I have been getting quite a few emails from guys and I'm questioning whether the profiles are genuine? First of all, my profile says I'm moving to London and looking to meet friends there--yet I've gotten several emails from guys in the Houston area??? I responded to them, to be polite and when they write back, their writing is really grammatically incorrect--not in a careless way, but more like something one would expect to see from someone whose first language isn't English. I have absolutely no problem with meeting people from other countries, but I'm getting very, very suspicious now, having received about 8 or 9 emails in a row from different guys, claiming on their profiles to be Doctors, Engineers, etc., from cities nowhere near me, and what they say and how they write doesn't seem to match up. Also, I note that another thing they have in common is that they're widowers. I rather expect some folks will not be 100% forthright on a profile, but I'm pretty sure these folks are not close to being who they say they are. Anyone else know what's going on here?

If they are too good to be true....
Most likely they are Ms...
Just use your own good judgement
And hope you make lots of friends

Female scammers usually claim to be nurses. I guess that it's because they can say to you that they can easily move to your country and get a job doing that.

Also, most of them claim to be christians, so avoid those ones.

grammar, military, doctors, widowed good call if not sure report them can't hurt

You hate cold weather and you are moving to London?
You know, Cary Grant never actually said "Judy,
Judy, Judy" but it was accredited to him :-)

See, everyone's profile can have loopholes that make
you think 'scammer.'

After a while, however, they will become SO obvious
to you, the language mainly, is the giveaway.

Men do not seem to read profiles at all, maybe women
too, I do, so tis hard to say.
But those in a hurry, with a different agenda, do not
seem to read them at all..red flag.

Beware, be open, but..VERIFY:-)

I just joined and already saw a couple of questionable profiles while browsing. I mean when it's someones job to spell correctly and they misspell their job title well it does make you wonder. If you can't trust someone on an internet dating site well then who can you trust! lol

I have been hanging out on line for quite a few years doing the kind of work I do.

One thing I have seen is Scammers definitely know cultural customs. They know when the holidays likely to generate loneliness are. They also know when your birthday or anniversaries are because they have access to information sites and pay flat fees to know there targets. Sometimes more than you know about yourself. Start looking at your block list and you will see from Halloween to Valentine's the scammers go into over drive.

While it may be illegal to hack your IP address and match it to your real address in some countries it sure isn't others and it is not rocket science to have some person sit and do it for hours a day. Even where it is the powers that be are worrying about other crimes.

But you are not powerless and staying on site for basic verifying stage is essential. These sites make it possible to chat in real time and ask basic questions. They are too lazy or intimidated with remaining on line here they are pulling something shady.

And you can do the same thing scammers do. Use your Search engine on their pictures. Someone gives you a name or a phone number look it up before you ever call it. Check where they say they are. They should know the weather there. Time frames should match. They claim to be a professional or have a skill then there should be an educational record and a license that is public record. Someone claims to be a widow/er there should be a name and obituary some where. Someone doesn't want to back up their story with facts tell them to get lost.

Thank you everyone. I appreciate the tips. As I try to investigate it seems that I've received maybe 2 or 3 "genuine" inquiries, and the rest are from individuals whom I think are posing as people they're not from places where they definitely are not. That's a bit discouraging--do you all find this site to be a good one?

IMHO be sceptical until proven wrong particularly in any dating site. Sometimes we tend to overlook red flags because we are making decisions with our heart instead of our heads and there are people that will take advantage in any way possible. Just my 2 cents.

I have the same feelings about some of the profiles. I have watched Dr. Phil enough to know when something strange rings a bell. I also watch out for language mistakes, widower, age that doesn't match picture or from another country. Be safe.

hi juDyjudyjudy
i have exactly the same experience and did get discouraged a couple times.
i now try to be more serious in making my questions when the email received is at least decent . if its really too dummy i ignore. if not after 2 or 3 emails i see if the person remains too vague or too avoiding to be true. i did get trappped a couple times and hated it
i guess it' s so because the site is free. which has advantages of coursetoo!
be careful and enjoy some of it

I ignore & delete all the foreigners ...just not interested in chatting with someone that far away.

Same here.

Where to report scammers?

There's a "report user button" on everyone's profile, on the right hand side.

Hi, I can join the club :/ I signed up a few days ago, got two msgs from two girls, who at first looked real, but one of them after just a few msgs asked if I want her email address - (like why we cannot talk here?), another after me replying to her msg she send me veeeery long msg, hard to understand (I thought ok, maybe English is not my first language.. but still..)
I can pretty much tell when someone is fake, not at first but it comes out. I'm just disappointed as I thought this site is actually ok..

It is a good site. Just sadly, like many dating sites, especially free ones, scammers try to take advantage of the situation. Just block them, report them and go about enjoying things on the site you do like.

90% of profiles on this website and other free websites are fake. Sadly you have to pay a site like Zoosk to be free of fraud as scammer don't want to pay either. Vast majority of these profiles are Nigerian men downloading pictures from Google or from their previous victims.