How scammers operate on dating sites: schemes, types of fraud

Fraudsters on dating sites and other social networks are an all-time hot topic. No matter how much people read information about the need to be especially attentive and vigilant when making any new acquaintances, there are always many who become victims of scammers.

This is how a person works: looking for his soul mate on earth in order to be happy. And due to the fact that we are all extremely busy, we often resort to the online space - through various dating sites.

It would seem that this is very convenient. But is it safe? Let's figure it out together. What you need to be wary of when dating on the Internet and what you need to know in order not only not to get screwed, but also to stay alive.

Yes, that's exactly what it is! People are so careless and always hope for the “Russian chance,” but it doesn’t always work in their favor. We will discuss with you how scammers operate on dating sites and divorce schemes in this article.

Scammers on dating sites and social networks - the whole truth

Today we’ll talk about online dating: people try to use all available means of communication and Internet technologies for communication, including to meet for a serious relationship.

Unfortunately, deceivers began to use this desire of people to find their soul mate online for their own purposes: scammers increasingly began to resort to such tricks as showing false reciprocal feelings in order to scam people out of money or something worse.

Dating sites: scammers never sleep

The first dating advertisements began to appear back in the 17th century; even then, cunning people could not pass up a good opportunity to make money: they were a kind of marriage swindlers who wanted to gain financial benefit from those who were looking for a romantic relationship in this way.

Today, dating sites are becoming more and more dangerous. For example, bots on dating sites: they redirect users to third-party paid resources, where the user loses his money.

Information security workers at ESET came to this conclusion. For comparison: 28% of visitors encountered fraud in 2022, and today it is 34%.

Both women and single men fall for the tricks. The number of people who, instead of an offer of a romantic acquaintance, are immediately sent messages about threats and blackmail is also rapidly growing. The share of such messages in correspondence is more than 11%, and in 2022 it was 8%.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, in 2022 the volume of cybercrimes is 67% (up to 294 thousand incidents) - 14.5% of the total number of criminal cases. All these crimes are committed using the Internet, mobile communications, bank cards and through dating sites.

According to a study by the same company ESET, it was revealed that ⅓ of users of dating services experience fraud. Over the past two years alone, their number has increased by 6%. Such services are anonymous and designed to communicate with strangers, which can easily lull users’ vigilance. Therefore, it is on dating platforms that it is easier to find a potential victim.

Every time, scammers come up with more and more new scam schemes on dating sites. Anyone can fall into this trap, regardless of gender, age or social class. Moreover, they are good psychologists and know very well that on dating sites, even banal attention to a profile in the form of a like can attract the attention of a potential victim.

The deceiver’s profile always looks interesting, and the photos are presentable, sometimes you can’t even think that this is a deceiver. And as soon as he receives at least some attention from the victim, then it’s a matter of technique - by any means to force him to gain confidence so much that the person loses his vigilance.

It is much easier for a potential victim to get caught in an attacker’s network on a dating site than on any other social network. The number of deceivers on such portals is constantly increasing: the larger and more popular the site, the greater the likelihood of encountering a scammer.

If you visit such sites, write down whether you have met scammers, if so, how you recognized them, it will be very interesting to know your experience.

Social networks - salvation from scammers?

Unfortunately no. Fraudsters on dating sites are a common occurrence today, but similar scammers can be found on any other social network. Criminals are ready to deceive everyone who falls for their trick.

Even if you look for dating not on the corresponding portal, but on any other network, you have the same chances of running into a scammer, especially if you sit in specialized groups/publics. So the situations are quite similar to each other, only the site is different.

Once I accidentally witnessed such an online dating of one of my close friends on the Odnoklassniki social network. At that time, she had a civil marriage, but the relationship had already outlived its usefulness, and Olga, let’s call her that, hung out on the Internet more and more often.

She did not recognize other social networks, but simply lived in OK. Surprisingly, a fully grown woman, over 45, smart and educated, became bait for an Internet scammer.

The new acquaintance was from Tbilisi and several years younger than her, but this only inspired her to communicate with him more. Despite the fact that he only had one photo on his page and always avoided video communication, she was not embarrassed.

My friend continued to believe in his fairy tales, and he began to unobtrusively find out what she was doing and how she earned her daily bread. Then came complaints about life: problems with relatives, at work and with his ex-wife. He would drop everything and go to her, but he has financial obligations that won’t let him.

