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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.




Romance scams are on the rise

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Lioness1


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Romance scams are on the rise

Postby Lioness1 » Sun Sep 23, 2012 1:24 pm

Madame Noire | Black Women's Lifestyle Guide | Black Hair | Black Love

All Articles Tagged "online scams"
Take Caution When Using Personal Finance Apps


August 3rd, 2012 - By Tonya Garcia

Image: Shutterstock

There are lots of online tools out there intended to help you keep your personal finances in order. Even your bank is helping out with lots of Web-based programs and apps for managing your accounts. But plugging lots of personal information into an app can lead to trouble.

Business Insider suggests users take precautions, like being mindful of what you’re accessing in mobile hotspots and keeping an eye out for fake apps.

Separately but related, they also remind readers that an app is not the equivalent of financial planning. Good advice alert! Crunching the numbers in order to plan for the long-term or a big purchase is totally different from managing everyday or regular expenses.

Fidelity Investments, the country’s most popular 401(K) administrator, said this week that the contributions from its 12 million account holders continued to be strong during the second quarter. However, the value of the accounts themselves are down 2.4 percent from March, averaging $72,800. Fluctuations in the stock market, for example, have to be taken into account.

So personal finance apps are a good thing, but as with all things online, proceed with caution. While we’re on that topic, here’s a story outlining some common online scams to be wary of, a couple of which appeared on our own recent list of top scams.

Single Ladies Beware: Romance Scams Are On The Rise


December 21st, 2011 - By Charlotte Young



When the loneliness gets too hard to bear, many people seek comfort from the Internet. But be careful— romance scammers are waiting. We’re not talking about the kind that try to steal your heart and turn out to be just as trifling as the ones you met in person. We’re talking about the scammers that are simply out for your money. Reuters reports that romance scams are “long-term romantic relationships that thieves cultivate with a potential victim.” In the midst of the holiday season, they’re on the rise.

When it comes to romance scams there is no discrimination: victims range from 18 to 81 and come from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Although scam artists make it difficult to give romance scams an exact number, Western Union reports that these scams are one of the top five customer complaints. Since November, the company has observed a 30 percent increase in romance scam reports.

Barb Sluppick, who was almost a victim herself, tells Reuters that “if you are on the Internet and you have an email address and you are open to having a relationship with someone, you can become a victim.”


She founded the support and awareness internet group Romancescams.org, and has had more than 48,000 people join her site since 2005. 1,165 people on the site have disclosed how much money they lost to scammers lost with a total of $14.1 million.

The scam starts off simple enough with a friendly and innocent meeting on a dating site or forum. After weeks and sometimes months of communication over email, phone calls or instant messages, a trust begins to form between the two budding lovers, so that strong that they can begin to ask for money. Sometimes the person needs money to help pay for travel to see you, their newfound love. Sometimes they tell you they need help paying for holiday gifts or for a series of unfortunate events that have happened recently.

“I am not an ignorant person. I am educated and intelligent,” Jan Miller said to Reuters. The registered nurse and mother of three thought she had found a wonderful potential mate in a guy she met online who claimed to be living in Seattle.

“I told myself he has to be real, because why would anyone spend that much time talking to someone if they were not real?”

Her internet “friend” asked her for money after he had run into misfortune while on a business trip in London. Miller obliged and when it didn’t seem as if he was coming back to the US, she slowly began to realize she had been scammed, and found out he was part of a team of scammers in Nigeria.

According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, most of the scams derive from Nigeria, Ghana, England and Canada. In most of these international scamming cases, the money is never recovered and the thieves are hard to shut down.

Perhaps it’s best this holiday season to enjoy your singleness and your money. If you do choose to chat with someone online, keep in mind that until you’ve met this person, he/she doesn’t deserve a dime of your hard earned money. After all, we are still in a recession.



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Romance scams are on the rise

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