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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.




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wayne


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Become a sponsor and help this site.

Postby wayne » Fri May 29, 2009 11:35 pm

I've just received an email from Marisa that discusses Scamdigger. Let me explain the situation right now. It was compiled on the old version of the operating system the site's server runs on, and when we did the upgrade we knew that it would have to be recompiled. It's not just a matter of reinstalling the software tho. It would have to reindex all the photographs as well. That's close to 100,000 photographs. However, there's another, much bigger issue, and that's the server itself. Two years ago, when the site was placed on the server it's on now, we never dreamed it would use up even a fraction of the resources it's using right now. As the site's grown and new tools like Scamdigger have been added to it, we're at the point where we're rapidly outgrowing the server. We desperately need to move to a better server, but this costs money. To upgrade would cost us an extra $500 a year, on top of what's being paid already. One idea we're seriously discussing now is to ask for people to agree to a small monthly donation from their bank or Paypal accounts, say a minimum of $5 a month, or a larger amount to cover a year's sponsorship. Anyone that does this would have a new custom title, "RomanceScam Sponsor" and their name would show up in a different color on the forums to represent their status. We'd also have a running total to show how much has been raised. How would people feel about "sponsoring" the sites for a small monthly fee? It's only a small amount each month, and it helps us to save victims from losing thousands of dollars to the scammers.

The reality is that without donations to be able to move to a new server, it's highly likely we may not be able to bring Scamdigger back at all, and the site may suffer constant downtimes due to us reaching our server limits.

<UPDATE>

Now we've raised the money for this year, let's not stop. All the money raised in the next 12 months will go toward helping to cover the fees for the year after. Every cent you give goes to keep this site running and both fighting scammers and offering support and advice to the victims of scammers.
Last edited by wayne on Fri Jun 05, 2009 5:53 pm, edited 6 times in total.

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childrg0
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I Wholeheartedly Agree

Postby childrg0 » Sat May 30, 2009 12:34 am

I wholeheartedly agree that we can help more people if each of us will contribute a minimal amount a month. After all, many of these scammer-ridden dating websites charge quite a bit, and look what the results are from those! I would be more than willing to help this website stay in business. After all, the amount of help which RS provides victims and potential victims is priceless.

sanneb
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Postby sanneb » Sat May 30, 2009 5:41 am

I would agree to do it. It's a good idea. it is priceless when we help victims or can stop a scam before it begins.

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On A Mission
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A Day Without Wayne - Have You Thought About It ??

Postby On A Mission » Sat May 30, 2009 1:29 pm

I have SSDI direct deposit only to my bank account and some changes were done after the scammer got into my account twice. I can send money the 3rd of each month the same way that I pay my utilities, it just can not be taken by another source. Would we be able to donate this way? I can also send a check if not.

I live on a very limited income and there is no reason that everyone can not HELP! We all pay taxes which pay the legal system that is doing nothing about this problem. I guess another way to look at it is, Is RS worth about 17 cents a day to you? Sorry, if I sound a little rude but if we would of know about this site before my friend was scammed it would of cost us much less money and I personally do know of others that have been saved. So, come on guys and keep the family strong and growing. I could go on forever.
Love To All!
Last edited by On A Mission on Sat Jun 06, 2009 6:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
We are here to help you free of charge
but there are charges to keep this site running.
If we were able to help in any way,
a small donation would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You

>>REAL FACES OF SCAMMERS<<[/b]

wayne


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Postby wayne » Sun May 31, 2009 10:16 am

Thank you for your kind words so far. I appreciate and apologise for catching you at the wrong time of the month with this, when everyone (myself included) is waiting on their paycheck. We've already had our first donation arrive, and several people I've spoken to have promised their support too and offered to send donations within the week. This site and the other resources we offer are too valuable to lose. The work done here has saved hundreds, maybe thousands of people from losing money, and has the potential to save thousands more with your help.