He did not immediately begin to open up, as if he was testing her. Only after 2 or 3 days of communication did he say that he had a loan and needed to pay another 500 dollars, then he immediately changed the topic of conversation and began to paint in colorful colors how happy they would be when they lived together.

And... Olga, without consulting anyone, transferred $500 via Western Union - this is what her friend asked, citing problems with her passport and that it would be more convenient for him. His problems did not end there and she, having taken out a loan, transferred another 3,100 dollars, and then 700 in addition. Of course, as one would expect, he then disappeared without ever coming to her.

Only then did Olga, having come to her senses a little, write a statement to department “K”, which deals with Internet fraud. But, despite the fact that all the evidence was provided, they could not help her. The problem turned out to be that Russia and Georgia at that time had already severed all diplomatic ties and there was no way to get hold of the swindler. This seemingly banal story happened to a friend of mine.

You can run into a deceiver during online dating not only on the appropriate sites, but also on any social network. Therefore, you should always remember to be extremely careful, no matter how tested the service is.

Should Android smartphone owners worry? And on iOS?

“Dating applications should definitely be protected, but, compared to financial applications, at a fairly basic level,” says Bryzgin. “It is important that the application is not the “entrance door” to your smartphone. Special requirements apply only to applications related to the passage of money. Financial information is more interesting to attackers. At the same time, the concern of the creators of dating services about technical perfection indirectly indicates that the resource manufacturer zealously monitors cybersecurity in its possessions. The Ashley Madison story has taught dating services a lot, since it cost the “leaky” service a pretty penny.
Recently, a scandal erupted around the most popular service today, Tinder. It turned out that the images were not encrypted when transmitted over communication channels. In this regard, attackers, by intercepting traffic, could find out which profiles you viewed and even which of them aroused your sympathy. This story ended without serious consequences. No one demanded a ransom from Tinder; enthusiasts simply presented users and the service with a fait accompli by posting a video on YouTube clearly demonstrating data interception. The company promised to improve.

The autonomous non-profit organization Roskachestvo examined the most popular dating sites for security. The best results were shown by the applications Tourbar, WannaMeet and MyLove for iOS and LovePlanet, ParkFace and Teamo for Android.

The ability to set a login password is available only for the FriendVokrug and iPair applications.
From questionable decisions. Unjustified permissions may be requested by the SKOUT application for Android, and personal data is transmitted in unencrypted form by the AVTODRUG and ParkFace applications for iOS and SKOUT, LOVOO, InMessage, iPair, Let's Let's Talk and MyLove for Android.

The Loveplanet, Skout, InMessage and LOVOO apps for iOS do not encrypt text information, and the aforementioned Tinder, Topface and Teamo.ru for iOS, as well as Tinder, ParkFace and Teamo.ru for Android do not encrypt images during transmission.

Types of fraud on dating sites

Can online dating develop into a real serious relationship? Yes they can. But according to statistics, only 7% of users on the same relevant platforms are looking for a serious relationship.

It is much easier to remain deceived here than to find a serious relationship, since single people are not psychologically protected and are sometimes too trusting if they notice any attention to themselves.

We are all human and sometimes a veil obscures our eyes. Therefore, I have collected for you the most popular schemes for what scams can look like on dating sites. If you notice something similar in your new virtual chosen one, I advise you to take a closer look at him and not follow the lead at the first word.

So, what can scammers do to scam you out of money, no matter how rude it may sound:

1. They invite you to go to the cinema, hookah bar, cafe, etc. - where you need to make an advance payment.
2. They ask you to pay shipping or customs duties for an expensive gift.
3. Operation “SOS!” can be expressed through a request to top up a cell phone, pay for the Internet, there is not enough for travel, you need vital medications, problems have started in your business, you have had an accident, etc.
4. They invite you to visit them at the initial stage of communication, which can turn into robbery or worse.
5. They ask for your intimate photos, which can be used as blackmail in the future.
6. They invite you to travel together or relax somewhere in style, posting beautiful photos of a rich life on your account. There are two options for the development of events: when booking a trip, hotel, etc. his card is blocked and he asks you to pay; you will indeed go on vacation with him, but he will relax at your expense.
7. A single father raising a young sick child. This situation can melt the heart of any single woman so that she drops her guard. And then there are requests to transfer money for medicines or something else...
8. A new acquaintance agrees to meet only (!) in a place of his choice - be it a cafe, restaurant, etc. Most likely, he is an employee of this establishment. You will have a meeting for very good money, and then he will simply disappear.
9. You may be drawn into a fraudulent scheme and become an accomplice in criminal activity. Any request to facilitate a financial transaction should make you wary. For example: a new friend transfers money to you, but you must send it to other details or you will be asked to open a bank account, etc.
10. They may ask you to send money for a ticket or visa. Firstly, for a man to ask for money for a ticket is immediately suspicious. Secondly, if you are dealing with a girl, offer her the option where you buy the ticket yourself. And you can also open a visa for her yourself; today it won’t be difficult.
11. The scammer may ask you to switch to communicate on another server by simply following a link. As a rule, all these sites are paid, and on a dating site you could not communicate with a real person, but with a bot or fake.
12. You may be drawn into some kind of scam: financial pyramids, virtual casinos, investing in a business, buying and selling cryptocurrency, etc. You will be assured that it has been personally tested and works 100%. The interlocutor will offer you a 50/50 scheme, but most often there is no question of any division of funds - the victim loses his money forever.

