In the world of dating scams the most common type of scammer you encounter is African in origin. After years of scambaiting, which is wasting a scammers time and making them think you believe their lies, I have some advice and observations to offer you.

Scammer Profiles

- Almost always emphasize that they are looking for a husband and that they are a Christian. A Christian would never lie now would they?

- No matter what the age they are, they claim to be a student, part time at least. Some of them went to Africa specifically to study. That is very strange as education in Nigeria is only mandatory up until the 6th grade but not really enforced, about 65% of women can read (less in rural areas) and less than half attend high school. In Ghana the situation is about the same. This claim is simply so they can try to rope you into paying expenses supposedly toward their education. Most of them are studying nursing or business, they can never tell you at what university most of the time. If they have a job its as a nurse, teacher, hairdresser or a family business. Sometimes they even say they own a business, so why do they never have money then? They don't know.

- Common usernames have something live 4you or 2love in them. Some actually have a male username because they started out scamming as a male and changed their mind. A popular excuse if questioned about this is that they are using their brothers account. Really? Its not like it cost anything to make your own.

- Seem to have no idea what actual Western names are like. In West Africa where they majority of them are from, the name order is last name, first name. They may have a user name like SmithLisa as a result when obviously an American/British woman would be LisaSmith. Often they just put two random English names together like Ann Jerry or Mary John. Realistic last names that usually have an s on the end, like Peters, Martins or Stevens often become Peter, Martin or Steven. Additionally they may add an unnecessary s and Johnson, Brown or Miller become Johnsons, Browns and Millers. Many of them seem to use names that sound very old fashioned in the Western world, like Millicent, Edith or Dorothy. Not something you would expect a 25 year old woman to be named. On the other hand they may use strange virtue names like Blessing, Favor or Gift. These are legitimate and somewhat popular names, in Africa, but you would never find a white woman with a name like this.

- Usually claim to be from the United States or the United Kingdom. Generally they claim to be from a major, famous city because that is the only ones they have heard of. Examples would be New York City, Los Angeles or London. If asked about their supposed home city they can not usually tell you much about it. They will nearly always tell you they are in Ghana or Nigeria currently visiting relatives, studying or working but will be back soon. Something always happens that prevents them from coming back and requires you send money of course.

- Generally use a picture of purely Caucasian woman and claim to have one white and one African parent. They don't know/care what a bi racial person looks like. Some use pictures of black or Asian women as well but either way the picture is most likely a model, actress or porn star. The latter is popular as those good Christian girls like to show you all their goods. Some will find a local girl/family member to pose for pictures but it is easier just to steal a pic from online. You wouldn't expect them to put much real effort in now would you? They don't care if the picture matches what age they claim to be either, she may look considerably older or younger. I have seen pictures of obviously underage girls at times.

- Profile usually says very little, a sentence, a few words, sometimes nothing at all. Some do write an actual profile but most can't be bothered. Popular descriptive phrases are "Am cool", "Am sexy", "God fearing".

- Most will only communicate with a man that is much older than they claim to be, white and in America. They typically ignore anyone younger than 40. They don't seem to think younger men have as much money nor do those outside of America. Some of them actually think Westerners, especially Americans, have unlimited money and don't feel bad about scamming them because a few thousand dollars is nothing right? Of course most of them don't care if they hurt anyone, they would steal your last penny.

Messages, Chat, Emails, Phone Call

- Have extremely poor spelling and grammar. No native English speaker would talk this way. If asked about it they will just say they can't type very well.

- Almost never, ever say "I am", they say "Am". Common phrases are "Am good" or "Am cool".

- Use either all capitals or all lower case.

- Talk about God and quote the Bible a lot. Will always tell you to trust them because they are Christian, to trust God that sending them money is the right thing to do, so on and so forth.

- They never read your profile, you could say you were looking for women to kill in snuff films and it wouldn't matter.

