I have noticed, especially in recent years, that at least 90% of the women I have encountered on this site turn out to be scammers, frauds, impostors of some sort. (I don't have any knowledge about the men, but I wouldn't be surprised if the percentage there was similar.)

What is UP with all these phonies?? Usually you can spot them because they'll say they grew up in the States, but their profile will contain a obvious grammatical mistakes that clearly show that English is not their native language. Another obvious sign of phoniness is an accelerated urgency to collect my private email address and phone number. What do these
scammers do with this contact information? Do they sell them to Internet marketers who ultimately sent spam email to us? Can an active email address or phone number be so valuable to Internet marketers that they would pay these operators enough to go to the trouble of putting up and managing the phony profile of a "pretty girl", just to harvest the email addresses of unsuspecting guys? How lucrative can that be? Really, can anyone explain how these scammers work?

I usually explain to the women who press me for my contact information right away, that I'm wary of these phonies, so I don't divulge my contact info until I'm convinced the other party is a real woman hoping to connect with a real man, and not perhaps some 250 lb ex-linebacker just trying to get my email address! I then suggest that the quickest way to confirm that we're not impostors is to agree to hold a quick video chat on Skype. It's real time, it preserves our anonymity, and it'd be a fun way to hold our first virtual "coffee date". Invariably, I get no answer back, and the next day, when I click on her profile, her profile has been deactivated! Which pretty much confirms that "she" was indeed an impostor! But as soon as one phony impostor disappears, three more pop up, with perhaps a different phony picture posted. Seriously, it seems there are no more real women here! Everybody's a fraud!

Also...I notice there are certain cities or towns, that it turns out a lot of these phony women consistently list themselves as being from, that I can't find on Google Maps! So when I see a woman is from one of these non-existent towns, I can pretty much be assured that she's a phony! At least here in Southern California, these phony towns include Firestone Park, Federal, Foy. (It's interesting they all seem to start with F. Maybe that stands for "Fake"??) Does the Mingle2 site moderator have any knowledge about this?

So can anyone provide the real low-down on how these scammers generally operate? What's their end game? I suppose for many, the answer is, ultimately, to extract money from unwitting guys (or gals) who think they're helping out a "damsel in distress." But I think for some, they're just trying to harvest active email addresses and phone numbers! How do they "monetize" that? It doesn't seem there would be that much "value" in ferreting out someone's active email address! Am I wrong there? Can anyone provide real insight about this? And most importantly, how can we stop this?

-Garret

they are roaches... can't stop them.

No, roaches are more likeable and ecologically useful, I'd say they're more like... (damnit there went my ecological argument) virus infested bacteria inside a swarm of maggots feeding on a bloated corpse. But that's how these companies make their money. They say there's no price better than free but in my experience anything free comes with a catch. Catch. You have been infested with infection, and it's an epidemic. Welcome to the club.

Yep,REPORT and BLOCK!

I am starting to agree with you! Seems there are very few real people left on this site. I am seriously thinking it's time to just deactivate my account and remain single. There are so many that it's impossible to even weed them out. I have been a member since November and I would swear that I have only spoke to one person I know was truly real. The Skype thing is a great idea, but I don't understand why the site builders don't just add a location verification to the profile creation process? It would be a piece of programming that just verifies the IP address of the incoming information with the information that is being entered when a profile is created. If they don't match then the profile can't be created or throws an error message saying I'm sorry but the information in your profile doesn't match our verification information please check your information and try again.

Once you have been on this site for awhile, one learns how to spot them. We are supposed to report them on here.

Does anyone have any specific knowledge as to precisely how these scammers make their money? (Aside from ultimately finding some sucker to send them "emergency funds"!) But do they get money just for collecting active email addresses or phone numbers? Or is there some other way to monetize these impersonations?

Not sure, but I would guess they sell the email addresses and phone numbers to companies who create mailing lists or data banks that other companies then pay that company to generate lead lists for products they want to sell. I know Insurance companies pay for lists of people they can send out lead cards to in hopes that they will send the card back to them as being interested in insurance. It's a billion dollar lead business.

Another good idea to get rid of the scammers would be to put an option on the search page to only include members who participate in the forums. This would be a double edged sword, because if someone doesn't choose to participate in the forums they would be excluded, but at least we would know the profiles that we are seeing are for real people. I have heard several times that scammers don't last 5 minutes in the forums. So why not use that to the advantage of the people who are seriously looking?

report them. this site is one of the best at battling scammers. They can't catch all on their own though

I do, but there are always more! Way too many!

they are everywhere on the internet. can't avoid them

The cyber world road to truth is long, and lined the entire way with scammers, trolls & other annoying specimens of human garbage. Keep smiling

jeez really ? what makes you think a scammer cant operate on the forums ? i sent that Argo guy 2 grand to help him with his dying mother and now he's loooongg-gone.... nobody knows where he's at now....de-activated as soon as he cleared that check......
a professional can operate anywhere....

DO NOT SEND MONEY....and you'll be aight...

Yeah, I figured as much. But how much can a stupid email address be worth? I get spam email offers all the time. I never buy any of it! I suppose some people do, but I can't imagine the click-thru ratio on these leads would be all that high. I don't see how this activity could possibly be lucrative enough to keep so many people busy doing it!