OLD Scams, fake profiles.. on the increase?

[Larryville]

Can search username on poF on their site

 

Not anymore. They discovered that if someone did Meet Me, it send you an email message. I would simply logon and search username. They want you to pay for that now.

 

Because you refuse to meet within the first week or so?

 

The real proof is in the meeting them as soon as possible. That is when the jig is up.

 

I have found that ANY woman who is truly serious about something real will meet in a few days or so. They won’t do endless email and texting and calls.

 

Oh, I live there but I'm on a long term assignment in some west African country."

 

Yes. Also if they live in my metropolitan area I would throw out a few places that EVERYONE knows about and if they swing and miss, nope.

 

Even small things like what a particular highway is called, for example in the Los Angeles the people from there say “I’m going to take “the 405” or “the 110”

 

A club or a bar might have a nickname.

 

A restaurant only a local from the area might know about.

 

About reading between the lines.

[Popsicle]

This is more of a public service announcement.

 

Now I am a prolific profile reader, always have been. The reason why as the years have gone on I am less skeptical of OLD because we all choose who we are going to pursue, the picture, the profile or a combination of both.

 

Some of you older OLD users already know this or have experienced this but in my latest stint at OLD I have read (at least to me) a serious increase of scam profiles.

Maybe because I am older the scam profiles stick out more, but the profiles don’t always don’t have to include a really hot man or woman. These scammers are starting to use more average looking people, and the language is coming across as more genuine.

 

Below is an example of a glaringly fake profile of a 58 year old woman, very nice looking but someone who can pass for much younger.

The reason this profile stood out with me is I have seen a number of profiles with similar language. While they might change a phrase or two this same block style profile I have seen several time on POF.

 

In the last month or so I have come across bunches of profiles with very similar language, I have noticed so much for the heck of it I Googled a few phrases and came across this site.

 

Scam Digger

 

I guess they monitor fraud profiles.

 

I know for some of you this may not be new but proof that you always have to be on your toes to navigate the harrowing world of OLD.

 

Follow these 3 simple rules and you'll never have to deal with scammers:

 

 

1) Only talk to people who live locally. Local, as in, you're close enough to spontaneously see a movie and have dinners on a work night. Do NOT break this rule no matter what. Don't even talk to them if they live far. Don't talk to people who travel for work either.

 

 

2) Meet in person within a week (or two if scheduling doesn't allow). Anyone who can not meet you in that time frame, no matter what the excuse, stop talking to them altogether and tell them to message you once they are available to meet.

 

 

3) After you meet, ask to see their place where they live within 2-3 weeks. This is to verify that they are not living with a gf/bf. You don't tell them this though, just ask to go there.

 

 

I find that men especially break these rules (especially #1 - no idea why they love long distance so much) and this is what makes them easy prey to scammers.

[Miss Spider]

I believe something like this happened to my online friend, but I don't know if he was just 'off' or a scammer. I got a weird feeling about it so I kept telling her do not proceed.

 

Right from the beginning(she was sending me what he would say),and it was that he loved her with all his heart and wanted to be with her forever. He'd call her his love , the only woman he wants etc., all before they had met and barely spoken. His English was not good. He told he lived in Italy now, but he was originally from a country in Africa (I forget). I told her don't send him money and she said she never would. He said he wanted to be with her but he needed to get into America for that to happen. My friend is a sweetie and she felt bad telling him that she did not feel the same about him and that he was coming on too strong. I told her to give me a pic of him and I reversed image searched it and nothing came up. I told her he seems like a scammer from how strong he's coming on and she said he had his full name and he had a FB, and he did!!! It was like a full FB with friends and it seemed like a normal dude's FB. Made me second guess whether it was really a scam or not. Anyway, she finally told him she wasn't into him and he was begging her not to leave him lol. This was like after 4 days of conversation.

[Gr8fuln2020]

I believe something like this happened to my online friend, but I don't know if he was just 'off' or a scammer. I got a weird feeling about it so I kept telling her do not proceed.

 

Right from the beginning(she was sending me what he would say),and it was that he loved her with all his heart and wanted to be with her forever. He'd call her his love , the only woman he wants etc., all before they had met and barely spoken. His English was not good. He told he lived in Italy now, but he was originally from a country in Africa (I forget). I told her don't send him money and she said she never would. He said he wanted to be with her but he needed to get into America for that to happen. My friend is a sweetie and she felt bad telling him that she did not feel the same about him and that he was coming on too strong. I told her to give me a pic of him and I reversed image searched it and nothing came up. I told her he seems like a scammer from how strong he's coming on and she said he had his full name and he had a FB, and he did!!! It was like a full FB with friends and it seemed like a normal dude's FB. Made me second guess whether it was really a scam or not. Anyway, she finally told him she wasn't into him and he was begging her not to leave him lol. This was like after 4 days of conversation.

