This is something I put on another site to help people. I got a lot of emails from concerned people who thought some of their friends were threading on thin ice. I'm a city guy, originally from London & have a certain sense to dodges. I'm very surprised with the ease that some people get taken in. This blog is to help them...

How many of us get scammers trying it on?
Would you recognize the obvious or do you just go on intuition?
& those that you are you suspicious with, could at least one be a genuine person just trying to get lucky in a more stronger way than the rest of us?

Food for thought eh?
Well, here's what I do & feel free to add to this, caz I would not refer to myself as some sort of expert.

You get contacted & think, well I've got lucky - hey!! Pretty !!!! or maybe no photo at all.
Look at the email address they give you.
Say it's with yahoo - a made up example: miss_scammer
How do you check the on-line profile? - EASY

http://profiles.yahoo.com/miss_scammer
You put that address & the ID as above & when the profile comes up, you look at the "Last Update" to be found below the pic insert.
If it's a fairly recent (within the last 3 months) or even the same date as you received your email - have some doubts. The profile could have only have been created that day, especially if there is no info to be updated.

(One exception - it could be someone trying to avoid a load of hassle when joining a new site. Like me & my new ID, for example. Yes, I admit it - but if I was a scammer, would I be telling you all this?)

For hotmail:
http://spaces.live.com/profile.aspx?mem=miss_scammer@hotmail.com

Wait a few days & if the user here has cancelled, then your suspicions are confirmed.
No need to lose any sleep over it.

Why did she or he, contact you?
If the person was a scammer, the least amount they could get from you is an active email address which can be sold to a list of spammers.

Great - more spam!!!

Up the ladder - they make contact with you, fall in love with you & then you are the only person that can help them caz they trust you so much blah blah blah

I have played this game now, many times. It's called scam-baiting. I see it as a civic duty - stopping these arseholes from suckering someone more vulnerable & then passing on what I learnt in view to prevention.

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• I was the only hope for a young woman that was on the run. Her father was a businessman & his partner had killed him caz he wanted the money that the daughter now had. As she trusted me, I could open an account for her or use my existing account to hold that money for her - in the millions - & she would give me part as we were going to be together in the future.

What's that all about? - They just wanted my bank account details. I don't know how it would have worked afterwards, caz I told her the whole idea scared me & I didn't want any more involvement. An easy ploy to get the heck out of Dodge!!!

• Another one - how quickly they can fall in love? & me to show her how much I loved her, even though I kept saying I didn't, was to send her an early Xmas present. But, she says, money can get lost in the post & so can items - better to send by bank transfer. Yeah right - off we go again - more personal details.

Then she changed her tune & really wanted to hear my voice - I would have to ring her mobile. Her number was not with an area code I recognized & reading on-line info on this - would have had a series of charges made to my phone even with them ringing me.

My way of getting out of that politely & with a show of innocence - "no, it's too expensive to ring a mobile that's overseas - I can set up an account with Skype & we can talk that way." I never was contacted again.

There are ways to check for those possible scammers - on-line anti-scam campaigns. You can check with the site for the name the person may have given you, the email address & also the photo. You may even recognize many photos that are on other dating sites.

Of course, I can't say if the real people in the photos are the scammers or merely have had their photos stolen & used. Scary thought eh? They visit our pages & look at our photos & ...
http://www.romancescam.com/album/search.php

• Contacted by another who falls in love so quickly & I can help her, just after 14 minutes of talking with her. On my yahoo or msn messenger. Yes, curiosity again allows these contacts.

She was from some place, moved to another place caz of some guy she fancied. He wanted sex only & she just wanted a nice guy - like me.

After 14 minutes, she knew me so well - HEY - what you laughing at? 

Anyway, I could help her get back home to her mother who needed her so badly & brother that missed her so much. All she needed was me to telephone them, caz she didn't even have money for that long distance call. Phone charges again, I suppose or maybe it could have been more in depth for a trusting vulnerable sap that I certainly wasn't !!

• On my old ICQ - just a friend that had a birthday coming up & could I arrange to send her flowers. She had a friend in a nearby florist that could take my order & all I had to do was give my credit card details. She could even ring me with the confirmation.

I've looked in the mirror & I don't see "IDIOT" tattooed on my forehead !!!

• My last one - was a young girl, that seemed to seemed to be just sending emails, but not answering me.

For example - she said she was interested in my work & asked me about it. Then I would tell her about my work & asked about hers. She would tell me & then ask me about my family.

Ok, what's wrong with that? - I hear you ask.
Her emails were questions that her next emails would answer - the pattern you see.
You can throw this out of whack, if you think that, by not answering directly, but asking something totally different.

Now, to the idea of this - I haven't quite figured out.
- just a game that some kids play to see how long they can get people to answer & maybe even a competition of many. Rather cynical I suppose, but I think when you've been online for a while, you develop a skin that is slightly thicker - pity really.

There is the possibility of course, that the language barrier creates it's own problems & prepared emails have been used just to get the ball rolling. A way to find out whether the person wishes to continue with you as a possibility. All you do, if you are willing to accept the difficulties, is be patient with them. If, of course, you think they are worth it. Don't just say no, caz you never know what fate has in store for you.

It's like walking into a bar or joining a night class (or 3,000 other situations) & getting picked up.

Some can come across as real jerks.

Some are just interested in their own satisfactions & some you just can't trust.

Then someone genuine comes along & you are glad that you didn't give up.

Good luck everybody (only applies to non-scammers, non-spammers, non-cam girls etc..)