Cash scam warning to online dating site users
Lesley Richardson in the Independent reports on police warnings to singles using internet dating sites to look out for scammers.
The fraudsters sign up to websites including datingdirect.com and seniordating.com and start emailing their victims, pretending they are looking for love and are interested in a relationship. But all they really want is money, peddling stories of hardship or the need for cash to start a new life in the UK.
“Two women, aged 49 and 61, from Southampton, have been conned out of £18,000 in the last two months. Three other Hampshire women have also lost significant amounts of cash. They include a 58-year-old Winchester woman, who was duped out of £24,000, and a 62-year-old New Forest woman, who was conned out of £4,000. A Farnborough woman also fell victim to the scam”.
Civilian investigator Phil McAleer, from Southampton Central police station, said: “The Southampton women have been conned out of significant amounts of cash, thinking that the person they are emailing is interested in forging a relationship and is in genuine need. “One of the women was told by the man emailing her that he was falsely imprisoned on drugs charges and needs money to be released. “They are then given a name and told to wire the money to Ghana via Western Union or Moneygram. These scammers prey on vulnerable people looking for love. I’d ask anyone using internet dating sites who is asked to part with large sums of money to be very cautious. Remember, you rarely get anything for nothing. These cons are costing people huge amounts of cash and there is no audit trail when money is wired to people in this way, so victims have very little chance of getting their money back.”
Note: Unlike many most other dating services The 3G Dating Agency has a membership of validated members where every profile has been checked to assure that the member is real. We also moderate every message sent between members through the service and this enables us to intercept any suspicious activity such as scamming attempts. Not only are scammers detected immediately but there is also a comprehensive audit trail that we will provide to the police.
March 13, 2009 at 4:46 am
hi ive been on “NAME_OF_DATING_SITE_REMOVED” now for about 4 months now and ive received nothing but fraudsters on it,the first client they had wanted me to give money to,in Africa,i refused,second one called from Africa and yet again that client was asking for money,Ive had about 6 introductions from them now and they’re all fraudsters,i was wondering if you could help me in anyway,because i’ve typed to them asking them to delete my profileand they haven’t even sent me an email in return, i’m fed up with this harassment can you do something about it,my name is “NAME_OF_WRITER_REMOVED”, i would appreciate it if you can help me
March 13, 2009 at 8:32 am
Hi NAME,
Sorry to hear about your terrible experience of online dating.
I hope you don’t mind but i’ve removed your name and the name of the website you referred to because i wanted to protect you from them targeting you further and didn’t want to give them any additional publicity.
I’m so sorry that you have been duped by these fraudsters. I’ve checked out the link you provided and i think you are right about them and you might be best just moving on and trying to forget your terrible experience.
I hope this hasn’t completely put you off the idea of finding love online… but next time might i suggest googling the company’s name and seeing if there are any poor customer ratings out there as this is often a sign that you shouldn’t invest your time or money.
Why not try The 3G Dating Agency where it’s free to join and you can be confident that you won’t find any of these contacts from scammers because of our strict member validation processes and the fact that we moderate all communications and profiles on the site.
Regards,
Romi