If you’ve never thought of romance scams, now is the time. In 2020, Americans lost more than $300,000,000 to romance scammers — and the number of victims was more than 115,000 that year. The online dating industry is on its rise, and unfortunately, dating scams are thriving, too. However, it’s not that bad and you will most likely not become a scam victim — especially if you read this text and follow the rules we’ll list at the end of this page.
But first, let’s imagine you’ve just met a scammer. Say, a beautiful woman from another country whom you were chatting with for a week says she needs you to send her money. The reasoning and words she uses don’t actually matter — the only thing that matters is that she wants your money, and that’s a 100% red flag.
What would you do next?
What to do when you meet a scammer?
Basically, it’s very simple: you need to block this woman and report her to the dating site. That’s the only method available to you and the only way you can go — just block her and forget about her, that’s all.
The same goes for scam dating sites (you can read about them in this article). These sites are designed to rip you off and it’s usually not that hard to tell a scam dating/mail order bride platform. Very high response rate, dozens of extremely hot women who want to meet you and to chat with you even if you don’t have a profile photo or description — there are lots of red flags you just won’t miss. If you realized the website you’ve just created an account on is a scam site, the only thing you can — and should — do is leave it (and delete your profile if it’s possible). Just leave it, close the page, and forget about it, that’s all.
If you’ve already sent money to a scammer, don’t worry — it’s still not the end of the world. If you’ve paid by bank transfer/Direct Debit, you must contact your bank immediately and let them know what’s happened. You’ll most likely get a refund in such a case.
If you’ve sent money using a wire transfer (Western Union/MoneyGram), you need to contact the company right away, too, and tell them it was a fraudulent transfer. In this case, you’ll most likely get a refund, too (but it won’t be that fast).
If a scammer has compromised your credit card, you’ll easily understand it by the unexpected purchases on your bill. Usually, these scammers (they are called “carders”) begin with small, unsuspicious transactions on websites without 3D Secure (the ones that don’t require two-factor authentication) and then bang! A brand new iPhone purchased with your card is shipped to Russia. You surely don’t want this to happen — that’s why you must contact your card company and shut your credit card down immediately if you notice suspicious charges.
Top 3 safe dating tips
Of course, you want to feel safe on a dating site — and here, we’ll tell you how to make your online dating as safe as possible. We won’t talk about things like “the first date must be a public date” or “always tell your friends where you’re going before the date” — instead, we’ll focus on online dating.
- Find 100% of the reviews of a dating site you’re going to use and read them carefully. Pay attention to the negative ones — it’s impossible for scam dating sites to delete all the negative reviews.
- Google the photos of women you’ll meet on a dating site. Photos often live double lives, and you can easily tell the scammer by using stolen pictures. It’s the easiest, the fastest, and the best way to spot the difference between a fake and a real dating account.
- Be realistic. If there are lots of hot and sexy girls who send you “I love you” or “I want you” messages when you don’t even have a profile picture, it’s probably a scam dating site and you need to avoid it by all means possible.
These easy & sane steps can save both your feelings and money, so be careful and think twice when you pick a woman online!
