ONLINE DATING A SCAM OR REALITY

Situation 1 – Linda and Patrick sign up to an online dating site. One because of pressure from her friends and the other just for some fun. Anyways, they get connected online and within months of virtual and real hookups, they are married ! Linda and Patrick have just one thing to say – God Bless Dating Sites !!

Situation 2 – Sonia in America meets this fantabulous guy from Philippines. Everything was just great to the extent that she silently was even toying with the idea of maybe marrying him. To her idea of meeting up, the guy let out the story of how poor he was and blah blah blah and blah. Like a lot of people in the world sonia believes this person and sends him some money, which would cover part of his ticket to Miami through western union. The wait began. No news of the “guy” till date.

They say there is always two sides of a story or maybe more. Same goes for online dating. There are a lot of Lindas and Patricks out there who have had a pleasant experiences. Then there is also the Sonias, the other side of online dating, the ugly but definitely a real side. In today’s world where the technology is both a bane and boon, online dating, its fruit is a boon and also its problem child. Let me make it clear, I am not trying to brand that online banking is bad, what I am trying to say is we must me very prudent and cautious about it.

Lets now  look at a few pointers which might help us know a scam.

• The conversation tone can help to spot a scam. If the person you are chatting with is getting a lot of information about you and is talking about himself, there is a good chance that it could be a scam
• Appropriate responses is what you should look out for. If you feel the responses are kind of scriptes and is being copy pasted, then you can bet it’s a scam.
• Being asked to either cash someone’s check or money order for them, or being asked outright for money. The story varies somewhat with each internet dating scam, but the intention remains the same: robbing you of your hard earned cash.
• Check the location of the person in the profile and compare it with what the person is telling you the location. If it’s listed local and the person tells you of someother country, I would say it smells a dead rat.
• Last of course is the profile with the gorgeous babe smiling at you. It is not uncommon to use stolen photos as traps to draw in individuals. Normally they too don’t come back on many of your questions, or have a postponement in getting back. This is likely since these fraudsters work on many people at one time.

I would like to advice you also a few ways to have a safe online dating.

1. 1. Be conservative while dating. Never believe what the other person has to say. Play along and reply smartly, but don’t carry too far so as to scare a genuine candidate.
   2. Anyone can get the photo of any handsome guy or a gal and put it in their profile (not legally though), and pretend that it’s him. So please don’t fall for it.
   3. Create a sensible profile. Never divulge your contact details.

Internet dating scam is a reality which we all netizens must be aware of. Its not something we can say that it can never happen to us. Caution and shrewdness is the catchword. So have a happy hunting. ADIOS