proceed with Caution!

Id be VERY careful about any info U give and sending money is a sure way to get ripped off!!

Drinks-Occasionally=daily

A Few Extra Lbs.=more than 100 extra lbs.

Check out my Facebook/MySpace for better pics=Same pics.

No one here has ever asked me for money, so I've gotten lucky that way.

I've been hunting scammers/spammers for many years now -- and one thing I've learned is this: if they try to get you to communicate with them off-site right away, that's a scammer. Most of the time, they'll toss out a Yahoo address at you. Not always; I've seen others, as well, but usually Yahoo.

I will sometimes ask them something like "We have e-mail and IM right here on this site, why can't we just talk here?" but they will insist on going elsewhere. That's when I know I've got another one!

Russian scammers are often readily identifiable by their characteristic mangled English, and the fact that they pretty much always use the same template when they send their scammer e-mails out.

Anybody who asks for money or personal information should be reported immediately.

I think this would make a great comic book story and youd be a fab hero..the Internet scammer hunter...

When I first started I didn't know a scammer from a slice of cheesecake...


The people on mingle helped me spot them...

I'm pretty good now!!!!!

Only if there are groupies involved.

Actually, I'm familiar with a number of other ways to identify scammers, but I don't want to put those ways out in public where the scammers can see what their giveaways are and learn from them!

I encountered a scammer on another website. Her profile said that she lived in a very small, mostly-unknown rural community that I am familiar with. So, I gave her a test. I asked her to answer questions about that small community she claimed to live in. The next thing I knew, she changed her profile to say that she lived in a large known city.

At Yahoo! I played along with a scammer for a brief time just to see what the person would do. I asked the scammer how "she" obtained my e-mail address. Question not answered. Scammer went away.

The next time I receive a message from a scammer, I will post the message here for everyone's enjoyment.

Here's another thing you can do, and I don't think I'm giving away any secrets here, because this is about paying attention.

I had an IM from someone last week, a complete stranger, and the user name and pic both immediately raised my suspicions. Her info in the IM box said she was from Virginia, but a few lines into the IM, she mentioned that she was in Ghana.

So I asked "Your screen info says you're in Virginia, how is it that you're in Ghana now?" She made up some lame excuse about "I am from Ghana, I was in Virginia to visit, but now I am back here."

Folks, Ghana is a huge red flag. I'm not trying to cast aspersions on an entire country, and I certainly don't know everyone (anyone!) in Ghana, but -- I have never interacted with anyone from Ghana, who did NOT turn out to be a scammer. Caveat emptor.

Also, if you see discrepancies in where they claim to be -- the profile says one place, the IM or e-mail says another -- be on your guard.

I love when someone uses the term "discrepancies" in a contextually efficient way.

My dork moment for today.

I only ran into this on 2 "dating" sites. Match.com and Tagged.com.

Its fun to play the game and piss them off.

Ah, the little subtleties are so rarely recognized, let alone appreciated....!

I am grateful for the replies. What I once had a sinking suspicion about is now confirmed. Her latest email admits she lied to me, but she's still asking for money.

If this person is someone from this site, please report her immediately. We like to keep that sort out of here.

No, she's from another site.

I usually reply "Jambo"...a standard greeting in north africa where alot of the scammers live. They automatically assume that they ran across another nigerian or ugandan.

I like it when they chose a completely american name like Tammy...yet obiously have a hard time putting and english sentance together.

made me a little wet too...

yea...


hate those Tammys...soooooo American!!!

Hello Miss gossimp lady, I am for liking to know you and yuo to be my friends for to know you better.

hehehehehe

(oh man I just wanna get her naked and scr....wait a minute...Did I say that out loud?)