| May 7 @ 11:23 AM |
scams involving kids
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navywave
Posts: 13
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THese nigerian scams have got more sophisticated. Now they show you pictures of their son or young daughter, who lost their mother to a auto accident or child birth. THey string you along for over a month.I don't know why this site does not have a screening for scams. I belong to another free site, and have never been approached by a scammer. The guys names are Jim Bryan,Maxwell Craig,heart to heart,rainbowslide. TO name a few I have come across on here. Ladies beware, if they immediately fall in love with you,want you to be a mother to their child,in a foreign country, but claim to have a house in united states. Don't believe them, it is all a scam. Thank god I have the policy of never, ever sending money to anyone on the net.
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| May 7 @ 11:30 AM |
scams involving kids |
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Loreli
Posts: 20,313
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A scam is a scam-adult pic or kid's pic.
Never send anybody money no matter where they live, or what their story is. Good for you 
There is very little way to "screen"- some are obvious...others not so much. 
Report
block
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| May 8 @ 7:38 PM |
scams involving kids
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spaceman33
Posts: 9
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There is a very easy way to spot a nigerian right from the start. First, read their ad. Look at how they speak english. Most all the time it usually contains the word AM. It can say something like am so-so, or am such and such age. Very easy to spot. And if they send you an email asking that you write to their personal adrress, it most definatley is a scam. This site is loaded with nigerian scammers. But there are some real people on here. Just have to wade throught the crap to find the right ones.
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| May 10 @ 6:11 PM |
scams involving kids |
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navywave
Posts: 13
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They also, in their first letters, tell you they are widowers . have a picture with a child. And in their first email, they want to talk to you off site. (So they can continue to scam people on here. I think Matchdoctor should refuse any mail from africa or its countries within. THat would eliminate alot of scammers. I don't have this problem on plentyoffish. SO their must be some kind of screening going on. My space is bad about scammers also.
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| May 10 @ 6:31 PM |
scams involving kids
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SunBabe
Posts: 12,251
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There are plenty of scammers from every continent...including North America. And there are legitimate members from all those areas as well.
Have you seen the safety warning and report abuse links?
And why would you ever allow yourself to be lured away from this site and give them your private email address and ID, which can be sold to other spammers and scammers (and IP, which can be traced!)? 
Please educate yourself and avoid all the hassle. It's safer that way, too. 
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| May 10 @ 6:48 PM |
scams involving kids |
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DiamondRain
Posts: 4,903
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Actually MD does a superb job getting rid of scammers and spammers. They have an excellent system for reporting them (including one feature originally requested by me heee heee) and they are very responsive when you do report them.
The amount of this stuff varies by site depending on a number of factors. There are a number of dating sites where 90+ % of the profiles and e-mails are fakes. Here the percentage is much smaller.
It's not possible to stop all the scammers/spammers unless you institute some severe sign up requirements. And that would take away some of the fun.
Nigerian (and lots of other foreign) scammers are a lot older than the Internet. They have been around for many decades and used to be done through the regular mail.
The really unfortunate thing is that a lot of the money that is scammed is used to fund terrorism. No, these are not cute pickpockets, much of it is a well organized mob operation.
There are a million versions of scams. I remember more than 10 years ago on the Internet when this "woman" I met on AOL dating used to send me pictures of her "mother" in a hospital bed who she claimed was in a terrible car accident. She was trying to raise money to save her life. Even then I knew it was a "yeah right." Turns out she wasn't even a woman... "she" was a foreign scammer.
If you use common sense, it's impossible to be scammed. So just be sure to use it.
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| May 10 @ 6:51 PM |
scams involving kids
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kattsmeow
Posts: 21,272
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I think Matchdoctor should refuse any mail from africa or its countries within. THat would eliminate alot of scammers. I
I never get mail from Africa,,,I have it blocked. You can decide what territory you want to hear from I think in your options. You can also do this with the age of a person. Go in and look at your options.
No one gets my number or email until I know them for quite awhile.
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| May 10 @ 6:54 PM |
scams involving kids |
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DwainP50
Posts: 5,009
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They are scammers?????  And here I thought I had a fan club going in Nigeria!  Next you all are going to tell me that my Chinese Fan Club is a fraud too! 
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| May 10 @ 6:58 PM |
scams involving kids
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DiamondRain
Posts: 4,903
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Rejecting profiles that list “Africa” as their location is useless. Most of the scammers don’t list themselves at their real location. They often use American locations in their profiles.
Also ... Many of the scammers have accomplices in other countries including Western Europe and other countries that you wouldn‘t normally be wary of. Sometimes they use an address in one of these countries when they give you an address so it won’t look so suspicious.
And Africa isn’t the only continent with scammers. A lot of it comes from Eastern Europe, Russia, China and some other Asian countries, as well as others.
Common sense is the only completely effective protection.
[Edited on 5/10/2008 7:05 PM]
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| May 10 @ 8:24 PM |
scams involving kids |
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ForumMod
Posts: 1,280
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all good advice (except for posting names of current members, if that's what they are, which is against our rules for several reasons). we do our best to eliminate the potential scammers and spammers, many before they can even log in. but because of the various sophisticated ways that a lot of them have for circumnavigating our 'traps', some do slip through. that's why we have to rely on our members to report them immediately.
we also suggest that people stick to communicating through this site until they are comfortable and can trust each other. we offer free email and chat as well as our own IM (which needs to be inititated by a gold member, tho). we're also active in the Anti-Scam Campaign.
(adjusting your settings to send certain regional emails to your filtered mailbox helps. unfortunately we can't block the ones who use an american address or isp from our site or everyone in texas, california, new york, and florida would be blocked, lol. awareness is the real key to protecting yourself and your money. and as diamond rain said, common sense. )
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| May 10 @ 8:28 PM |
scams involving kids
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BandTMom
Posts: 28,408
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I luff him.
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| May 10 @ 10:20 PM |
scams involving kids |
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SpiritEnergy
Posts: 16,987
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Oh, come on. Not just Nigerians use children to scam people. People we know do it as well. Men and women both. I knew a guy that organized 'psychic' searches for lost children. He used children to hook people then sold his readings to the people that were brought in by his free searches.
Men and women use it to get people to send them money all the time. That and illnesses.
People use the military as well. Disasters are real big to hook people into sending money. Many, many scams. Best thing I think people can do for someone that claims to have issues is to research the issues and send them to government facilities that can help them.
The cons NEVER go do it. Always have SOME excuse why they can't. The REAL people that have REAL needs will do whatever it takes to get help. AND they usually are grateful for the assistance. People that have no gratitude for REAL assistance, make a note of them. Look at the excuses they make for why they will not get assistance.
The bottom line is, there is NO free ride. You have to work your butt off for free assistance but you can get it no matter what excuses some people will give you or how much trouble it is to get the assistance. Most just want things to be given to them because they are unwilling to 'work' for it. And don't tell me I am being too harsh. I have BEEN there.
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