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If you are a victim of a romance scam (or just want to educate yourself on the latest Internet con artist tricks, then we've got a site for you. It's called Romance Scams and here is their description:
Are you wondering if the person that you are talking to is too good to be true? Are there things that you are being told that just don't make sense? Did the person find you on a singles site and start professing their love for you in a short time? Did they tell you that they were currently working in a foreign country, mainly Nigeria? Are they telling you that they are having trouble cashing their paychecks? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you need to be a part of this group.
According to an AARP article on the subject, here are tip-offs to bogus online lovers:
* Lousy writing. Romance scammers often portray themselves as wealthy, educated U.S. or British businessmen, but since most are foreigners—primarily operating in Africa, Eastern Europe or East Asia—their prose is littered with poor grammar.
* A 23401 Zip Code. You may see this code listed on the dating websites. The number is taken from the telephone code—234—for Nigeria. But the Zip Code 23401 is actually in Keller, Va.
* Eye candy. Schemers often take their profile photos from websites featuring models.
* Corporate connections. "Paychecks" may come from legitimate U.S. corporations. Contact the company to verify employment and alert it that payroll accounts may have been infiltrated.
* Address request. He wants to send you "love" gifts (usually paid for with stolen plastic)—and set you up for a reshipping scam.
* The biggest red flag: Savvy schemers seduce you to gain your trust before going in for the kill. "If you write that you're an animal lover," Gregory says, "they say they run a pet rescue shelter. If you say you're struggling financially, [they say] they're millionaires."
As a research project for another blog, I responded to an unsolicited email I got from a profile someone found on me. Within five email exchanges they told me that they "loved" me and within 7 exchanges they were asking for money. I found the picture sent to me on another website dedicated to identifying Internet scams. Another tip is that they are often trying to correspond with hundreds of men and women at the same time and get confused with details. You can say, "As you remember in my last email..." and then make up a ridiculous detail. If they don't call you out on it then they are almost certainly scamming you.
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