What we won't do for (ONLINE) love....

[Tony T]

This has got to be one of the saddest stories I've ever read about....an older lady spending thousands of dollars on an online love she will never meet. It happens to people every day. Humans want love so badly that many of them often just don't want to face the truth that the person they "think" they love is a worthless turd.

 

Go here: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2010/07/the-high-cost-of-being-a-fool-for-love-online.html

[Daniel89]

Intense story. Love is defintely the worst/best drug.

[Citizen Erased]

I am frequently astonished at how freaking dumb people are. Let's give all this money to someone I've never met, that doesn't use any of it to actually come and visit me, surely they are my soul mate.

[Tony T]

I am frequently astonished at how freaking dumb people are. Let's give all this money to someone I've never met, that doesn't use any of it to actually come and visit me, surely they are my soul mate.

 

It's not that they are actually dumb. Fact is, some of the smartest people have their desire for love override every bit of common sense they could ever have. When people are looking at the possibility of being loved, so many just see absolutely nothing else. It happens every second, of every minute, of every day and it happens to smart people and not so smart ones. Very often, the heart isn't so smart.

[CLC2008]

The woman in the article has agoraphobia, it's not a matter of her being "stupid", but more so battling an illness and severe loss after loss (according to the article, her husband passed, she lost her job, etc.).

 

Very sad and unfortunate for her.

[Tony T]

The woman in the article has agoraphobia, it's not a matter of her being "stupid", but more so battling an illness and severe loss after loss (according to the article, her husband passed, she lost her job, etc.).

 

Very sad and unfortunate for her.

 

As the article states later on, her illness and life circumstances are pretty irrelevant. There are a great many quite healthy people who fall for these kinds of scams...looking for their soul mate.

[Citizen Erased]

It's not that they are actually dumb. Fact is, some of the smartest people have their desire for love override every bit of common sense they could ever have. When people are looking at the possibility of being loved, so many just see absolutely nothing else. It happens every second, of every minute, of every day and it happens to smart people and not so smart ones. Very often, the heart isn't so smart.

I'm sure these scammers get very good at picking out these types as opposed to the more cynical kind that would deal with the request for money in a different light than handing it over in fistfuls.

 

Yes, this woman is ill and it explains her reasoning, or lack of it. But there are thousands of people that are perfectly "normal" and do the same thing. I have to wonder how people get to the point of being so desperate to be loved by anyone they could ignore huge, flashing neon red flags.

[CLC2008]

As the article states later on, her illness and life circumstances are pretty irrelevant. There are a great many quite healthy people who fall for these kinds of scams...looking for their soul mate.

 

Well of course. I was just siting this particular individual according to the article.

[aerogurl87]

Sheesh! This is sad, really sad. I knew one old guy like this. It started out with him and I just playing pool one day cause I was bored, which turned into me playing therapist for 2 hours. Next thing I know he's spewing about how some young girl conned him out of some money. I swear people need to learn to think with their heads before falling in love, period.

[You'reasian]

This has got to be one of the saddest stories I've ever read about....an older lady spending thousands of dollars on an online love she will never meet. It happens to people every day. Humans want love so badly that many of them often just don't want to face the truth that the person they "think" they love is a worthless turd.

 

Go here: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2010/07/the-high-cost-of-being-a-fool-for-love-online.html

 

Nigerian scams.

 

There are probably thousands, no millions of scammers on online dating sites. Another reason to not use them.

Edited July 18, 2010 by You'reasian

[TheLoneSock]

The Evangelicals on tv with the botox injected lips, bleached hair and fake breasts who tell old people they have to donate their money to them for their life's sins to be absolved are FAR worse. That is not religion or faith, that is very manipulative and successful con artist.

[Mary3]

Mainly its a very lonely women who cannot fathom for one moment that the only man that could ever love her the way this Nigerian scammer does , is that it is not REAL,that it is not true and she can' handle that part so its less painful to keep going with it .

 

The scammer WILL stop after he drains your bank account.

 

He does not work alone. He is a Mule. He has a Boss. That boss fronts the money for the LD phone calls , and whatever other expenses the scammer has...

 

The scammers do send me emails and winks on the O-line dating sites but I no longer believe in those....but I do mess with the scammers only because I know they are scammers and I belong to some anti-scammer forums and try to educate the victims.

 

One last thing to say : If you are in a LDR and have never met your person of interest , and they make excuses and they ask you for money, its a SCAM 100% of the time.

 

Or they are married but lets stick with scammers here. Red Flag Alert !

[aerogurl87]

Mainly its a very lonely women who cannot fathom for one moment that the only man that could ever love her the way this Nigerian scammer does , is that it is not REAL,that it is not true and she can' handle that part so its less painful to keep going with it .

 

The scammer WILL stop after he drains your bank account.

 

He does not work alone. He is a Mule. He has a Boss. That boss fronts the money for the LD phone calls , and whatever other expenses the scammer has...

 

The scammers do send me emails and winks on the O-line dating sites but I no longer believe in those....but I do mess with the scammers only because I know they are scammers and I belong to some anti-scammer forums and try to educate the victims.

