Do Women Get Scammed on Dating Websites?
We’ve devoted several articles in our blog to men who have been scammed by women (or at least they believed they were scammed by women). But we also think it’s important to caution the ladies.
Almost every day we reject members who appear to be advertising a nanny scheme. Most often the profiles claim to be from the U.K. but actually many of this type of scammer are from Nigeria and sometimes other countries in Africa. Those in Nigeria often work with other scammers in U.K. or other countries to create a network of liars who claim to be ready to help ladies get a job as a nanny taking care of children. Since we prohibit this use of our site in any case, we reject these profiles immediately. However, we believe that the intent of these individuals is not to hire nannies at all. At “best” we believe it is a type of advanced fee fraud, where the ladies will be required to send money in advance to process paperwork – but in fact this money would simply be stolen by the scammers. At worst, the scammers could have something even worse in mind.
We have also heard of a type of fraud from another dating website that we described this December blog entry about scammers. In that case, supposedly a person (also from U.K.) supposedly sent a package. We believe that actually no package was ever sent, and the victim was going to be asked to send money to help with a problem in the shipping process.
Then just a few days ago we noticed in the comments of our recent article describing a specific scam profile that had been on our site, a reference to a scam that apparently had occurred here. Once again, the scammer claimed to be from the U.K. Actually that is the first reference we have heard to women actually being scammed on our site, so we feel quite bad about it.
Ladies, remember that you also need to be careful. No matter the excuse or story, do not send money to anyone you have never met in person, period. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are considering this, please write to us right away using the feedback link on the bottom of our website pages and ask whether we think the situation is suspicious.
And if ladies or gentlemen are asked by any other member of the site for money, please write to us immediately and send us the user number and if possible the full text of the message. We will investigate, and in most cases we can learn from your message and other information we store on the site whether that person is a scammer or not.
As always, if you have any comments to add relating to this topic, please feel free to add a comment to this article.
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Scammer Kelvin Garry whom I believe also uses another alias as benny or benedict…benheather05@yahoo.com. Below is Kelvin’s latest email to me.
From: Kelvin Garry
Date: Thursday, 17 June, 2010, 7:05 PM
Hi baby,
I’m sorry to have replied so late. I just came back from my duty post at Karbala, Iraq. Baby, There somethng i wanted to tell you yesterday but i wanted to convince myself that i could trust you. I like you and would love us to settle down with each other thats why i’m giving you this trust. Baby, i found money here during one of our house to house patrol here in Iraq. The money is in 2 boxes amounted to $6.4 Million. It took me several days to count this money. I didn’t wanna to tell my mates about it because i want to live a better life after here in Iraq. I’ve got my dreams and visions as a man and with this money my dreams have come to pass with your help as well. I will help you as well as you will help me. What i want you to do is to get a bank account where i can transfer this money bit by bit. Thats the only thing i want you to do. Once i finish the transfer of this money to you, you will take 30% for yourself as share and keep 70% of my share in the account. I will fly down to Philippines by August to meet you then we can make plans about our future!
Baby, i really have trust on you and hope that we can do this together. I have to go now, till i hear from you soon. I took picture of the money which i attached below.
Love,
Kels.
by the way Kelvin Garry’s email is mrk.garry@yahoo.com and site filipinaheart
Another scam that ladies may see…
Supposed male “falls in love” with her and asks for nude photos or a nude webcam session (if she has a webacm). With all the webcam sites out there in pornographyland, finding an innocent woman to pose for free is not an uncommon thing.
Please be careful of anyone who claims to fall in love with you within a few weeks of contacting you online. It may or may not be true, but I would wager that 95% of these situations are NOT true.
My two cents.
a real scammer will never put her/his real pics and exact address…he/she will get ur email add, phone# or ur mobile#. i am saying this cause i was almost a victim…good at that early exchanging emails and calls, i have noticed its a scam…we chatted on YM and when i asked for his cam and said so i may know whom i am chatted with, he gave me many alibis…found fishy…we were alerted already when we received communication from that said country Central Bank Governor…a Governor who does not know how to write good communication to his client…This person is a nigerian man…many of them here in all websites…they are sending not of their own pics but of known prominent people of their country…just be careful…be vigilant…
West African scammers are increasingly trying to scam ASIAN ladies, since western ladies are slowly becoming more familiar with the tactics they use.
There are also many West African scammers operating from within Asia, particularily China, and Malaysia.
These West African scammers still primarily use stolen pictures of white men, and will claim to be a businessman in the US, or UK, and willing to visit you in your country.
Demand to see ‘that’ face on webcam!
They can’t do it!
The english of these scammers is poor, and there are some traits that readily identify them as West Africans, although, most Asian ladies won’t quickly see that.
Never send money to somebody you only know from the internet! Also do not engage in any business or investment transaction with somebody you only know from the internet.
Many of these scammers may also try to get you to invest in precious metal investments that aren’t real.