 

When someone comes at you that feverishly, scam or not, it's a no-go! :-D

 

Another sign of a potential scammer is when they message your or 'favorite' you almost immediately after you've visited their site. Never seems to fail.

[Popsicle]

Most of them say they live in your vicinity and can get google phone numbers with your area code.

 

The guy who scammed me had an area code for Bowie, Maryland. It's really easy for them to look up location markers on google maps---you'd have to smoke them out on something that everyone in the area knows about, but it wouldn't show up on google.

 

This is true. You do have to do a little bit of this. Test to see if they know your area in your chats.

[Gaeta]

We are entering an era of everything being 'fake'.

 

Fake News

Fake threats

Fake leaks

Fake elections

 

It's normal it carries into fake profiles, fake people, fake intentions, fake feelings.

 

Use online as a tool to make contact and turn it into a real life meeting asap, within days.

[Larryville]

When it comes to POF and the “Meet Me” everybody get up in arms about it. I don’t think folks know you can turn the function off.

 

How do you do that?

Can it be done from the app?

 

No

 

Go to mail settings

 

“Send me an email when someone says yes to me on meet me:”

 

Just say no, so you won’t get an alert.

[Popsicle]

I believe something like this happened to my online friend, but I don't know if he was just 'off' or a scammer. I got a weird feeling about it so I kept telling her do not proceed.

 

Right from the beginning(she was sending me what he would say),and it was that he loved her with all his heart and wanted to be with her forever. He'd call her his love , the only woman he wants etc., all before they had met and barely spoken. His English was not good. He told he lived in Italy now, but he was originally from a country in Africa (I forget). I told her don't send him money and she said she never would. He said he wanted to be with her but he needed to get into America for that to happen. My friend is a sweetie and she felt bad telling him that she did not feel the same about him and that he was coming on too strong. I told her to give me a pic of him and I reversed image searched it and nothing came up. I told her he seems like a scammer from how strong he's coming on and she said he had his full name and he had a FB, and he did!!! It was like a full FB with friends and it seemed like a normal dude's FB. Made me second guess whether it was really a scam or not. Anyway, she finally told him she wasn't into him and he was begging her not to leave him lol. This was like after 4 days of conversation.

 

 

It's ok if men come on strong. Some real men do but tell her to set her parameters on the dating site to not allow men to message her who live more than X miles away. And TALK ON THE PHONE at least one time. I know young people hate doing that but it will save you a lot of headache.

[Larryville]

Use online as a tool to make contact and turn it into a real life meeting asap, within days.

 

I don’t know if this is true for all age ranges, but (serious) older women want to meet pretty damn quick. They won’t waste time if they are truly interested. Besides OLD is a competition, countless emails and texts will bore the average person. Getting your foot in the door and seeing if there is chemistry as soon as possible is the way to go.

[Popsicle]

Absolutely!

 

This has been well documented on various platforms and in various exposes done on OLD over the years. I've watched many documentaries on this subject. No secret here.

 

The most recent revelation on this subject was when Ashley Madison was hacked. Expert techies had a field day. They took one look and easily found that out of the reported 35+ million members, only 5.5 million were women, and out of those 5.5 million women only 12,000 were REAL WOMEN!

 

The rest were sophisticated fembots created for the sole purpose of weaving together the illusion that women on the site are plentiful and eager. Nothing more than a elaborate, deliberate, and lucrative fraud scheme to get male members to slap down their credit cards and join the legion of wayward men and women.

 

 

Isn't that funny?

 

 

And here you have people RELYING on this form of dating.

[Gr8fuln2020]

Absolutely!

 

This has been well documented on various platforms and in various exposes done on OLD over the years. I've watched many documentaries on this subject. No secret here.

 

The most recent revelation on this subject was when Ashley Madison was hacked. Expert techies had a field day. They took one look and easily found that out of the reported 35+ million members, only 5.5 million were women, and out of those 5.5 million women only 12,000 were REAL WOMEN!

 

The rest were sophisticated fembots created for the sole purpose of weaving together the illusion that women on the site are plentiful and eager. Nothing more than a elaborate, deliberate, and lucrative fraud scheme to get male members to slap down their credit cards and join the legion of wayward men and women.

