Do you feel attracted to someone you met online on a hookup website, and that spark of chemistry started to hit?
Well, hold your horses. It may not be as it seems, and it can be tricky to hook up someone you have not met before. We are not here to scare you away but, there are some things you should know before you go deep.
Scammers online are dangerous. Unfortunately, they are on the rise as more and more people are participating in online adult dating and, these scammers are ready to go so far with their games to involve cybercrimes and money schemes. Find here Philadelphia Weekly’s list of best hookup sites.
First, let us know who do scammers target?
Scammers are widespread on all platforms, dating sites, hookup sites, and social media. Usually, their target is wide across several demographics on all adult dating sites they can be on. In other words, it does not matter what age, gender, sexual orientation, or favorite platform. As long as anyone exists on a hookup website, they target a scammer.
If you participate in online adult dating, keep your eyes wide open for signs indicating you are a scam victim. Watch out for these signs as you keep reading to protect yourself and avoid scams.
Profile Red Flags
These are probably the most important signs you can see on a scammer’s profile.
The photos on the profile are not personal. Scammers do not use real pictures, and they use a figure or stock photos “if it looks too good, it is probably not real.”
They are looking for singles in your area, and they pretend to work in a different city or country. Scammers do that to ensure their safety and anonymity as it is easier to come up with reasons to scam.
Conversation Location
Once they match with someone and start talking, scammers tend to move the conversation elsewhere quickly. Scammers tend to ask to move the conversation to either social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook or messaging applications such as WhatsApp.
The faster they ask to move to a different platform to talk, the higher probability they are scammers. They might use the information already shared on social media to have ways for their schemes as it gets easier for them so, caution is highly advised.
Light speed love
Scammers tend to quicken the pace in the process of making the victim fall for them. They try their best to establish an emotional connection as early as possible, and they might confess their love or express a deep connection to the victim.
It is an element in the emotional manipulation the scammers use as their prey is chosen carefully as fragile and isolated. They open up faster and long for a connection as the scammers tend to flirt and flatter more and get devoted too soon.
I want to meet you but…
Scammers can go way beyond what anyone can imagine avoiding any way of meeting. They tend to claim they are in other cities or sometimes another country, and something always comes up to mess with the meeting schedule! They, of course, do not want to meet their victim as they will be exposed. The more they avoid, the more suspicious it is.
Sometimes scammers use this excuse to start exploiting money from you, they would use claims for getting the plane ticket to meet you, or the border police held them at the border, which, of course, they need money to get released.
Video Chat a BIG no no
Scammers do not wish to be exposed or recognized so, talking through video chat is a factor in protecting their identities. They might agree to voice calls since accents and tone of voice can be manipulated but, they will always come up with an excuse on why video chat is major red line scammers do not want to cross.
Excuses vary from having internet connection problems to broken cameras or phones. Sometimes they play the shyness card as it is very awkward for them to have a video chat as they do not feel comfortable doing that.
Money Request
As the conversation moves on and on, scammers start expressing financial distress and share their frustration with work, life, or anything related to money. By now, anyone should know that scammer’s goal is money exploitation.
Another way scammers use is coming up with excuses to make money. For instance, they tend to have family emergencies, health issues, or travel problems. They can get creative to get paid as they are ready to create a story about a gift they are willing to send, but it needs custom fees, and they cannot afford it. It is a huge risk to fall for that.
Conclusion
Online adult dating, of course, created more chances for people seeking casual relationships with no commitment. It has a success rate as we live in the 21st century, the age of technology. It is quite the rabbit hole to fall in. next time you want to hook up online, protect your privacy as a priority and be careful from scammers as these signs might serve you well to find the real deal.
