http://scamsurvivors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1861 has an entire rogues’ gallery of real scammer photos. Check it out if you want to see what the person talking to you REALLY looks like. We call them “Mug(u) shots”. Here’s why. Scammers refer to their victims as magas. It means “fool”. If they want to insult you, then they’ll call you a mugu. […]
Month: November 2014
Males are targeted more than females in romance scams.
The percentage of males romance scammed compared to females is considerably higher. While the West African scammers target both males and females, scammers from Russia and Ukraine almost exclusively target males. Reports of these scammers targeting females are rare, as are ones of females becoming victims of a blackmail scam that didn’t originate as a […]
Bots on dating sites trying to encourage people to join other sites.
Below is a typical bot message on one dating site that attempts to lure people to another site. First the original German it was sent in, then the badly translated English version. How do you feel about this practice? Should sites be allowed to do this? hi schönes bild habe interesse an dir bist mein […]
It’s amazing the things scammers will send you. Take this illuminati scam email for example:
As the xmas season approaches, we are offering membership to all interested persons. Do you want to become a member of the illuminati and gain all you seek in life, we can give you all you want to acheive in life; wealth, power, fame, influence, popularity etc. Here is a chance for you to achieve […]
Experienced a bad dating site?
Have you had a bad experience with a dating site? Been billed after you shut your account? Sent messages from fake profiles? Had to deal with bad customer service? Now’s your chance to tell everyone about it. We’ve created a new site called www.baddatingsites.com for people to share their experiences both good and bad on […]
This chart describing domestic abuse has a lot of common ground with the tactics used by romance scammers.
How can we tell where a scam originated from just by looking at it?
People are often surprised how we can tell where a scam email came from so quickly. It’s actually very simple. Certain parts of the world tend to specialise in certain types of scam. For example, refugee scams will typically come from Senegal, whereas translation agency scams are usually sent from Ukraine. If an email mentions […]
Love at First Swipe?
We had this media request today if anyone’s interested. Love at First Swipe? Looking to hook up? Or searching for your soulmate? Are you an online dating app virgin? Or King or Queen of the dating app scene? Do you use online dating apps as a way to meet people? Or do you […]
What can you do to help us help others?
The most important thing we do is get scammer information into the public domain. People often ask us what they can do to help. The answer is very simple. Help us get those details out. We don’t recommend actively chasing scammers, but if you do get contacted by a scammer, post their details up. An […]
FTC
I had a long chat on the phone today with the FTC, thanks to Marc Lesnick from @idateconference that was very interesting and very constructive. Hopefully this will lead to making other contacts that can benefit both us and the awareness of scams in the future.