 

One last thing to say : If you are in a LDR and have never met your person of interest , and they make excuses and they ask you for money, its a SCAM 100% of the time.

 

Or they are married but lets stick with scammers here. Red Flag Alert !

 

Yeah I had some scammers try and message me on the site I met my boyfriend on. It was always obvious to me they were scammers as they sent generic emails that had a broad appeal to the masses. Not one of them was handcrafted to deal with my profile and what it said. But I guess when you get desperate you'll latch on to anything.

[Mary3]

Yeah I had some scammers try and message me on the site I met my boyfriend on. It was always obvious to me they were scammers as they sent generic emails that had a broad appeal to the masses. Not one of them was handcrafted to deal with my profile and what it said. But I guess when you get desperate you'll latch on to anything.

 

When I first got one about 6 years ago I thought " Why is this guy writing all mushy stuff about our love when I have never wrote him before or talked to him before "

 

I think I heard more about Roomate Scams than I did about LoveScams but they are the same people trying to steal.

 

Their grammer is atrocious. They use a spell converter for language and if you have ever used one of those , the words don't make alot of sense, as a guy from Germany laughed when I used one to convert my English to German. lol

[impz]

When I first got one about 6 years ago I thought " Why is this guy writing all mushy stuff about our love when I have never wrote him before or talked to him before "

 

I think I heard more about Roomate Scams than I did about LoveScams but they are the same people trying to steal.

 

Their grammer is atrocious. They use a spell converter for language and if you have ever used one of those , the words don't make alot of sense, as a guy from Germany laughed when I used one to convert my English to German. lol

 

My logic in LDR: If I can't see you on webcam within 3 chats, and meet you in real life within a few months, it's a scam. That, or the grammar is so atrocious that it takes a really lonely and desperate person to look beyond all that. I actually received an email, addressing me as "Miss" when I am clearly a guy. Cracked me up because I was trying to fool around with my gender on a site to prove a point to my girlfriend about such scams. :lmao:

[Mary3]

My logic in LDR: If I can't see you on webcam within 3 chats, and meet you in real life within a few months, it's a scam. That, or the grammar is so atrocious that it takes a really lonely and desperate person to look beyond all that. I actually received an email, addressing me as "Miss" when I am clearly a guy. Cracked me up because I was trying to fool around with my gender on a site to prove a point to my girlfriend about such scams. :lmao:

 

Most of the letters are cut and pasted. When I receive " YOU won 400 Million Dollars from the UK " its totally a generic letter , lol....

[impz]

Most of the letters are cut and pasted. When I receive " YOU won 400 Million Dollars from the UK " its totally a generic letter , lol....

 

I actually tried once to reply to them, and sound interested, just to be silly. They ignored me. I feel insulted that I am not desperate enough to be cheated on.

 

Anyway, on the TS' story, it is very sad but it is a reality of life where online scammers prey on those vulnerable people at their most vulnerable state. It's when some common sense by bystanders and family have to give them a strong tug/dose of reality checks.

[CarrieT]

I haven't posted here for a while but thought it was time I chimed in.

 

Very, VERY recently (like, two weeks ago), I was almost the victim of one of these scammers. Except that my perpetrator was not Nigerian-based, but lived here in United States. Based on the RomanceScam site, my perp was guilty of all but one of the following (the last):

 

When Contact is First Made

 

• They immediately want to get off the website and onto Yahoo IM or MSN IM
  
• Their profile seems to disappear off the website immediately after conversation begins
  
• They claim it was destiny or fate and you are meant to be together
  
• They immediately ask for your picture and they send you a picture of themselves
  
• They immediately want your address so as to send you flowers, candy, and teddy bears, often purchased with stolen credit cards
  
• They claim to love you either immediately or within 24-48 hours
  
• They immediately start using pet names with you: hon/hun baby/babe sweety/sweetie
  
• They claim God brought you to him/her
  
• They typically claim to be from the US (or your local region) but they are overseas, or going overseas mainly to Nigeria, sometimes the UK for business or family matters
  

My perp did not maintain our relationship via IM, but we were actually talking on the phone the second day after contact - but we were talking upwards of three to four hours a day. And, yes, he got me to photograph my apartment (part of "casing the joint" to see if I had stuff worth going after).

 

In my case, I managed to find my perp's profile on a site called dontdatehimgirl.com -- but not only did I find a single warning about him on that site, but literally DOZENS. He had been scamming lonely, middle-aged women like myself with the same story since 1999.

 

I was lucky. I figured out I was being scammed about ten days into contact with the guy. And this guy was really good - not only did he suck up my time and soul, but in trying to vet him, I had him talk to a girlfriend to check him out and he talked to her for several hours also. But when I discovered his scamming profile, I see that he has gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars out of other women.

 

It has made me swear off dating sites completely. I will remain lonely, celibate, and whatever it takes to legitimately meet a guy in real life and not the 'net.

[SassyKitten]

I don't know if mine was a scammer, but he was a douchebag. Things moved very quickly and we Skyped a lot, but it completely fell off.

 

Another reason to be someone's friend first, especially if you meet them online.