The inevitable advancement in technology, everything can be done online. Dating is one of them. But this ease in socialization comes with a risk.  Dating frauds are rampant so protection and early detection of scammers and frauds when dating online and using Internet dating sites should always be your priority. One perfect example is when a lonely foreigner man gets a hold of the contact details of a young and attractive lady whose years younger than he is. They often chat and talk to each other. As time goes by, the lady attempted to ask for money from the foreigner saying that her mother is sick and has been hospitalized. Because of feeling pity for the woman, he gave her money for the hospitalization and even added a little more for allowance. After her mother, the lady’s father is then hospitalized and she asked for money again from the foreigner. Seeing no harm from helping the woman he may already have feelings for, he gave her money again for her father this time. This cycle continued on until the foreigner can no longer give her money. When the foreigner told the lady that he has no money to send for her, she got angry and furious. She immediately ended their relationship and told him to never speak to her again. He is then left heartbroken and penniless.
The sample above is considered the

Photo credit: ~Julyn88

nastiest form of scam, called Romance scam. There are actually many forms of scams but to top them all is Romance scam. These are the people that attach to you deeply. They play with your feelings and make you feel very special. They try to get your trust and after they’re successful, they will slowly take money from you. Scammers have a lot of faces, since online dating sites are easy to access, they can easily open new accounts and change their names and the personal information about them like gender, age and location.
Don’t fall too hard on that pretty face because scammers’ secret weapon is photos. They use very attractive photos, they may even resemble celebrities and models, for their profile. Modeling sites can easily be accessed so they may have been taking photos from such sites and using them for scam.

How does Romance scamming works?
First, they get hold of a victim. Because their profile photo is very attractive, they will certainly get a lot of attention from the people from the site. They would just choose from among her admirers and look for a guy that can easily fall prey to online romance.
Second, they create a fantasy love story. They make the guy feel special and make him feel that she already has feeling for him. She will call him “babe” or “honey” or even “baby”. She will make him feel so loved and cared for. This thought will completely overwhelm the guy thinking that he’s very lucky to have a very attractive lady attracted to him. He will definitely give her everything that she would ask for.
Third, the scamming begins. After gaining the guy’s trust and affection. She will formulate her story of a bad situation that had happened to her or her family. She will get him to feel pity for her so that he will immediately ask for anything that he can help her with. She will them grab the chance of mentioning about the amount that is needed for the situation. It can be a surgery that her father has to undergo or her brother got badly beaten that he has to be hospitalized. Of course the guy will feel pity and give her the money that she needs. After he falls into the trap, there is no stopping yet. She will continue to ask for money using different lies to come up for reasons.
Fourth and last phase, the disappearing act. Asking for a lot of money, the lady will slowly lose interest with conversing with the guy. She will start missing sending messages and later on cease to sending one. They will say a lot of reasons for not calling and in the end, change their numbers so that you won’t be able to call them.
Don’t want to experience the above situations? Keep these tips in mind and always remember them when dating online:

a.) Watch out for a flimsy username.
>Most women include their name or something very important to them into their username but will never try to have a username that will only attract people to view their profile.
b.) Read on the profile.
Does the profile indicate enough things about the individual using that profile? Is the information there vague and might be created by a person who’s main goal is to attract people not to get to know people? Think about the content of the profile. You can always distinguish scams and authentic ones.
c.) Examine photo.

Photo credit: ~Schattendorn
Is it too-good-to-be-true? Was it something that can be torn off a magazine page? If its too attractive and beautiful and the profile information is vague and a little bit too general, you might want to consider that that user is a scam. Never ever fall for that cute photo because you never know who that person is until you meet her personally.
Protect yourself from scam!

Photo credit: *BenHeine

Who says that you need other to protect you? In dating scams, you have no one to rely on but yourself.

1. Think rationally. If you are having doubts about the profile consider the worst case scenario and just avoid that user. It’s better to avoid it than to regret being involved and being scammed.

2.)Don’t give out any information about your banking and finances. That is the main of scammers and if you give them you personal details, you are just helping them scam. If you don’t want to be robbed, never give anything away.

3.)Don’t attempt reading unsolicited mails. Peaking is just like opening it so just delete it ok.

4.)If you don’t open the spam mail, then you need not to reply on it.

5.)Don’t ever agree to transfer money to other people. You never know whose hands will get a hold of your money.
Online dating is fun and exciting but you have to be very careful when you are chatting people only. Unless you know them personally, try not to fall in love with that sweet face and flowery words because you never really know who’s behind that photo.