Are you one of the hundreds of thousands or millions who log onto the internet everyday and launch their favorite matchmaking website looking for that special person? Which personals site do you prefer? eHarmony? Chemistry? Perfect Match?
Sorry to burst your bubble, but it is almost a certainty that you are being taken for a ride. Don't believe me? Read on.
If you spend a lot of time online, then you must have certainly come across articles detailing internet fraud and scams. You have probably gotten spam mail with unbelievable stories detailing unbelievable sums which you are supposed to help retrieve for which you receive a percentage? (The right thing to do in such a situation is to delete such mail immediately). I trust you don't fall for such cheap tricks. Only greedy people do!
Well, there is a saying where I come from: Since the hawk has learned to fly without perching, the hunter too has learned to shoot without missing. What I mean is that since people have learned to avoid such deliberate scams, the average conman is now content to sit on the one side of an internet connection typing into a chat box professing love to the lonely single on the other side. I'm really sorry if this hits the mark with you. Someone has to say it though.
A typical story is this. Jane visits her favorite matchmaking site and there's a match for her. It says John is 34 years old, lives in Denmark and is a businessman. She begins to chat up John whenever she is online and he is always online. John tells her he travels from country to country canvassing contracts for his business firm. True to himself he gives her a number from whichever country he is in at any moment so she can always call him. John is a really sweet guy and tells her all she wants to hear (you know, the mushy talky).
To cut to the chase, John travels to an African country from where he calls Jane with a pitiable story: Well, he was checking into a hotel room and the "inept, illiterate brutes" mishandled his luggage and damaged his $2,000 laptop. He really cannot conduct his business (or be online with Jane the love of his life for that matter) without a laptop. To top it all he doesn't have any money at that point to replace it, besides which he doesn't want to the purchase a laptop in that African country because they import mainly inferior goods.
Could she help him out?
I'll tell you how this story ends. Jane buys and ships a laptop to him while he is in that country.
You'll probably say there's nothing to it. Wrong! Jane has just been conned! John is just a conman behind a computer screen with local cell numbers which have been cracked to work as international numbers. He makes and receives all those calls from one location: in front of his computer. And Jane is just one of many which he is spinning at any moment. I have used the above story because it is very believable and doesn't contain "too many lies".
Matchmaking sites are the new scams and if Jane loses just the $2500 which she spends on the laptop, she is lucky. Conmen fleece their victims of as much as $80000! You wouldn't want that to be you, would you?
Part II of this article will give you more likely stories and tips on how detect such scams.
You know what? Why don't I just give you the most important tip here and now: Get up from your computer desk and go out to meet real people and get real dates.