These are the basic and modern schemes of how they are scammed on dating sites. True, it is not a fact that tomorrow attackers will not come up with something new. That's why they are scammers, so as not to stop there.

Therefore, in order to protect yourself from an overseas prince or princess, you need to know some simple rules, and it does not matter where in the world the candidate lives.

Real meeting2

Well, of course, the prospect of meeting the object of your passion in real life will tempt you from the first days of your virtual love story. And this is only to the advantage of a sexy interlocutor. And so, when you start looking for a tie or stylish cufflinks in anticipation, the sound of a notification treacherously informs you of a sudden force majeure.

It turns out that your virtual lover is telling you about some financial problems in a serious text without a single emoticon. Or, to be more convincing, he calls you on a video call and sobs his heart out. After all, she dreamed no less than you (and perhaps more) about meeting you. Therefore, you, like a true gentleman, must immediately help out the lady. Namely, transfer a certain amount to her account, or make payment for an already booked hotel.

How to protect yourself:

Make a reservation and choose the location of your first date yourself.

How to recognize a swindler

Scammers on dating sites come up with more and more new scam schemes, and no one will give you a 100% guarantee that using a certain algorithm you will be able to recognize the scammer.

But you can still protect yourself and minimize the risk of being deceived by a sucker - this applies to both women and men. I will give the main points on how to recognize a scammer on a dating site.

1. Carefully study the potential candidate’s account: how long has he been registered, how complete is his profile or social network page - place of work, family, etc. As a rule, scammers rarely fill out this information. If the profile was created recently, and the page contains many different beautiful photos, showing luxury and a rich life, be wary.
2. Copy the profile photo and check it on the Google Images and Yandex.Images services. If the photo is fake, you will immediately understand it. Ask to send a photo “here and now”, for example, have him take a piece of paper, write your name and take a photo with it.
3. Find out if it is registered somewhere else or not. If he says no, you can also easily check this in Yandex and Google by uploading only one photo there. Well, or if his profile has a last name and first name, copy it completely and type it into the Internet search bar. You will see all the social networks where this person is registered, and perhaps even his place of work.
4. How else can scammers pretend to be on dating sites? A blacklist can help. Check your new friend by searching on the Internet “blacklists of suitors” or “list of scammers” (https://www.ladyfromrussia.com, https://trongo.ru, https://www.pinterest.ru, https:// aferistamnet.ru, https://ratingdatings.ru, https://forumdate.ru, etc.) Don’t be lazy and look at the resources that the Internet will give you. As a rule, they constantly change their names and nicknames, but sometimes they still forget, thanks to which you can learn a lot of interesting things.
5. Pay attention to how long your new friend is online. Dating scams are a whole business, so it will most likely be online 24/7.
6. Copy several of his messages and check in any anti-plagiarism system - text.ru or advgo.com. If this is a preparation for a money scam, you may see that the text is far from original, and the scammer often uses it on other Internet sites.
7. Create a “left” account or profile, write a message to the potential candidate yourself and look carefully at what he will write to you here and what “noodles” to hang on your ears. If you see a lot of inconsistencies, you are dealing with a deceiver.
8. He actively shows great interest in your personal data: last name, cell number, where and with whom you live, where and with whom you work, and what your salary is.
9. He quickly begins to talk about his feelings for you, promise “mountains of gold,” and make extraordinary and unusual compliments.
10. There is always any reason to postpone a meeting in real life (business trip, on vacation, working in another country, etc.).
11. You should be wary if your new acquaintance is trying to mirror all your actions: you like something, he agrees; you love classic films - and, of course, he does too, etc. This is a psychological technique that helps to win you over.
12. If you encounter a foreigner, pay attention to his broken English or other language, since “overseas princes” often hide your neighbors on Google Translate, introducing themselves as doctors, military men, etc.
13. Invite a new interlocutor to chat on Skype or any other video messenger. If he does not refuse, no matter how stupid it may seem, ask him to show his passport. If you start looking for excuses, you should immediately stop communicating and say: “Goodbye!”

