How Scammers Operate

We are a professional review company that receives compensation from companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks only to the ones that are the very best. We are independently owned, and the opinions expressed here are our own.

In this article, you will discover how scammers operate on social media and dating apps so that you can avoid getting scammed and face all the negative consequences that come with it.

Romance scammers are criminals who ruthlessly exploit people’s loneliness and desperation to find love.

I think we can all agree that they need to be stopped.

I will get very personal in this article and share my experience with you since I have encountered a couple of romance scammers myself and how easy they are to spot once you know their modus operandi.

You must read the entire article to figure out how to spot romance scammers and what happened to me.

Love Scam Alert: Scam Artists Are Active on Social Media As Well

Now, I will discuss something that happened about two weeks ago.

I was updating one of my social media accounts when suddenly, I got a message from a woman with a brief statement.

All it said was “hello.”

I didn’t know why she contacted me, so I responded, and things started to become strange…

But before I go into all the details, I want to clarify something:

Scammers and other fraudsters are active where most people are active, namely, on social media. Love scams happen on social media too.

I do not have anything against social media per se.

For this reason, I decided not to mention which social media platform the scammer contacted me.

I thought it was strange that a woman contacted me out of the blue.

At the same time, I do not care; it could be for any reason, and I went into coaching mode, which was great.

I have written about how to spot scammers on dating websites, but I can tell you, based on this experience, which I am glad happened to me; I can say that the pattern is quite similar on social media platforms.

NOTE: This article is for information purposes only, but it may be suitable for everyone to know how scam artists, aka scammers, work.

I will also inform you what aroused my suspicion as the conversation continued.

It was pretty late in the evening, and I was tired, so I wasn’t 100% alert.

But…

If you know what to look for, most scammers make mistakes that reveal them.

I know how easy it is to think about this in hindsight.

The good thing is that nothing happened to me because I became aware of certain discrepancies in the story.

With this writing, let me continue to tell you about how I (almost) got scammed.

Step One: Appeal to the prospective victim’s sympathy.

After the initial greetings, we began to text chat.

I will use the term she here because I don’t know if it is they, but if I would judge based on the pictures, it was a blonde woman.

Now, remember the stereotypes which I have discussed in the past.

She then asked if I was working, and I replied no because it was 10 PM.

We then told each other what kind of work we were in. I wasn’t going into all the details. I just tried to keep the conversation casual.

This should have been the first thing that aroused my suspicion: She misspelled one of the things she told me she was working with.

If you are working with something, you would know how to spell it, right?

I noted this when I checked the conversation while writing this article.

Of course, we all know how it is when we type on our phones, we make mistakes from time to time, so I didn’t give this much thought then.

Then there came a strange question: “Are you, Jesus?“

It is a strange question to ask someone you’ve just met on a social media platform that you don’t know much about, and this was the first time I conversed with her.

I have not shared anything that people would think of as remotely related to Christianity on this particular social media.

In fact…

The picture I uploaded was from a football (soccer) game that I watched live with my dad earlier that evening, and it was actually on the away team, I later discovered.

I made a mistake there. I confess to that willingly.

However…

We then told each other where we lived. She told me that she was living in the UK.

Then, of course, English would probably be her first language. I know that there are a lot of Eastern European women living in some areas of the UK, but I wouldn’t think that they would live in that area.

Since this isn’t the first woman, I text chat with. I decided that I should give an appraisal comment about her pictures.

Then she started to rant about how her pictures probably were stolen and that she needed to contact an American agency.

This was the second time something strange had happened.

Why would a woman in the UK need to contact an American agency to remove stolen pictures from social media when she could report that to the local police, who then would be in touch with the company?

Sure, they might need help from their American colleagues, but then they would ask for it, not her.

The conversation continued for a while because now the scammer probably got worried that she would have said something that would raise suspicion.

So, now it was time for part two…

Step Two: Keep it casual and don’t give away too many details to avoid suspicion

We then discussed what we ate. I was more detailed than she was (this might indicate a scammer since most girls would write something more precise than a sandwich).

Then something else that I thought was pretty strange happened (The third time).

She told me that she was living with her uncle.

I am not saying that it would be strange because I know it is expensive to live in the part of the UK where she allegedly came from.

I have been watching a UK house-hunting show, so I got some knowledge about it.

But still, it is pretty odd to live with your uncle in Northern Europe. It would have made much more sense if she had lived with a friend or her parents.

It was a good thing because now something extraordinary had happened.

This sounded my alarm bell, together with the somewhat less grammatically perfect English I began to notice.

Then we continued to discuss our past relationships.

Since I noticed that she wasn’t giving too many details, I decided not to be as detailed, which made her ask more about me.

This is odd because she would avoid giving away too many details and keep the conversation about me going, and I should give her all the details, which I decided not to do.

But I gave away one thing: I am reading a self-help book about dating, which I do.

The person told me she was looking for a man as described in Proverbs 31. Click here to look it up (courtesy of ESV.ORG).

Very strange for Northern Europeans to be so open with their Christian faith. I have to confess that this made me a bit uncomfortable, not because I am not comfortable discussing Christianity but because

I also have British friends, and I know they aren’t very eager to discuss it so vividly, especially not with someone you’ve just met on social media.

This aroused my suspicion.

I started to think about African Christians whom I know of.

The English reminded me of how some people from Africa, especially Nigeria, talk, and on social media, you often write how you talk.

This made me think about the Nigerian love scam that I’ve discussed in the past.

Another thing that I know about Christians in Africa because they are much more open and comfortable with their faith than most Europeans I know.

I must confess that this made me uncomfortable, not because I am not comfortable discussing Christianity but because her pictures were a bit sexier than you should expect from such a devout woman.

Since I am a Christian, I have experience with how Christian women everywhere portray themselves.

Now, I was pretty sure that I was talking with a scammer.

I couldn’t ignore my alarm bells any longer.

Let me also tell you that most girls, even those who aren’t referring to themselves as Christians, wouldn’t share these pictures.

Step Three: Hook him and switch to an encrypted platform

She then said she didn’t want to play games which I also agreed.

What aroused my suspicion was the fact that she called me handsome.

This is something you could do at the end of a first chat.

I have done this many times, but what made all my alarm bells in my head was when she wanted us to continue the conversation on another app.

It was strange, especially since I told her at the beginning of our conversation that it was late and tiring.

I was ready to sleep because I needed to get up early the following day.

Since I knew that this app encrypts the conversation between people, I finally realized that this was someone who tried to scam me.

I told the scammer that I couldn’t find it, and honestly, I didn’t want to be in touch with the scammer again, but I then remembered how love scams happened and that this was the scammer’s ABC.

I have discussed the Russian love scam before on this blog too.

Now to the main lessons that any single can learn from my story:

What Can You Learn from My Experience?

• Everyone can fall for a love scam, even experts. What saved me from being scammed was that I am always suspicious when someone contacts me out of the blue without a proper introduction. It’s an occupational hazard which I refer to as “BS Radar.” Also, the fact that the person was so open about their faith made me suspicious.
• Scam artists are preying on innocent victims (I played the role of a dumbass for a while after I figured out that it was a scam to stress the scammer, and I was having a blast). Especially not finding the info the scammer needed to contact me.
• They often try to get as many details about you as possible while revealing as little as possible about themselves. Because let’s face it: It’s not a natural person. It’s a fake personality.

[Tweet “What You Can Learn About How Scammers Operate #DatingRedFlags #DatingTips”]

Next Article

My next article will be published on the 29th of August, 2018, discussing the attractiveness of both men and women.

Have a great week, and take care of yourself,

Rickard