The true cost of fake love – online dating scams

The true cost of fake love – online dating scams

The true cost of fake love – online dating scams

We’d all like to think that it’s those ‘other people’ who get scammed out of their life savings, never us. The sad thing is that the people who lose money in these schemes think that too. No matter how smart we think we are, there’s a point for everyone where rhyme and reason are replaced by foolhardiness. Sadly, for some it costs them dear, as once again we highlight the true cost of fake love – online dating scams.

At the time of this story Suzanne Hardman was 58, a former Office Manager and recently divorced; she wasn’t a stupid woman by any means but she was lonely. Suzanne had been going through a rough time. It wasn’t enough that her marriage had ended after 29 years, but her parents had also recently passed away. Suzanne wanted a fresh start and decided that registering on popular online dating site match.com would be a great way to kick start the next stage in her life. She may have been lonely, but she wasn’t alone as was evident by the messages she soon received from all manner of suitors. One of the men who caught Suzanne’s eye was James Richards. He fitted Suzanne’s wish list perfectly; tall, good-looking, professional and successful. What’s not to like? Suzanne sent him a ‘wink’, match.com’s way of initiating contact.

James and Suzanne were soon conversing like a pair of teenagers. Initially their messages were confined to the site, but soon they progressed to external emails and telephone calls. They were getting on famously and found they had a number of things in common. They were both the only child of parents they had both recently lost. What were the chances! Unbeknown to Suzanne, her need to feel wanted was playing right into James’ hand. Unfortunately James didn’t have any hands because James didn’t actually exist. His profile seemed real enough, but only in the way anyone could join match.com and create a fictitious life story that could lure those looking for love. Yes, his photographs were real, his emails were real (despite the poor spelling and grammar) and the voice at the end of the telephone seemed very real indeed. However, none of them belonged to American-born James Richards from Portsmouth. He was a fabrication created by four UK-based, Nigerian-born scammers but they hadn’t finished with Suzanne just yet.

As their relationship blossomed, Suzanne was falling for James more everyday. His emails were regular and full of the sentiments she was hoping for. By her own admission they were a little gushing, but who doesn’t love a man with a sense of romance, however enthusiastic he appeared to be. Within his expressions of love, James started to plant the seeds of the scam by pulling on their shared pain. James’ parents had died (as had Suzanne’s) but, as James explained in numerous emails, their estate was trapped in bureaucratic limbo in India. He started to share his frustrations with Suzanne about how he was struggling to free up the huge amount of money he was inheriting. With all these problems, how could he possibly free up the time to meet Suzanne. The sooner he could get it resolved, the sooner they could get together.

Once the seed was planted, it start to grow roots. After exhausting all his options, he finally succumbed and asked Suzanne for the £700 he needed to release the funds. Now you wouldn’t give a relative stranger £700 would you? No. Suzanne wouldn’t either, but these scammers were smarter than that. The money needed to go through a solicitor, for Suzanne’s protection. In fact the law firm that James asked her to use was very real, so Suzanne’s suspicions were allayed. While the firm existed, the contact she spoke to every day to continually verify James’ expanding story didn’t work there, but how was she to know that. The first £700 wasn’t the last money that Suzanne sent him. Before long she’d sent James, via his ‘solicitor’, a total £174,000. Once she had sent the last penny she could, the solicitor had some bad news. James had gone missing. It was at this point that the penny dropped.

Suzanne contacted the police but the damage had been done. When her story appeared in her local newspaper, other people who had also been scammed and subject to dating scams in the same way came forward. Eventually the men behind this dating scam were brought to justice but sadly, they aren’t the only ones. Sites like Match.com are happy to take your money, but make no effort to verify the identity of those creating profiles. Suzanne and many people like her pay the price every week for this lack of care. How can so many profiles be faceless? There is another way and that way is www.searchmate.co.uk. We personally interview everyone who joins our service to ensure they are who they say they are.

