There are numerous articles written about the fraudulent dater who posts phony picture that they stole on the internet, and then used them to create a fictitious character. These jerks then contact as many women as they can and over time, dupe them into giving them money for one scheme or another. Notice that I said, “These jerks…contact…women.” For some reason, most of these articles tell stories about men who take advantage of women, almost as if it never works the other way. Well it does. There are women who do the very same thing. They get men to send them money, never to be heard from again.

To understand the prevalence of such fraud, I quote an article in Glamour (October 2012) that states in the title: One in 10 Guys Dating Online is a Fake. Wow! That’s ten percent if I did my math right – which I did. So it’s not such a remote occurrence that you could be contacted by a fraud. How about the women? This particular article didn’t address that problem, probably because Glamour is a woman’s magazine and doesn’t care about us guys. However, if you search for Internet sites promising to find you a wife, you will get a good ideas how increditby prevalent that is as well.

You must be diligent, wise and strong to resist these schemes because they are well thought out and can victimize even the savvy Internet dater. The forlorn and lonely are much more vulnerable to these schemes because they let their emotions override common sense. There are some signs to look for and some rules to follow to avoid becoming a victim of dating fraud.

First let’s look at the signs that may indicate your dream date is nothing more than a bad dream. Usually this party lives far away, even overseas in many cases. At least that’s what they say while they can actually live nearby. The guys often claim to be in the military and tell you they are stationed somewhere around the world. This plays on your sense of patriotism, and the possibility that you may admire a guy in uniform. While I wrote that in jest, it
is very often true.

The fraud living far away has a built in excuse for not being able to meet you. There will come a time in this email/text/phone relationship that they will have a problem getting home – to see you – and they just need some money to buy a ticket. They were usually
robbed or some such calamity befell them and that’s why they have no money to buy that ticket. "Use your credit card," you say. Nope, that was stolen during the robbery or break in. They have the best excuses.

So what are the rules? It’s not very complicated. There is really only one rule to avoid getting ripped off: never, ever send anyone money who you met on the Internet and have never met in person. We all know there are frauds out there who do come to your home or who you meet in everyday settings. If they scam you, at least you met them. You’ll feel rather jilted and terrible telling your story to a friend about how you sent money to someone you never met in person and just trusted them because they said they love you in a text message. Yes, looks pretty stupid. Just goes to show how desperate we can
get for a relationship.

There are websites you can go to if you suspect a fraud. Wait a moment! If you suspect a fraud, just get away. Stop communicating with this person. I know. You can’t. You’re in love! Okay, if you have to, check out this person at http://www.romancescams.com or if
they claim to be in the military, go to http://www.militarygear.com/asp to see if this guy scammed other women.

You can report the scammer to the above sites and even better, send a report to the FBI’s http://www.ic3.gov website.

Here’s a neat little trick that may help you in your Internet dating. There is a number embedded in every email that reveals where the senders computer is located. It is called the ip address, and it may help you figure out that you are dealing with a predator/scammer. Information on how to find the country of origin of the computer you
are communicating with can be found at this site: http://www.iptrackeronline.com/header.php

If someone tells you they are in Ohio and yet their computer is in Nigeria, you got a problem. For some odd reason (probably poverty and cunning) many of the scammers
seem to emanate from Africa. You know, like the Nigerian prince who needs your bank account number to deposit his fortune that he will be glad to share with you once he comes to America. Don’t fall for it.
Just try to avoid being stupid. If it’s too good to be true, it is! People that tell you they love you in a matter of weeks while never having met you are either scammers or losers. Stay away!

Never share your social security number or bank account numbers with anyone online. Don’t ever send nude photos to your new Internet lover. They can then blackmail you by threatening posting them all over the Internet unless you send them money. Just think before you do things that may get you into trouble.

For all you bad boys and girls who do this fraud, there are FBI agents and other agencies out to get you. If caught, you may be dating your cell mate for merely a sexual relationship that is not very meaningful. You know...karma!