- On 4ppl or any dating site the laziest scammers  will just send a message telling you to email them. If you ask why or ask to chat they will just insist you email them if they respond to your message at all. If you do contact them all you will get is a pre written script that says their parents were wealthy/royalty and were murdered/killed in car or plane crash, and they are now in a refugee camp where they are being treated horribly. You need to give them your bank details so they can deposit a large amount of money into your account and then have you help them come to your country. Sometimes they say you need to wire them money to pay a fee to release their inheritance (they tend to call it funds) first but that seems to be getting less popular. Potential victims are becoming too wise to that one. They will usually give you the email address of their lawyer (which they always call a barrister. If a barrister is mentioned you can be 100% sure she is a scammer) or an accountant or a bank manager. Sometimes a reverand/pastor as well (you know, because Christians can't lie).This barrister/accountant/bank manager usually has a Yahoo or Hotmail address, sometimes they use Gmail because it is much harder to trace their IP. It is also popular to use Mail.com because they offer address that seem "official", like @lawyer.com, @accountant.com, @usa.com. Long story short all you will get is pre written script after script which soon grows tiresome.

- If they are slightly less lazy they will ask to chat immediately on Yahoo. Once there they often take a long time to respond to the first "Hello" you type. They are chatting with multiple people and aren't paying attention, if you ask them about this they will deny it. Some of them ask to chat and never respond to your messages. If they do expect to wait a long time for replies, they will ask you the same thing over and over again and repeat themselves frequently. Despite not paying attention to you they often accuse you of not paying attention to them. They use the Buzz or Ding feature frequently, no one but scammers do that in my experiance. If you tell them to stop they usually won't. If they say they have to go for a moment, most likely they are handing you over to another scammer. The questions will repeat again, its an endless cycle. The money request typically will come within the first chat session, often after just a few sentences. They insist on meeting you right now, no real woman would do that, she would be too afraid for her safety to meet a strange man right away. They may request that you come visit them, people who fall for this end up robbed, held for ransom or murdered. If you say you'll come visit them they will still need money until you get there. Often they don't even come up with a reason, they just need money because they do. If there is a reason they need a visa because they are going to come back with you, their grandma is sick, they want new clothes to wear when they meet you, etc. The money must always be sent via Western Union or Moneygram, to a male recipient whom is naturally their brother or a friend you can trust completely. Yahoo chat with a scammer is really very boring and not worth doing. Sometimes you get in a cycle where they completely ignore you and all of their messages consist of poems, quotes, pre made script and you may as well be talking to a wall.

- Are too lazy to even pretend to care about you a lot of the time. Tell them your mother died today, they may give you a half assed "I'm sorry.", but more importantly when are you sending them money. Tell them you were diagnosed with terminal cancer, well who are you willing your estate to? They loved you so much this past week since they met you that surely you'll turn over your money and belongings to them (I seriously had a scammer do this). No matter what you say their problems are always worse, its one sob story after another.

- They put on a very helpless act and expect you to do everything. Why? Because your the man. You pay for everything, you call them, you visit them, you do it, you do it! They always say they are living with family and rarely are working. In their minds it is impossible to work and go to school at the same time. Often they had to go to Africa with relatives when they were "orphaned". Yeah, well your 25 years old, you can take care of yourself! Not these poor little girls however, they can't lift a finger. I'm not sure where they get this from, other than pure fantasy, as Africa has a very high rate of violence against women and children. I bet a lot of these guys beat their wives, women in Ghana and Nigeria do more than their fair share of work despite the way men abuse them. There are basically no laws to protect them either. They are not treated like the spoiled princesses scammers expect to be treated like. Some of them will get very angry and accuse you of being rude to them just for saying no to a ridiculous request. If these were real women who would want to date a bitch like that anyway?

- Its becoming more common for them to ask you to come on your webcam because they want to see that your real. They never have a webcam, if you want to see them then you have to buy them one of course. Don't even bother with it. If you get lucky one of them might get a girl to get on cam for you but its rare.