We guarantee that the people you meet through Searchmate are real, genuine individuals who are, like you, looking for a real and potentially lasting relationship.  We care about our clients’ security and ofer a unique personal, private, matchmaking service and that’s the difference that brings people from online dating sites to us, in increasingly large numbers and we are proactive to ensure that none of the dating scams that are common on online dating, darken our doors.

Welcome to the future of dating – Searchmate Introductions, come and join us.

Tainted world of online dating

Tainted world of online dating

Fake profiles, unsecure data, scammers – the unsafe world of online dating

I watched agog last night, BBC’s Panorama expose of some of the underhand tricks and very unsavoury practices now associated with major companies behind top UK on line dating websites.

We heard of fake profiles, where photos had apparently been easily clicked and copied off Linked In and other social media sites, being used on these online dating sites, with the other profile details simply fabricated. Company staff are employed to engage with newly registered members via messaging for the purpose of luring them into taking out a paid for subscription. How messages are flooded towards those looking for love until the point that they paid to upgrade their membership to a level at which they could actually communicate with someone (essential if your goal is to meet anyone through such a site).

Once signed up all these apparently interested parties vanish into thin air. Industry comments presented on Panorama were to blame all the dating scammers – con artists that have increasingly infiltrated on line dating to exploit singles looking for love, but there hung in the air a strong whiff of corruption and there seemed to be very little if anything, being done to remove and keep out scammers from their on-line dating websites. And this together with a serious concern as to how safe is your personal data, once you have entered it onto an online dating website, as it would seem that dating profiles can very easily be bought and sold by any third party over the internet.

At Searchmate we always verify the identity of every client who joins us. We only suggest introductions for you to real people who we have personally interviewed. We do not use fake profiles and never have done and we would warn you to be wary of any other UK personal introduction agency that offers ‘sample profiles’ to anyone thinking of joining.

We never pass on your details to other companies outside our group – your confidential personal information is protected by our secure database and not seen by anyone other than our trusted and professional staff. It is a private and secure way to meet other singles of the right calibre for a potentially lasting relationship.

Searchmate really is a world away from online dating. No wonder our services are in such demand by discerning singles.

Online Dating Scams Are Booming

Online Dating Scams Are Booming

Great news for the UK’s crime rate – apart from Online Dating Fraud

There was some really good news about the UK’s crime rate this week, with the Government’s Office of National statistics reporting a 9% fall in recorded crime in the year to March 2012.

All crime fell to 9% and recorded crime to 7%, the lowest level for 32 years and since records began in 1981, which is a remarkable achievement considering we now have 4,500 fewer Police Officers but the worrying area was fraud which actually increased by 27% inside the overall statistics, with Online Dating fraud proving to be one of the most significant areas of all according to journalist Martin Robinson in the Daily Mail.

He reports that dating scams, where vulnerable people looking for love have been ripped off, has helped fraud surge by 27 per cent in the past year, according to the Government’s crime figures released this week. Experts have warned that more criminals are using websites to spark romances with strangers and then ask them for money, which is an extremely worrying trend if you’re single.

There is currently no requirement in the UK whatsoever for any sort of background checks on people joining dating sites or personal introductions services, which makes you realise just how powerful being a member of Searchmate can actually be, where every member is ID checked and verified prior to their membership beginning. But shouldn’t these ID checks now be compulsory and part of law? Without a doubt people are vulnerable in this area and in my view tougher regulation of the industry is needed.

Dating is a boom area but online fraud is increasing too, the total worldwide figure for dating scams last year was $65,000,000. And that is the figure that was actually reported, it doesn’t include the people who didn’t report the crime due to embarrassment or those who nipped it in the bud before a crime occurred.

The moral of the story has to be – use a reputable dating service, it may cost a little more but why put your future happiness at risk by mixing with the wrong types potentially.

To hear more about the Searchmate service and the background checks we make, phone us for free on 0800 466 4160.

It’s better to be safe than sorry!
Read the Daily Mail article by Martin Robinson by clicking here.