Do You Know – Are You Falling Prey To Online Dating Website Scammers?
I had heard about the dating app or dating website but never used it, one of my friends used it and told me that this is the website in which people cheated with him, but I did not believe his words at all, so I thought why don’t I try it once? After logging in, they asked for money to chat with a beautiful girl, and I paid Rs. 500. After making payment, when I wanted to contact him, his account came close. I did not get any information from him i.e., the account they had was fake.
You will get all the information on their sites, at which price you are going to get which facility such as video chat, audio calling, and many more. After cheated by them, I thought I should make people aware through this article that once you want to use the dating app, you must be careful while using dating apps because many online dating sites are pulling people.
Online dating scams continue to increase, costing victims millions of dollars each year. Cybercriminals are playing a long game of cheating people with their money instead of just sending phishing emails. Dating and romance scams are often carried out through online dating websites, but scammers can also use social media or email to make contacts. They also are known to telephone his victims as a first introduction. Those scams are also called catfishing.
Scammers usually generate fake online profiles designed to entice you. They may use a fictitious name, or falsely assume the identities of real, reliable individuals such as military personnel or professionals working outside the country.
Within a short period, dating and romance scammers can show intense feelings towards you and recommend you move the relationship from the website to a more private channel such as phone, email, or instant messaging.
Scammers will go to great lengths to gain your trust and confidence as you bombard them with words of love, exchange ‘personal information’, and even gift you. It can take those months to feel like the romance of a lifetime, and they can even pretend to book a flight to arrive, but never actually come.
How will scammers attract you?
Want your trust – Once they have gained your confidence, they can ask you (either subtly or directly) for money, gift or banking, credit card details. They can also ask for money to send you their own intimate pictures or videos.
Emotionally attracts you – Once they gain your trust, they behave in such a way that you are everything to her, and she cannot live without you. The two of you talk to each other at the next level in which you do not live without each other. And these people take advantage of such situations, in the meantime, they do some emotional things that you go in their words, for example, they can make excuses that a member of their family is ill, and they require immediate treatment and high treatment, that treatment is expensive and they have to undergo an operation. Or there are other excuses that they want to meet you in person and stay with you, so she asks for money for a ticket to live with you, but when you give them the money, they immediately close their account.
Sends you valuable items – Sometimes a scammer will send you valuable items such as laptop computers and mobile phones, and ask you to send them again somewhere. They will give some reasons why you need to send the goods, but it is a way for them to cover their criminal activity. Alternatively, they may ask you to buy the products themselves and send them somewhere. You may be asked to accept the money in your bank account and then transfer it to someone else.
Keep these things in your mind
Every year, online dating and romance scams cheat many innocent people out of millions. It is almost always impossible to recover the money you owe to scammers, and you may also experience long-lasting emotional rejection by someone you loved.
You meet someone online, and after only a few contacts, they start behaving so much that they feel strong feelings for you and ask you to have a private chat. If you have met on a dating site, they will try to get you off the site and communicate via chat or email. They pretend to be close to you.
Their profile on the online dating website or the Facebook page does not match what they tell you. For example, their profile picture looks different from their own description, or they say they are educated at university, but their English is poor.
As they gain your trust, and after developing a good relationship, they become so confident that you can get into his words and in this way, they start persuading his words. They can ask for a gift or account details and you have established a different level of relationship with them, as a result of which you meet their demands, they do not fulfill any promise made by them.
The last weapon is to blackmail
Recently, there has been a spike in reports of attempts by scammers to blackmail people using intimate photos after contacting dating websites or social networking sites such as Facebook.
Scammers are asked to be added to contact lists for friends or family. That gives them access to e-mail addresses or social media account details of the victim’s friends and relatives.
After forming a friendly or romantic relationship with the victim, the scammers take the conversation to a video chat such as Skype and, if it is a romance scam. Often, Scammers also broadcast photos or video of a person who is unaware of their identity is being used in the scam. For this reason, subsequent communication may occur via text chat.
The scammers then convince the victim to strip or act sexually, and they record that footage. With teenagers, the video may include discussing sensitive issues such as a person affecting their soul or sexuality.
Next, come blackmail, a demand for money to stop publicly released photos on a video-sharing website and being sent via social media or email to the victim’s family and friends.
Fear of humiliation can put an emotional toll on victims.
Be careful about how much personal information you share on pages on social networks. Scammers may use your photos and information to create a fake identity or to target you with a scam.
Note: Beware of requests for money. Never send money or give copies of credit card details, online account details, or valuable personal documents to anyone you don’t know or trust.
Avoid any cooperate with a stranger that calls for up-front payment via wire transfer, money order, international fund transfer.
Do not intend to transfer money to another person: Money laundering is a criminal offense.
