Internet Romance Scams, Part 3 (How to Identify a scammer by their profiles)
Yes, Romance Scammers are relentless and never stop trying to finding new ways to get into your hearts and wallets. Just this morning I had three emails from scammers trying to start a relationship with me and two of them were using Avatars that I have already identified and posted warnings on their “Shout-outs”. One of the problems is, how do you know or identify who is real and who is a scammer. I (we) do not have all the answers, but, will try to give each of you a headstart in learning to identify a scammer profile.
1. Take a good look at the Avatar (picture), Scammers use photos stolen for Modeling and Porn websites. If the picture is posed and look professional (a very clear and sharply focused Shot) be careful. (Here is a contradiction, as over the last several months I have seen an increase of pictures of normal looking people used by scammers, mostly harvested from Facebook or pictures the scammers received from their victims).
2. The name (screen name) does not match the nation that they say they are from, (example, an obvious African or Mideastern name from Montana, USA). Also, when a screen name with sexual overtones is used be careful.
3. Looking for age group inappropriate for the age of the profile (Example a 23 year old female, looking for a man 25 to 99). Now be careful, as many Asian profiles have an older age range and are from real ladies.
4. Location; Scammer do not know the nation that they say they are from and have inappropriate associations of cities and states and sometimes countries (example, Los Angles, New York or Seattle, Canada)
5. Height, many scammers never read this item and leave the height at 3' 6" which is a child’s height.
6. Compare the body type with the picture and see if they match (most scammers do not understand what “Curvy” in a body profile means).
7. Ethnicity, from the picture what is the ethnicity of the person (Example, white, blond lady listed as Native American, or an African American listed as Asian, mixed race is a dead giveaway)
8. Religion; watch out for religious affiliations that are not appropriate to the area, like Christian/LDS in Africa or Europe.
9. Read what they say “In my own words”; is it written like a native writer, is the English in the correct form, how is the spelling, (yes I know that many of us can not spell and make allowances for others, but really look at spelling).
10. Hair Color; ook at the photo and determine if they match (I know that every lady “Knows” hat here hair color is and that should never be wrong or posted as (unknown”).
11. If you can see the eyes in the photo, look and check for a match.
12. Is the education appropriate for the age and work that they are doing (Example, Doctorate, or Ph.D. at the age of 24).
13 Occupation: said that they had a highschool education and listed Occupation as a Nurse which requires a degree. (Watch out for buyer and sellers of antiques, art,
gold, and beads, fashion, self-employed and child care, also look out for Engineers and Architects).
14. Income; is the income appropriate for the age group and occupation. Remember in the US, $52,000.00 per year is average (example, working as a secretary and earning $70.000 to $100,000 per year).
Then take a real close look at the written profile. Let’s take a look at “Red flags” that we could find in a scammers written profile.
1. Spelling is atrocious (even I can use a spell checker).
2. Unfamiliar with the language and grammar of the nation they state that they are from. (Example, They say that they are from the USA, and inconsistent with an American writer).
3. Uneducated in writing/speaking skills (like a third grade writer).
4. Overuse of terms on endearment and emotions.
5. Notorious for using “i” instead of the proper form of “I”.
6. The use of abbreviations such as u; r;ur; coz; pls; plz; ma; m; Am; sry; brb’ dev; ect, (Using Text language to write a email or profile).
7. Improper or mixed phrases like "
“i” will like to heer from you soonest;
I am kool;
Do you have any man you care to meet,;
Do you have any man you planning to meet;
Looking for someone to love and care for in life;
Am cheerfull in life;
I will like to meet someone that is careing and loveing for real in life;
“I” am too young for my age if you don’t know;
Ok so how will you feel if i says i dont mind you;
i will like you to be my best friend;
You are so pretty for my likeness; etc.
8. Misunderstanding our slang or comparisons such as night owl/early bird, poker face
Here are examples of a scammer’s written profile:
“Well i love my job o much, i can laugh a lot...LoL, Write me and i will tell you more about myself because i don't know what to write at the moment.”
“I would describe myself as a calm, romantic, kind, honest and caring and loving person. My hobbies are going to movies, Beaches and dining out to nice restaurantsI love playing Volley ball. I also love travelling. I like the color blue. I love kids whenever I see them on the street playing and I am wishing to have mine someday. They are so cute at this young ID charity.”
“i we tell you letter i we tell you letter i we tell you letter i we tell you letter i we tell you letter i we tell you letter i we tell you letter i we tell you letter i we tell you letter i we tell you letter i”
“ask me letter ask me letter ask me letter ask me letter ask me letter ask me letter ask me letter ask me letter ask me letter ask me letter ask me letter ask me letter”
“am the person who remember the ones that help me but also da ones who destroy me, but no matter what i learn to forgive the others because remember u only have one life so enjoy It, and never look back live the life because the years gone never come back!!!”
“i just finished my schooling so i am currently in an IT programme”
Many times the scammers copy profile but mix the profiles or gender up by putting a mans profile in a ladies profile or the profile will have two different style of writings. In the end each of us must be vigilant and look carefully at each profile and determine if it is safe to respond to.”
If you find a Scammer, Notify the site and Block them from your email , Do not let your emotions get involved as they are criminals and are only out to steal your money.
Please feel free to comment and add examples to this blog.
Romance scammers are also copying from real profiles and pasting them into their profile, many times they forget to remove the gender and will have a male profile where it should be a female or will mix two different writing styles in the same profile.
If more that one of these areas do not match, beware and verify if they are a scammer before you develop a relationship, check the internet for known scammers and the pictures and profiles that the use.
“Do Not Feed the Scammers”
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Comments (29)
greetings. I am Wing Commander Mcbob with Interpol of Fresno.