 

 

I wonder how many of the same, attractive profiles you see online over and over again are fake profiles?

[kendahke]

No

 

Go to mail settings

 

“Send me an email when someone says yes to me on meet me:”

 

Just say no, so you won’t get an alert.

 

 

Oh, ok. I've got this one set to not to notify me.

 

I was hoping it was to not have the alert once I sign on saying all these fakes want to meet me--I'd rather just eliminate that.

 

If they wanted to meet me so badly, they'd write a 200+ word message, which is what I've got my restrictions set to.

[Larryville]

12,000 were REAL WOMEN!

 

This is when I wish I could go back in time and invent online dating. Easily the biggest scam there is.

 

Why when people say one website is the “best” I just laugh.

 

If websites were serious you would get rid of dead profiles. 30 days of inactivity and you are off.

 

Everyone on a given site should have a grade or rating. If you are a known jerk it would be there in black and white.

 

I know many would not agree but for the protection of women, there would be a listing (ok for upgraded members) to tell you who the person went out with on the site.

 

It would tell you that a certain guy went out with 20 members on a site and the usernames so women can share stories to tell if a guy is a player or if his profile is bs.

 

I know this is extreme but kinda like I have said before. If I see an attractive woman, educated, profile is cool, nice pictures everything seems legit, can seemingly pick from any guy in her age range and you see them always online and have been regulars on a given site for YEARS. Sometimes I wish I knew what was up with that.

 

Goes to this point.

 

I wonder how many of the same, attractive profiles you see online over and over again are fake profiles?

 

I sometimes ask myself why would a smart, attractive, career oriented woman who has her pick of dudes can be on a dating site for so long, YEARS.

 

As busy as so many woman are with work and kids and families, friends they would not have time to keep messaging dudes. Makes me wonder if these sites actually employ them. Not overly attractive women or guys, many could be very average active people on the site to keep the pot stirred, and if you are new to a site you would never know.

[Popsicle]

 

I sometimes ask myself why would a smart, attractive, career oriented woman who has her pick of dudes can be on a dating site for so long, YEARS.

 

 

I don't know, Larry. Why haven't you snatched them up?

 

As busy as so many woman are with work and kids and families, friends they would not have time to keep messaging dudes. Makes me wonder if these sites actually employ them. Not overly attractive women or guys, many could be very average active people on the site to keep the pot stirred, and if you are new to a site you would never know.

 

 

My guess is, they don't take the site that seriously. They are just on there but not that active. I get that feeling from some men too.

[Gaeta]

I sometimes ask myself why would a smart, attractive, career oriented woman who has her pick of dudes can be on a dating site for so long, YEARS.

 

Because she has a career, friends, family and interest other than running around in clubs trying to meet a man.

 

I am an attractive career woman, with nothing wrong with me, I come with no drama, and it still took me 3,5 years online to find a serious lasting relationship.

 

Attractiveness means nothing when it's time to find someone serious. Being attractive and looking younger ONLY got me A LOT of dates but A LOT of dates did not equal quality dates.

 

So when you see an a smart, attractive, career oriented woman online remind yourself she already heard all the BS there is to hear online and about 80% of men she picked were full of it. It's up to you to show her something else.

[coolheadal]

Everything is fake today and so can love be faked.

 

Her

I live with my grandma, but I use to live in New York and now going to school in Ghana. Do you have a problem with me living in Ghana.

 

See a lot of these on Mingle2 and Okcupid. Some have really up their game. Just have to be careful and don't give in.

 

Those fake videos show a girl from 2008 there is no sound but the scammer is watching you on another PC using your cam. I say turn off video and audio. Or show them Bugs Bunny Cartoon instead.

 

The question they ask you always how long have you been on OKC? They want to know how much experience you have? If you want to toy with them you can say I new!

[Echo74]

Follow these 3 simple rules and you'll never have to deal with scammers:

 

 

1) Only talk to people who live locally. Local, as in, you're close enough to spontaneously see a movie and have dinners on a work night. Do NOT break this rule no matter what. Don't even talk to them if they live far. Don't talk to people who travel for work either.

 

 

2) Meet in person within a week (or two if scheduling doesn't allow). Anyone who can not meet you in that time frame, no matter what the excuse, stop talking to them altogether and tell them to message you once they are available to meet.

