Many online daters feel they are too smart to get caught out by a dating scammer, they believe they can easily spot a bogus dating profile or photo.
It’s time to think again.
We have answered the question “what is an online dating scammer” and looked at the No 1 internet dating scam, the 419 scam.
But as online daters have become smarter at recognising scammers, scammers have been evolving at the same pace.
While beginners still use the old basic tricks, the more advanced scammers are a lot more subtle.
One question to ask yourself is “does the online dating profile photo look too good to be true?”
If it does then it probably is, they simply steal them from modelling agency websites.
However, the better scammers are now wise to this .. here’s an illustration:
I bet you thought they were going to be of women!! Scammers will try anything to get cash out of both men and women.
Clearly the picture at the top is of a male model and has been stolen from a model agency website.
So not only are you being scammed but the poor model is having his work stolen and used for illegal purposes.
The picture at the bottom is clearly not of a male model. This poor man obviously put his holiday photos on something like facebook or flickr and is now being touted round the internet by a dating scammer.
The ip address for two profiles with the above pictures displayed both originate in Nigeria.
Here’s one for the men .. just so you don’t feel left out.
This is Karla Spice, an adult film star. There is a great deal more to this photo but I shall leave you to find it for yourself.
Scammers will use photo’s like this so your large brain switches off and your small brain takes over.
Her portfolio of photo’s has been on online dating profiles all over the world and men are still falling for it.
Another way for scammers to get hold of photo’s to use on dating profiles is to capture images from daters they are chatting to online. If you are chatting to a scammer using webcam they simply take a still picture of you while you are online.
In 5 tips to spot a Nigerian dating scammer I told you how to trace a photo back to it’s online origin using a reverse image search engine.
If you start communicating with someone on an online dating site then always check their photo through a reverse image search engine or database.
As the photo’s of men above shows, it’s not only the too good to be true pictures that scammers use on online dating profiles.
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May 21st, 2009 at 6:13 am
Wow, these Nigerian scammers are everywhere. Great tip about TinEye. Many people can use that including people who have uploaded their original and copyrighted photography.
These information you have provided is sure to help a lot of people especially with online dating becoming more and more popular.