Remember that on such services, communication is always 90% fake, so there’s not even anything to filter there. The main contingent at such sites:

1. People with low self-esteem who are embarrassed to meet people in real life.
2. Men looking for one-time meetings without commitment, and women selling their bodies.
3. Fraudsters who are ready to make money at someone else’s expense by any means necessary.

Marriage scammers on dating sites make up the lion's share of users. The likelihood that you will meet the one you dream of here comes down to a minimal percentage of probability. If you still want to take a chance and find your soul mate this way, be careful.

Psychological portrait of the victim

Identifying a person who is easy to deceive is as easy as shelling pears. Fraudsters pay attention to the following factors:

1. Online 24/7.
2. The status talks about a great desire to meet your soul mate.
3. The profile contains photos that indicate that the person is financially secure.
4. The page contains information about preferences, dreams and hobbies. This information will allow you to quickly find a topic for communication.
5. Ease of dialogue.

Experienced swindlers, even taking a quick glance at a profile, already know exactly whether they can scam a person or not. They will write what everyone wants to read: the desire to find a soul mate and have a strong family.

How to avoid being deceived

Fraud on dating sites is rampant. It’s good if you master the above list of signs that there is an attacker in front of you. But there are a number of other measures that can protect you from intruders, as they say: “Informed is forearmed.”

1. Study information about such fraud on forums, for example, From-russia.org.
2. Be interested in new types of divorces. Fraudulent schemes on dating sites may differ from fraud in instant messengers.
3. Do not put a lot of detailed information about yourself in your account or profile (company director, own business, etc.): you will become bait for a scammer.
4. There is no need to start or continue communication with someone who immediately writes you “sweet” messages. Anyone who is serious will not allow himself to do this.
5. Never send explicit photos of yourself to a new acquaintance. You risk ending up in the clutches of a blackmailer who will demand money for keeping the photo with you.
6. If you decide to post your real photo and brief information about yourself, make sure that there is no detailed information about you on other social networks. As a rule, people write their cell phone, work, etc., without thinking about the consequences.

If you are in the mood for a serious relationship, then it is better to consider the services of a marriage agency, but there is something to pay attention to here too. Basically, if a marriage agency offers you a 100% result or guarantees a contractual number of dates in a certain period, run!

A quality marriage agency will never promise something that cannot be fulfilled!

In fact, it is not so easy to identify who is on the other side of the screen. If you don’t want to be a victim of an attacker, you need to always have your head on your shoulders: try to protect yourself in all respects by not posting personal information about yourself on the Internet, this can play a cruel joke on you.

Danger in reality

If a person has become a victim of a scammer, then it is worth contacting the site’s support service so that they can take action or immediately report to the competent government authorities. Online marriage agencies, fortune tellers, highly paid jobs and businesses without investments should be especially wary.

Do not send photos with intimate content; most likely, they will later end up in the public domain. Do not provide bank card details or residential address. Meet people in reality, and correspond only on trusted resources.

What else to read:

• 8 online ways to check a website (online store) for fraud, reliability and trust
• How to protect yourself from scammers on VKontakte - scams on VK, sample complaints
• A detailed review of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - liability for fraud and deception on the Internet in 2022
• How to recognize scammers on the Internet - types and schemes of fraud (samples of complaints about fraud)

Is it possible to punish online dating scammers?

It is imperative to act within the law if you are facing a divorce. Article 159 of the Criminal Code “Fraud” implies punishment, including on the Internet. If you manage to punish the offender, then it is not a fact that someone will return your spent money. Therefore, apart from moral satisfaction, you will not receive anything.

And in general, those who scam money may not be punished, since it is quite difficult to find the perpetrators. Questionnaires and information will usually turn out to be fake. Deceivers use proven and proven schemes where potential victims themselves voluntarily agree to help them.

Recently, law enforcement agencies have not particularly dealt with these types of fraud. And if they do open a criminal case, it will remain stuck somewhere. Therefore, sometimes victims can commit lynching using IP. And this, you see, is another criminal story.