 

 

3) After you meet, ask to see their place where they live within 2-3 weeks. This is to verify that they are not living with a gf/bf. You don't tell them this though, just ask to go there.

 

 

I find that men especially break these rules (especially #1 - no idea why they love long distance so much) and this is what makes them easy prey to scammers.

 

Interesting. Regarding #3, do you allow them to see your place as well? Being a woman I would be a bit nervous about that.

[kendahke]

I think the biggest thing they can do is to require IP addresses matching the city in which the client says they reside, but they don't want to do that because it will out the fact that they use bots.

[kendahke]

3) After you meet, ask to see their place where they live within 2-3 weeks. This is to verify that they are not living with a gf/bf. You don't tell them this though, just ask to go there.

 

This I would not do until we've gotten to know one another a whole lot better, meeting in public places.

 

The last guy I dealt with finagled his way into my home with the excuse that he needed to use the bathroom. It was the second time I'd seen him and I was on pins and needles the whole time he was there because I didn't know what he was capable of. All I kept thinking was how I was going to get him out of my house.

[Michelle ma Belle]

I've been doing the online thing for a long while now. And I'm not just talking about OLD either.

 

Having been active on numerous online groups/sites/forums including apps like Kik Groups etc., I've become an expert on pinpointing the questionable characters with shady agendas a mile away and with my eyes blindfolded. Not exactly the gift I dreamed of having as a child but has served me well nonetheless.

 

As I've said before in other threads, the anonymity online provides makes monsters of many unfortunately. If you're someone who pays attention and navigates with an ounce of discernment, it becomes painfully obvious who the sketchy people are.

 

Welcome to the digital age

[Popsicle]

Interesting. Regarding #3, do you allow them to see your place as well? Being a woman I would be a bit nervous about that.

 

Maybe. It depends the guy and the circumstance. First or second date, I would most likely be in my own car though.

Edited August 11, 2017 by Popsicle

[Chilli]

How do these scams work? Do they get you to fall for them and send them money or they ask you go to a website? I'm only familiar with the hot person web cam bot type scammer

 

 

 

 

l had two when l was on it.

 

One was really nice and talked about ow she felt about a relationship and her devotion and crap, it was probably a guy- and how she wanted to find her true love.

Then within a day or so , she saying that she didn't have the school fees to send her kid to school , $400 and complained about how she couldn't afford the books either, and clothes, and it was about 1,000 all up.

lt took 2 or 3 emails for him to get to the money thing.

 

 

 

the other one, made up this elaborate story that she had a business, she was an importer, and made really good money, but her latest container was stuck on the docks and she didn't have the $6,000 to pick the container and her goods up because she got robbed.

l'm thinking l'm sick of these fkwitts so l went along with it.

After a bit more lovely chit chat , she asked if l could help , l said yeah , l could see what l can do but how can l get the money too you.

Then she hd more stories about a friend she can trust and she can give me "his name and bank account .

Sol can deposit the money into that.

l said oh good then no worries , what's the name and account.

She gave that to me next email .

And then l thanked her , wished her luck and told her l'd just given the whole lot to the cops and whom ever owns that account should be hearing from them real soon.

 

Then l got strings of emails for days after , pleading not to report her. l just let those keep coming in to see what else she said.

They stopped after about 2 days and she disappeared.

He.

 

Apparently this stuff does work on some people and they do get money out of them.

Too weird .!!!!!

[Miss Spider]

haha that's brilliant chilli. It seems like it'd be fun to mess with those scammers once you knew their game...just to see how far it would go

[kendahke]

haha that's brilliant chilli. It seems like it'd be fun to mess with those scammers once you knew their game...just to see how far it would go

 

There used to be a facebook page that would scam scammers--it was done by an australian couple and they would post their chats on their facebook page. It was pure comedy reading her run circles around these dumb-****s.

[Deonce]

You gotta know that a lot of these scammers are very smart, and they can be really convincing as well. They have plenty of methods to prove that they're "real". Most people will fall for this. That's why there's people out there who make a living out of scamming people. Just keep in mind that you can fake literally everything nowadays.

 

Some of the scammers will get paid to meet up and then pay a prostitute or w/e that pretends to be the girl. They do this instead of just taking all their money just so they can milk more money from the person in the future. So yeah, my point is that some scammers are willing to go really far just to make money. You don't have to be an idiot to get scammed.

Another common thing they do is that they chat with someone for a few days, and then they say that their laptop/car/phone broke down and ask for a few hundred bucks. Surprisingly many people actually pays them.