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Articles
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Database of scammers
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Webmaster of Dating 'n More
http://www.new-dating.com/search.php
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About this scam list: it was created as an extension to my online dating community Dating 'n More: a small, absolutely free, privately owned, non-profit dating website, which I do my best to maintain scam free. I am not some "company", as well as my Dating 'n More site doesn't belong to any company. It is maintained by a private individual (that would be me!) who is greatly concerned about what is going on in the dating industry. I used to have this list over there on the site, but it is rapidly growing, and I started running out of space over there, so I moved the scam list to this site.
The main purpose of this list is to protect the members of my online community, as well as other people who use online dating services, from fraud and scam, to inform them about the horrible situation with scams in the online dating world, to put them on alert if a scammer contacts them and to prevent them from contacting scammers themselves.
Also, the scammers trick their victims into transferring thousands of dollars to Nigeria and some other West African countries, which totals to millions of dollars per year, while this money could have stayed in their home country helping its economy, instead of being "invested" by the deceptive ways into the economy of the scammers home country, so I believe it is a national problem that should be addressed asap.
The online scams come in many forms and shapes, but there is one particularly nasty form: romance scams, when the scammers approach you on the dating services. They play with their victims feelings, send them lovely messages, call them on the phone, send them presents, make them believe that they finally met their "one and only", and after they build some degree of trust, here comes the nasty scam part. The most common online dating scams are Nigerian scams and Russian scams.
Since these type of scams involve some romantic foreplay and physical attraction, the major weapon of the romance scammers is PHOTOS. More attractive the better! The scammers almost never use their own photos and show their own ugly faces. They use photos of other people: attractive, good and decent. In most cases, they steal photos from online modeling agencies, like FocusHawaii.com, BlackCuties.com or NewFaces.com, or from magazines. But they may also steal pictures from the real dating or Yahoo profiles of innocent people, which is actually an identity theft.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: All pictures that you see on this site are used by scammers to deceit their victims, but people portrayed on these pictures are not scammers themselves! You are NOT looking at the actual faces of people who are scamming you. People on the pictures have nothing to do with scammers, their pictures are used by scammers without their knowledge and permission. Most people on the photos are models and will probably never contact you on any dating service or through any IM. If you are approached by anybody who claims to be a person on any picture listed here, you are most likely being scammed. This scam list merely gives you an idea which photos scammers use, so you can detect and avoid scams, but unfortunately not showing you the real faces of scammers. Nobody knows their real faces.
In case with Russian scams, the girls on the pictures are either also innocent girls (or even Russian models and celebrities) whos pictures are used without their knowledge, or they may get paid to get their pictures taken (sometimes they know what's going on, sometimes not), but in any case, those are not the actual girls you are corresponding with.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: HOW THIS SCAM LIST IS COMPILED
This is extremely important that you understand how this scam list is compiled, so you can decide yourself if you want to use. I am a webmaster of a dating site, which means I don't just occasionally run into scammers on the dating services or IM, or maintain a stand-alone scam list, like many Russian scam lists, and wait until somebody sends a report. I see those scammers on my site every day, I see what they are doing, I see their IP addresses, and I already know all their ridiculous moves, so I can tell for sure who is a scammer without waiting until they actually scam somebody and the poor victim starts filing reports. I DO NOT WANT to get to the point when they actually scam somebody, so I kick them out of my service, and place them on this list.
Here are the rules that my list is based on:
For Nigerian scams:
1) The ones that has been reported to me by actual victims, or potential victims, i.e. whom they tried to scam unsuccessfully.
2) Those listed on Yahoo group Romancescams. I love this group, I am a member of it, and encourage all of you to join. I trust the group and great folks over there unconditionally, if somebody is listed on this group as a scammer, I know he IS a scammer, no doubt for me.
3) Those whom I personally booted off my dating service for the following reasons:
registering with the West African IP addresses (specifically, from the following countries: Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone or Guinea Bissau), PLUS:
a) listing themselves as being from any other non-African country, like USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, Spain, Philippines, etc..
b) uploading photos that are obviously not their own, i.e. of white, Hispanic or Asian people, or African-American models.
c) mass-mailing all members on the site with the same standard pre-written message without even looking at the profiles: just going down the list of members and hitting that "private message" button.
For Russian scams:
1) The ones that has been reported to me by actual victims, or potential victims, whom they tried to scam unsuccessfully.
2) Those who tried to register on my dating service and whom I've seen already listed on other Russian scam lists on the Internet.
3) Those whom I personally booted off my dating service for the following reasons:
placing profiles through anonymous open proxies or from the most scam famous part of Russia, where operates the known Russian scam gang, which is Republic of Mari El, PLUS:
a) listing themselves as being from any other city of Russia, including Kazan and Cheboksary, or from any other country, like Ukraine, Belarus, or sometimes even US or UK.
b) mass-mailing all US and UK men on the site with the same standard pre-written message without even looking at the profiles: just going down the list of members and hitting that "private message" button.
c) placing more than one profile with different pictures and names from the same IP address.
These patterns of behaviour, based on my experinece as a dating webmaster, are ALWAYS 100% indication of scam.
If these reasons are not good enough for you and you still need some additional proof, like reports, letters, etc.. then please close your browser window and don't use this list.
All others are very welcome and hopefully together we will stop this disaster: romance scams!
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Webmaster of Dating 'n More
http://www.new-dating.com/search.php
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