Please be careful on the internet. Real people may be looking for you, but you need to filter out the crooks!
Hi Cal, Thanks for your suggestions. We agree. We believe we are quite successful in identifying the scammers from Africa when they join our site. I can’t explain the details of how we do this but so far after almost two years in business we haven’t had a single one of our ladies who has said she’s been scammed by someone she met on our site (although we’ve heard from many who have been scammed by people they met on other sites). However, nevertheless, your advice is absolutely correct to demand to see the person you’re talking with on webcam, and make sure they are the ones who are talking and typing also. Jen
About 2 weeks ago, I had been scammed with the amount of 90thousand pesos which I sent to western union in lagos, africa. He claimed to be an american and has a project as building contractor in Lagos with his 7 yr old son which he brought with him. with the way he talks and writes he seems to be a sincere, respectable,educated and god fearing men and so loving and thoughtfull too so I fell for him. He told me about his problem with the plane fare of his son going to the philippines to meet me here.He said he can’t withdraw from his america bank account in africa and that his credit card cant be used there too. He always used the name of god and even gave me words from the bible. I pity his son who will left all alone so I sent money to him. He told that he bought a ticket for them going here so I booked a flight for me to manila to fetch him.He sent me a flight copy of his tickets of which I only noticed that it was faked when he did not come. A nigerian doctor by the name of Dr. Richard Michelle called that the man had an accident on the way to the airport so he was not able to take his flight and that he needs medical treatment and I need to send money. But I told the doctor that I’m no way accountable for his treatment since I’ve help him enough and my money will never be returned to me. He is using the nigerian cel number of the man who scammed me and I also received calls from a philippine sim saying he is the doctor.After 3 days the scammer called me saying that he has not fully recovered but cant be discharged not until the bills are paid so I told him that it’s your problem not mine since I had problems on how I will pay back the money that was sent to you which I borrowed thinking that it will be returned.He still keeps on communicating with me but I avoid him now. I met him in ownlook.com. His email address is andre_morgan@yahoo.com and his real name he said is andre simon morgan from maryland.This is the first for me and I’ve learned already from experience. Do not be fooled by the goodness and by his closeness to God. He has to answer to me and to God for using God’s name in vain.
Hi Connie, Thank you for sharing your testimonial. Sorry to hear what they did to you.
Hi there
My account name is “Bmmano”
In the past you were a tremendous help to me
Today I noticed one member has been suspended. Her name is Alma…….What happened..??
I ask because I have a good history with this one and haven’t noticed anything peculiar in the past except I haven’t heard from her lately…..
The onlt thing I can think of her doing to other members was suggesting I pay for her school fees, which I didn’t from recommendations from your own blogs not to part with money until after we see, meet them in person etc….
The way she asked was more a suggestion in a shy way….I never picked her as a scamming person….Well that was my experience…..I would like to know if possible, whether Alma attrempted to do the same to other men here….
In the meantime I have deleted her mails from my inbox
Kind regards
Grant
Hi, We don’t generally comment on specific cases unless there is a very good reason to do so. However, I’ll say that anyone who is reported as asking for money directly or indirectly is violating our terms of service, and in our opinion is not mature enough to have an adult relationship with another person. And anyone who violates our terms of service is likely to be permanently suspended.
Hi!
I’m amazed upon reading the above letters.
Thank you for the info. Will take note of it.
Have a nice day & God bless!!
Hi!
After I have read the above I received a letter from your member, exactly what you have said here. Please read the letter he had given his email address:
Hello,
Permit me to Introduce myself, i am Shawn Palma, a widower for Four years. i relocated from the united state to uk some years back, Sorry for sending you this email, why i registered here on to search for a Woman to serve as My beautiful Kids Nanny. My former nanny was Asian and she served us well but she had to leave after completion of her contract and get settled with her Hubby.
I reside in London, UK with my two beautiful daughter”s of ages 6 and 8years and am seeking for the services of an Nanny to come and work for me in the U. K. Their mom is Late and its such an heavy task taking care of the kids alone besides i would be traveling for a project soon. I am willing to offer Eight Hundred and Fifty pounds sterling per week (850)for and will provide monthly shopping allowances as well as accommodation. If interested do reply to me gdsnt1@yahoo. com now and i would send you more details of the job and also my family picture .Just reply to my personal yahoo email if you are interested and i will get back to you because i am not always here in the site ok.
Note: Applicant must have already a valid international passport.
Thanks.
Shawn
Hi Aleena, Thanks for posting this information. This is certainly a scammer. In this case, it’s a member who upgraded his account a few days ago (probably using fraudulent credit card information). We apologize for having missed this one, and we have permanently suspended the profile.
Jen
If someone, on their first email, gives me a yahoo address, I automatically don’t write. On other web sites, that is a dead giveaway of a scammer. They don’t want their correspondence viewed by any gatekeeper, as they write the same letter to hundreds of people, hoping to hit.
hi thats good u put her… coz they have so many ladys asking money and lie to the people who online