Angel17
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Postby Angel17 » Sun May 31, 2009 3:07 pm

I think everyone in here should help with whatever they can. Sometimes the amount is not so important as the result from many many small donations. Even though some of us came here too late, RS hat help us to let our feelings out and get support. I got this support and I am very grateful for it. We got to help now to keep this wonderful work going and save some more people.

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RubyM
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Postby RubyM » Sun May 31, 2009 5:23 pm

Unfortunately I don't have a pay pal account but I could transfer something every month from my bank account. Therefore I would need an information where to transfer it :)

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strawberryqueen
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Postby strawberryqueen » Sun May 31, 2009 5:38 pm

Not monthly, but €15 one time.
I don't have paypal neither, any IBAN/ BIC is fine with me.

wayne


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Postby wayne » Sun May 31, 2009 6:27 pm

As far as I'm aware, it is possible to do a one off payment thru Paypal even if you don't have a Paypal account. When you click on the donate button, look for this
Don't have a PayPal account?
Use your credit card or bank account (where available).
I haven't used it myself as I've had a PP account for a few years. If anyone uses it, can you let us know how easy/difficult it was?

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RubyM
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Postby RubyM » Sun May 31, 2009 6:37 pm

I see what you mean Wayne but I can't make payments every month from my Visa credit account. I'd rather transfer from my personal account simply because it's easier and cheaper. That one of payment through Paypal doesn't support my personal bank account payments.

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strawberryqueen
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Postby strawberryqueen » Sun May 31, 2009 8:06 pm

Why not use Western Union or MoneyGram? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:


I don't like paypal, sorry, I don't want to use it. They also keep 3% of the money you transfern, whatfor? Why not use IBAN/ BIC? It is fast and free.

wayne


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Postby wayne » Sun May 31, 2009 8:59 pm

We can certainly look into it. The biggest issue would be how anonymous it would be. Imagine what would happen if a scammer made a donation and got either Marisa or my real details. One tried it with Paypal, but we have an anonymous account there. All they managed to do was donate 10 bucks and find out none of our info shows :twisted:

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strawberryqueen
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Postby strawberryqueen » Sun May 31, 2009 9:08 pm

Ok, I got you. I guess, I can make an exception for RS. Just that I had many bad experiences with Paypal in the past :( :( :(

wayne


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Postby wayne » Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:43 am

We've been discussing the situation, trying to work out the fairest system for those that sponsor romancescam. We'll have a button that will let you sponsor us for $5 a month as well as one for single donations. This way everyone gets treated fairly. Each $5 will give you a sponsor status for 1 month. If you give $50 as one amount, then you'll be a sponsor for 12 months, and giving $100 will cover your sponsorship for 2 years. That way, if you sign up for the $5 a month sponsorship, your status will stay the same for as long as you agree to pay that $5 a month, or you can pay in larger amounts and know your sponsorship is covered for a longer period of time.

(We've also decided to include those that had already donated over the past several weeks as we feel it's only fair)

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Marisa
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Postby Marisa » Mon Jun 01, 2009 6:21 am

I just want to give my special thanks to everybody who donated so far: Pinky, &TheHorseYouRodeInOn, Angel17. Hopefully, this list will continue to grow.

Just so you have more clear picture of what exactly are we rasing money for. Few figures. Those of you who understand about computers, will understand even better.

Currently, the site is running on a sever which has a Single Core outdated Pentium processor and only 1 GB of RAM. I bet most of you have more powerful PC at home, where you are the only user! And we sometimes have 50+ people connected at the same time (that's not counting different spam bots, hacker bots and all other crap).

What we are trying to do, is upgrade to a PC with new Dual Core processor and 4 GB of RAM.

To maintain such server costs $2640 dollars per year. Google ads that we have on this site cover about $1500 - $1600 of it. The rest ($1000) I will be paying out of my own pocket. So, we are trying to collectively raise at least $500 towards it. I am also not rich! LOL ;)

Thanks guys!
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