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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.




Tools I Used That Were Helpful

Useful tools to detect scammers
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Kat Fisher
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Tools I Used That Were Helpful

Postby Kat Fisher » Wed Nov 04, 2015 4:47 am

I've been reading this site as a guest for a few months now and decided to post a few things I have learned.

I took RomanceScam.com's advice and looked up information on Spokeo. Unfortunately, Spokeo was of little help in my situation. I attempted to check IPs. However, as many of you know, when Gmail is used, the only IP address that shows up is Mountainview, CA.

I've researched many sites online and here are some sites I found very helpful in my search. I hope that this can help anyone looking for more information.

1. https://www.twilio.com/lookup#pricing
You do not need to sign up or register to use this service. This service is a phone validator to check phone numbers and look up phone carriers. You can look up any phone number -- international, national, local. The carrier connected to the user's phone number can be determined and it can be determined if the phone line is a landline, VoIP or mobile. It will also tell you if the telephone number was assigned by a talk and text app, such as Google, Viper, TextPlus, GoTextMe, etc.

Many people use talk and text apps for privacy reasons, especially for dating purposes. There are many apps available for national and international use where you can choose the location (area code) and phone number. As many of you know, these numbers are disposable. Take note if someone tells you that the number they have given you is his/her 'personal' phone number. Check it and see if it actually is his/her number associated with his/her mobile carrier or landline.

2. https://www.imageraider.com/
There are several reverse image finders available. Google images is well know as is https://www.tineye.com/. What is interesting about imageraider is that you can search up to 20 images at one time. You can also search URLs. The site is free to use. You can also register with the site and there are some paid features available on the site as well. I did not sign up for, nor use, any paid services so I cannot speak to those services.

The results list images that are found and on what sites the images have been found on. You can click on the link and it will open the page in which the image was found. You can also post images that you would like to be monitored to see if they show up on the web. I understand that to be part of the paid service.

Here is more info about imageraider.com (according to the site information).

Long-term Image Monitoring
Spend a few minutes adding your photo or image catalogue to Image Raider, and we’ll let you know when we find any websites using them.

Who Uses Image Raider?
Smartphone users wanting to use Google reverse image search from a mobile
SEOs and digital marketers looking for websites using their images to gain image credit and links
Photographers and rightsholders looking for websites who have used their work without permission
Users checking if their personal photos have been used online
Users who want to find the original source of an image
Anyone looking for images via our Image Search functionality

3. EXIF (exchangeable image file format) Viewer.
This is a tool that allows you to view metadata embedded within photos, such as the device used to take the photo, camera settings used when the photograph was taken, how large the photo is, the date the photo was taken and where the photo was taken, etc. Location is not always available in photos as people do not always have the GPS or location services enabled on their phone or cameras.

Depending on the browser you use, such as Chrome or Firefox for example, there are add-ons you can use to determine the metadata in a picture. There are also sites that offer free analysis of photos such as Jeffrey's Exif Viewer http://regex.info/exif.cgi or Metapicz http://metapicz.com/#landing. If you use Jefrey's site, be sure to click on ICC Profile Data it if is listed with the results as this can tell you when the photos was taken. Metapicz will automatically show you the ICC Profile Data. Many scammers are using very outdated pictures. My scammer used pictures that were three to six years old.

There are also apps you can use on your smartphones, such as ExifWizard, that are free to use.

Something to consider before sending or uploading any photos on the internet (ie. Facebook,etc.), is to erase the metadata from your photos. Based on my recent experience, I would not send any photos to anyone I have not meet (and I did erase the metadata before sending). Treat your image, your pictures, like money. Protect yourself as best you can.

If this information is posted elsewhere in the forums, I apologize for the repost.

Tools I Used That Were Helpful

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FrumpyBB
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Re: Tools I Used That Were Helpful

Postby FrumpyBB » Wed Nov 04, 2015 11:02 am

Thank you - let me move this to "Useful Tools" :)
Please try your best to block ALL your scammer´s still incoming messages and calls!

What is all this? => The FAQ

The scammers vs. Why is "he" still doing it?

Why is alerting the man in the pictures DANGEROUS?

Please click why confronting my scammer is terribly wrong :)

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