Online Dating Scams...
What To look Out For.

Online Dating is Huge Business.

Online Dating Scams are out to cheat subscribers to this industry that is expected to reach $4 billion world-wide in 2011.

Online dating is the third largest revenue raiser of all Internet paid content sites. The U.S. market alone is predicted to gross around $1.3 billion.

Fact is... 1 in 6 U.S. marriages in 2009 resulted from online dating... around 80 million Europeans and North Americans visit dating sites... while China's two largest dating sites (out of over 50) Zhenai.com & Jiayuan.com already claim 65 million registered users between them.

Online Dating Sites...Don't Get Ripped-Off:

It's estimated there are 1,400 internet dating sites in the U.S. alone and over 5,000 worldwide.

What are some of the Online Dating Scams you need to avoid when selecting your dating site(s)?

Be on the look out for...

• Dating Sites that don't make much of an effort to screen out scammers (like Nigerian Scams, Russian Dating Scams, etc). These days Device Reputation software is available to dating sites to help identify scammers' computers and block them. Remember... Up to 10% of all accounts are thought to be bogus.
  
  
• Online Dating Sites that list lots of "ghost" or "dead" profiles (lapsed, inactive or even phony "filler" profiles). They'll just give you poor response rates and leave you feeling rejected and dejected.
  
  
• "Free" sites that provide very basic dating opportunities to hook up with someone, and then slug you with extra charges for providing better online dating prospects.
  
  
• Dating Sites that use different names in different media (magazines, newspapers, etc) for the same site and data-base. Unsuspecting subscribers may think they are paying for and joining several different sites.
  
  
• Websites with unbalanced sex/age ratios and poor Compatibility Matching. Check out the demographics of various sites... How many men to women?... their age spread and concentration, how far away they live, their special interests, etc.
  
  
• Be careful with sites where you have to provide your credit card details to sign up (even if only for a Trial Period). Some sites have dodgy billing practices that make it difficult to cancel subscriptions.
  
  
• Make sure the dating site will protect your personal information and not misuse it.
  
  

Don't Become A Dating Scam Victim.

Examples of how Online Dating Scams can hurt you:

• From 1999-2001 Robin Lunceford scammed $1.8 million while serving 17 years for armed robbery in a Florida jail.
  Using 3 aliases on the Women Behind Bars website, she used a photo of a sexy super model and described herself as...
  "135 lbs... a Greek artist... fashion designer... former Las Vegas dancer... enjoys tennis, golf, & hang-gliding... studying to be a curator of medieval manuscripts... excellent sense of humor, just a kid at heart".
  
  In reality she was a 183 lbs, tattooed ex-fairground-worker.
  (Ref: The Augusta Chronicle, & "Online Killers" by Christopher Barry-Dee &' Steven Morris.)
  
  
• Author Michael Largo's research has revealed "Internet dating is becoming very popular, but since 1995, there's been... over 400 instances where a homicide has been related to the person that (the victim) met online" (ref:Wikipedia).
  You really do need to be aware of Online Dating Scams.
  
  
• Prostitutes are active on some sites... not surprising with casual sex dating sites springing up and one poll estimating up to 30% of women have sex on the 1st date with men they've met online.
  
  

Online Dating Scams...