- The above is same with photos, out of all the scammers I've dealt with only a handfull could provide me with more pictures or a picture holding a sign as proof of identity. Again, you want pictures? You have to buy them a camera, not a cheap one either.

- Often will not ask for you to call them or refuse if you ask to call them. This is due to them not having a woman available to talk to you or claiming to be from a country they are not. Some of the stupider ones will have a woman talk with you, yeah an American woman with a thick African accent. Hilariously I have had experiences where a man will try to do a woman's voice. If any phone contact is involved it will most likely be text messages.

- If you ever accuse of them of being a scammer they will deny it, make excuses, sometimes get explosively angry and curse you, often in their native language. They are fond of calling you a scammer too. This does not necessarily mean they will stop contacting you, if they have a shred of hope they can get money from you it will go on.

The Scammers Themselves

- Are always males ranging in age from teenagers to their 50's. Sometimes they have girlfriends/wives/sisters who are in on it too but you are always talking to a man. The woman just comes in for a phone call, a picture or maybe a webcam session.

- They often work in teams which is why the lady you are talking to asks questions over and over and has varying English ability.

- 4ppl scammers in general seem young and uneducated. Most are just beginners at the scam game.

- The African government is very corrupt, society basically accepts scamming as a legitimate way of life. Scammers are rarely arrested, Nigeria has its famous 419 law but its not particularly enforced.

- They never have their own computers and have to go to an internet cafe to use a public machine. They generally pay for this by the hour. Cafes are often not open on Sunday, sometimes Saturday too so don't expect to hear from them on the weekend. Even if the cafe is open on these days they are too lazy to go, scamming is hard work I guess and they have to take a break.

- Most are Nigerian or Ghanian. Generally they are in their home country, some live in the United States or Europe. There are also dating scammers from Senegal, The Ivory Coast/Cote D'Ivore, Benin, Togo and South Africa. Other countries I've seen are Liberia, Kenya, Cameroon, Algeria and Angola. Basically West Africa is the hot bed for scammers but they can be anywhere.

- If Nigerian they usually live in Lagos, Port Harcourt or Abuja. Almost all Ghanians are in Accra but I've met some in Sunyani, Tema and Tamale.

- They are criminals first and foremost and should be treated as such. If they know any of your real information do not contact them further. They are highly unlikely to bother coming after you but I personally wouldn't take chances.

- Insulting them does no good, they could care less. Often they don't even respond to insults. If they send you a script in your email report it to their email provider. I know Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail are pretty good about shutting down scammer accounts. It won't stop them but it will make their life more difficult.

- Most importantly they are in a poor country yes, but they are not starving or in need. They go to internet cafes and pay to use the computer for hours. All they are is lazy and greedy, never feel sorry for them for a second.

Scambaiting

- I mentioned a little about this in the beginning of the article. What scambaiting is in a nutshell is playing along with a scammer, pretending you believe every word they say and are doing everything they tell you to do. Do not mistake us for scammers, we never take or give money to the guys we bait. That is one of the primary rules of baiting. Sometimes the scammers will spend their money to go on trip to somewhere they expect to meet us, that is their own free will. We don't even suggest it except for maybe hinting at it and they did not have to do it. We did never profit from this, it is only a hobby.

- If you would like to scambait do it safely. As stated before if a scammer has your real information do not contact him further. Set up a safe email address and bait him under a fake name.

- A safe email address is one that does not reveal your IP. I recommend Gmail but Fastmail and Hushmail are safe too.

- Never send him a fake passport, drivers license or any kind of ID. It may be fake but he may use it on a victim who will fall for it.

- Do a Google search for "scambaiting" before you begin. There are many good websites to get you started.

That's about it. If you have any questions feel free to comment or message me. Thank you for reading this and I hope you came away from it more educated about scammers and how they work.

Links
http://www.romancescam.com/forum/portal.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scam_baiting