Detailed Description:

There are many different variations of the so called dating scams, but they all pretty much work their way to the same end result, and that is fooling you into different ways to scam money even if it takes 3 months of chatting to first gain your trust. There are also so many easy ways to prevent it from happening, yet people are still falling for this today or the scammers wouldn't still be continuing to do this. They play a numbers game, and you are just one of many they are talking to and hoping to pull a scam on any one of them. As with all scams its a numbers game. The dating scam typically starts with them talking to you for a while, webcam chatting, or even just emailing. Whether its one week, one day, or even 3 months, whatever it takes for them to gain your trust and make you believe there is something between you two. One of the big giveaways is that they then eventually bring up the point that they are "working out of the country" or whatever the excuse is on why they are not in the U.S. or your country. Once they have gained your trust, they tell you that they need you to simply cash a money order for them and wire it to them, as they can't cash it out of the country for whatever excuse they can come up with. Certainly sounds harmless doesn't it? What happens is they send you the money order and you simply cash it and wire it back to them, no harm done. A few days later the bank contacts you because the money order was fake, and guess what.... YOU are liable for the money. Thats the basics on how the dating scam takes place. First gain your trust, 2nd do a small favor, 3rd you've been scammed.

There are also other small variations of this scam, maybe they just want you to send gifts, or maybe they just want you to send 20 bucks to "help out", etc., all less harmless then the money order dating scam, but still scamming regardless. They can often then continue to try and tell their sympathy stories, why they need your help, and whatever they can do to keep you giving them favors or gifts. After all, they are your potential soul mate (or so they want you to believe). Keep in mind $20 in U.S. dollars is alot of money to third world countries, and many of these scammers will do whatever it takes to take you for a ride.

Some of the major scam alerts to watch for include:

"I work in Nigeria temporarily" or "I'm working out of country right now" (these are giveaways that they are setting the stage to pull the scam later).
"Email or chat with me at etc., etc., as I don't use the email or chat on this dating site" (They don't want the site seeing what they are doing, so they want you to just email them privately or chat via AIM, MSN, or Yahoo. Not all do this though, some will still use the dating site but most want to be private).
"Add me to your IM at etc, etc." (When women say this in chatrooms or public rooms, normally that means when you talk to them on IM they just advertise their pay site and try to get you to sign up for it. Its really just cheap advertising for them, and although not really a scam, they don't tell you up front and for some reason think that you will then hurry to their website and pay to sign up. Don't ever sign up for any sites that do lame advertising in this way).
"My dad abused me" or "My dad won't let me return to the U.S. unless I can get your help" (These are common sympathy excuses, any thing related to "Help Me" and any type of version of this is possible or anything they can make up to make you feel sorry. This just leads into gaining your support so you can give them money).

Keep in mind these are all just samples, there are many different versions and stories but all are basically the same. Hopefully this helps you watch out for these things. The bottom line is you should never send money to someone you talk to over over the internet, especially if you have never met them in person yet. You never know who's on the other end and what their motives are, be on alert. Many times the girl on the other end is actually a guy and whatever it takes to gain your trust, they will do).

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