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Romance Scam

Please report romance scams and dating scams here. We accept reports on Russian scammers and Nigerian scammers.

Disclaimer regarding pictures posted on the board: please understand that you are NOT looking at the pictures of people who are actually scamming you. The people portrayed on these photos are innocent men and women, NOT involved in scamming in any way and have nothing to do with scammers. The scammers are using their images without their knowledge or permission to deceive their victims and steal their money.




Self Help tips for identifying and dealing with Russian Scam

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Pete
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Self Help tips for identifying and dealing with Russian Scam

Postby Pete » Thu Mar 29, 2007 3:48 pm

You can do most of the detective work yourself! The more you do, the less we need to help you with. It's not hard!
We're happy to help, but most of this is very simple, and finding the information YOURSELF may help convince you this is a SCAM a bit faster!

If you find sufficient information that this is a scam, you still need to post this scammer in this forum! Posting the information will help inform other victims, and educate the public. When a potential victim finds the information on a scammer BEFORE they send money, this hurts scammers!! They miss out on a payday! These scammers operate in a BULK mode. They send out hundreds to thousands of pre-written letters a day. Only a few victims need to 'pay up' to make it profitable. The scammer has little time, and expense tied up in the effort. Cheat them out of a paycheck!! Post VALID information on scammers!

How to find clues or evidence you are dealing with a scammer???

1) Google the email address. It may have been in use for a while, and there may be reports online already.

2) Learn to check the email headers. This will show you the email is not coming from where the sender claims to be, or more.

3) Google various strange sentences, phrases, or misspellings in the letters.

One set of scam letters always mentions she likes to drink 'red vine'. The same lady misspells 'university' in a wierd way. You'll see strange phrases that stand out.

Cut and paste the phrase into the google search box, surround it with quotes and search. Using quotes is important, this will ensure the exact match.

4) Google the dating site member name, and strange phrases from the profile!! You'll find more profiles for the same person, sometimes with different pictures!

Multiple profiles on many sites prove it's a scammer? Not really. Just interesting information. Especially if location on these profiles is different. The scammers create many profiles on many sites, and write many people. The letters you get are not 'special'.

5) The last thing you should try to do is find the face. It's very time intensive!! Sometimes, somebody will recognize the pic, but with thousands of 'scammers' out there, don't count on it.

The pictures usually depict somebody who is not involved in the scam. The pictures are stolen from the internet, or RARELY, are of local girls, paid to pose. Only in a handful of the thousands of scammers I have information on, does the person in the picture actually seem to be involved in the scam. Rare, a fraction of a percent. Not likely!

Posting the pictures has the biggest shock impact on victims. That's why we do it. Your 'Olga' is somebody else's 'Natalya'. The same happens with letters. When you read the same gushing letter as you got, sent to other people....well....time to wake up, isn't it?

You still want to check for the face??? Then use Google Image Search or Tineye.

Remember, just because the face doesn't show up, does it mean it's not a scam!!
Checking the email headers, and googling the letters are the fastest, and most reliable means to determine it's a scam.
Last edited by Pete on Sun Jul 08, 2007 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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