Deadly disease3

A classic scheme, perfected to the smallest detail by experienced deceivers. Indeed, it is difficult to refuse help to a sick person. And doubly so for the person with whom you have a romantic, albeit virtual, connection. As soon as your correspondence begins to be more confidential, the lover of easy money suddenly decides to reveal a terrible secret to you. It turns out that recently the cause of her depression was not a change in weather. And in general, she wanted to tell you everything for a long time, but she was waiting for the right moment. So, her little sister (grandmother, aunt, best friend, or even herself) has a serious illness. And, of course, she is very embarrassed to ask you for help, but... But you no longer listen, because you are busy transferring funds to the account of an unfamiliar swindler.

How to protect yourself:

Take off your rose-colored glasses and perceive any information adequately. Agree, it’s quite strange that a practically unknown lady suddenly begins to manipulate you, appealing for pity. As a last resort, you have every right to ask for supporting documents that will convince you of the correctness of your decision. But, as practice shows, it will be exactly the opposite.

Main conclusions

Fraudsters on dating sites and other social networks earn millions of dollars every year: single people are very trusting and seek their salvation in communication, and scammers know how to win over those who are ready to believe them.

Now you know how they get scammed on dating sites. I hope that my recommendations will be useful to you if you decide to seek your personal happiness on the Internet. Be vigilant and attentive so as not to fall into the cunning clutches of intruders.

And if it so happens that perhaps you or someone you know has fallen for scammers trying to scam you out of money, please write about this in the comments to protect someone from such deception.

Where to go?

Researchers say the iOS operating system that powers the iPhone is generally more secure than Android. At the same time, the share of Android in sales of all smartphones in 2017 in different markets ranged from 55% to 95%. Experts explain the vulnerability of Android precisely by its prevalence and “many faces.” The system runs on a huge number of devices from a variety of manufacturers and the OS developer - Google is doing its best to encourage new ones to join the ecosystem. Of course, each manufacturer strives to stand out from the crowd of competitors by introducing new functions and interface elements into their devices, and optimizing the basic OS modules. This is how a huge number of OS versions appear, based on the base one, but differing quite significantly from each other. This makes it difficult to maintain the security of devices as a whole.

Unhappy widower5

A favorite scheme that applies to compassionate girls. An unfortunate man who buried his beloved wife and was left with his sweet daughter (two tomboyish sons). Whatever one may say, maternal instinct is a strong thing. And given the fact that, according to legend, the widower’s child suffers from a chronic disease, even more so. Before you even have time to blink an eye, you will start transferring impressive sums for the treatment of the fictitious child of your potential spouse. After all, girls love to help so much, and crooks on the Internet love to take advantage of it.

Blackmail by family and work

Sharing intimate photos can lead to further blackmail. The girl, having received the pictures, invites the man to meet. And on his territory. The delighted gentleman gives the address and waits for his girlfriend, but only waits for an SMS. Its text is simple: a man is offered to pay so that his photographs, posted in the entrance or placed in mailboxes, are not seen by neighbors, wife, mother or other relatives.

The following option is also possible: the girl finds out the work address, supposedly for a meeting, and then the man is blackmailed by her colleagues. If you don’t pay, they will see naked photos.

What to do: don't pay. Even if you comply with the scammers' demands, no one can guarantee that they will not use the pictures. In addition, you should not send photos by which you can be identified - for example, you can see your face or personal marks (moles, tattoos, scars).

Minor victim5

You meet a young person on a website who assures you that she is 18 years old. In principle, this is how it happens in most cases. Only after some time, she, sobbing, tells you that her parents accidentally (or not quite) discovered your “hot” correspondence. And now her conservative father is determined to take these materials to the nearest police department. Can you guess what request she will make to you in her next SMS?

How to protect yourself:

Of course, you won’t demand passport information in the first minutes of communicating with a girl. But you are quite capable of observing her writing style, analyzing photographs and hobbies. Exactly as well as keeping yourself within the bounds of decency, not allowing yourself too much.

Dear photos6

After talking for a while and getting to know your interlocutor better (as you think), you decide to spice up your communication with hot photos. Whether this was done under the pressure of your beloved or solely on your own initiative, the outcome is the same. Once your photographs are in the possession of a newly minted and until recently gallant gentleman, the situation changes radically. For the worse for you. And now, in order to keep your reputation crystal clear and untarnished, you are forced to pay a tidy sum.