I have discovered sum spooky physics in popular musick charts ...[ 2 samples,
...from a music site on the morning of 3/11/20....[ site name; Pitchfork
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medicine ) .bring me the horizon
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...synthesis } 20 / 20 ) the Graveyard.
sample 2 . Astro physics by Color code..
supermassive black hole. ) muse
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..TAPS. ) No More Color. ) the Coroner.
Careful NEVER EVER PAY MONEY ALL ARE SUMMERS WITHOUT EXCEPTION
Those I've meet not in This Site But it was Like apps for Chatting with people around The world
what I can Say is They are actually dumb at some point
Fortunately nothing bad happen to me
also cancer problems and " i need emergency 600$
even though i am wealthy"
and they can prove one thing about their claims.
He told me that he sent some gifts to me and he texted me fake numbers as my tracking pin with a personal bank account number to pay in some money for delivery. His partnes kept calling me to make the payment so they can deliver my gifts....
Another guy from USA said he's in love with me but interested in knowing about my family situation and business when I asked for his photo he sent one of Van Dan's pictures.
I can identify scammer when I see one.
Typos? Who's surprised? A doctorate in education and masters in humanities. The benthal bottoms of the academy. As most with real degrees will know.
We often seek most eagerly, that which we desire.
Message sent at 8:45pm GMT on 5th January 2017
I'm pretty much sure that I've found one of those lovely scammers:( on Connecting singles...
Classic signs:
Wanted me to get off the site and give private email very quickly. and proposed after 3 days!:D
Seems to have a lot of photos to back up story about his family history (of a very handsome chap (modelling style poses ) but who unfortunately changed his eye colour in some shots.!:D
The long email a classic cut and paste and have found other examples online where all that differs is the name and date of birth:.
eg. I am a Captain currently serving in the USMC ( United State Marine Corps) Born on October 24th 1967 I grew up in Long Island, went to Centereach HS for my high school diploma and got admitted to Fashion Institute Of Technology to study Psychology and Art History Minor with Major in Advertising
Description Native American with Polish name
Could go on, but need to go and click that block button...
Sorry Zygmunt AKA ReaLifePartnerM from Connectingsingles if you are genuine
but I suspect not and as a good friend told me it all seemed too good to be true!:) which is something is something I'd encourage anyone to do is get a friend to cast an impartial eye over anything you receive.
Interested to know if anyone else has come across this one?
Cheers again all, I think I've had a lucky escape and hope I've given some useful info to prevent this happening the others.
Also, don't be too critical of people's spelling and grammar as indicators of a scammer. Nothing is sadder than a woman telling the world how intelligent she is, with poor grammar and capitalization, no punctuation, and the word "intelligent" misspelled! America is a beautiful land, but evidently grammar, punctuation, and spelling have become a lost art for many. They can still be perfectly wonderful people! :)
I would add something else though. Usually the scammer spreads as a first message long copy/paste text, with quite detailed information about their origin, education, occupancy and hobbies. It looks so sterile and well structured, that seems truly impossible and fake. The copy/paste text is easily recognisable and cannot be mistaken.
If you still hesitate, whether the sender is a scammer or not, just check the final paragraph of that very first message. If there is an email address, where you are kindly invited to answer to, just because "he doesn't visit often this website", then the person is most probably a scammer.
So he asked me to upload my passport so that he could have the information to go to the embassy to prepare an invitation for me to come, so stupid, i did it along with my daughters, because i am adamant if i go she goes too, that was stupid
So two days passed, he does not communicate, I call the local police, and let them know my stupid mistake, so they contact the federal agency in the USA giving information on the documents and there codes and contents, and then Interpol now has the information.
So let's see what he can do with my documents.
Sometimes when your in a situation and you want to get out , the grass always looks greener on the other side, but take your time, there is nothing like magic, think through all the positive and negative of the situation and weigh the options cause I might just find out I have a large credit card bill because of the information i gave him, maybe a offshore bank account or maybe a copy of it next to someone's dead body, God forbid.
I am not on this site very long, but I'm learning to be more careful
I have chatted Mike for less than 3 weeks thru email
And to my surprised he told me he will come to the Phil to meet me...
Even sending me the fake booked ticket ..
Since then I searched about his flight. .some info is correct like flight number, departure time
But perhaps the wrong thing there is no arrivals from Tokyo to cebu. ..all will arrived in Manila. .
Then on that day he landed supposedly he called me and asking money for his connecting flight to manila..because his excuse that his atm card is not yet activated . How come you will travel in other country without money at all but was able to buy sim card and was able to call me in Mobile
Well orchestrated scam but failed
Thks for my instinct.
I guess this is the new modus operandi of the scammers. .
He is well good in English
It seems that his intention is real
But all r lies just wanted to scam
I met a man doing scams. His english language so good and educated (my english not too good :)). When i'm asking him to make video call, he become angry and block me and what is the unbelievable moment, i found the story in one site with Rusian language, with his pic, doing scams for a woman.
what a crazy world.
Using word dear, darling, love , hun in early contact.
And very common in a short time communication in the message they already doing drama mental abused
with very emotionals sentences put us in the corner with
no chance to explain. They design the communication to be a totaly screwup missunderstood conversation.
Full with anger.. left us wondering .,what had happen ?
Very abnormal communication if you logicaly analyze.
Carefull when they show a live C2C in Skype, the video is looping. We can only see them in 3 second
If we ask to turn on again the cam.. they will be very angry..and said "you dont trust me ???"
no chance to have an interactive conversation through the cam
You right, Blue cypres, their english language is perfect textbook. Keep me wonder what kind of English translator apps are they using ?