The real dating scams can be found every day on many
“respectable” dating websites

With regard to dating scams, people usually read about Nigerian scams targeting gullible middle-aged women. Yet, many “respectable” dating websites mislead thousands of users in order to get their money. Seemingly different dating websites connected to the same company make it appear that each has millions of members with specific characteristics such as age, preferences or others. Instead it's always the same database of members that they all share.

Many different websites each claim to have 2 million members but they are always the same people!

Aren't these dating scams? Some of the websites below say they are for specific groups of people, others don't. They are all run by the same company.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them and read what they claim

Love seekers get attracted by the idea that they will find a large number of members with certain characteristics while in reality there is a much smaller number of members. Many users join more than one website so they risk paying twice or more times to search the same database.

The main organization may have two million members, but in no way each of those websites has its own two millions and there is no way to prevent a user from registering, and perhaps paying, multiple times.

These in my opinion are the real dating scams.

I also found out that some sites returned very bad matches, for example:

• a dating website claiming to match older women who wanted to date younger men contained profiles of women as young as 18 and over 80-year-old men.
  

Other examples of dating scams

Some ill-intentioned people start establishing an online relationship with you, exchanging messages, photos, telling you all their life, children, problems, all to create attachment, affection. They avoid any real contact, such as a meeting or even a skype call to show their real face. They work a lot on creating a real feeling of attachment in you, maybe also by telling heartbreaking stories and, at a certain point, when they feel you trust them enough or are "in love", they ask for money to travel to see you, or for a sudden serious problem they had or other "serious" reason.

I read of people who had an online "relationship" for months or even years. I can't believe how one could go on writing to someone for five years, believing in this person and sending money! The author of the article considers herself a smart person. Please, don't be like this!

How to avoid dating scams

A) before you join a dating website

I think you should not pay for dating websites subscriptions just to communicate. Read some advice about how to select the best dating sites.

If you want to pay just to read messages:

• explore various websites before paying for a subscription to any of them; find out who runs them by clicking on About Us at the bottom of the website. You'll see that in many cases there is one company that manages different websites.
• read carefully all their terms & conditions, especially how to cancel your subscription.
  

This way you can avoid being taken advantage of by dating websites and pay twice (or more) for cookie-cutter websites with the same people. For example, the above websites all related to the same company, Global Personal in the UK.

B) after you join a dating website

In my opinion, it should be quite easy to avoid dating scams, by just following a couple of simple common-sense rules, the same that you'd apply in your everyday life.

1. NEVER, EVER, EVER, ever send money to anyone you have not met in person and know well. As soon as someone asks you to send money, say no without even asking why they want the money or other things.
   
2. DO NOT TRUST someone who doesn't want to show his or her face or meet you in person.
   

I think they can only take advantage of people who are desperate. If you feel desperately lonely and sad you may be become an easy target. It can happen to anyone, but rather than spending all the time communicating with someone who doesn't want to show his or her face, go out and meet real people, see here some tips on how to meet new people.

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