Do You Trust Online Dating?
Online dating can lead to you finding the love of your life. And it can lead to being scammed. The Mirror in the UK reports how a Nigerian gang conned a woman out of £20,000.
A woman claimed a Nigerian gang posing as an online love interest conned her out of £20,000.
‘Elizabeth’ – which is not her real name – appeared on Good Morning Britain earlier today to warn people of the dangers of online dating.
After thinking she was was dating an engineer from Southampton who had a contract out in Dubai, it turned out to be a scam.
She revealed: “I was very vulnerable, I had been on my own for a long time and I just wanted to meet someone.
After reading this kind of story do you trust online dating? Online dating may be new to world because of the internet but old advice also applies; if it appears to be too good t be true it is probably too good to be true. Of as we noted in a recent article, Judge Judy says don’t date schlubs. You just met this person online and have not even seen his face but he is asking for money?
What You Can Trust about Online Dating
Online dating works for the purposes for which it was intended. Like speed dating, dating online allows you to meet more people and typically people who are more likely to be someone you want to get to know. Unfortunately there are crooks in every niche of modern life, including online dating.
FBI Warning
According to the Los Angeles Daily News the FBI warns of increasing online dating scams.
Dubbed by the FBI as “Operation Romeo and Juliet,” more Americans of all ages who subscribe to online dating services are being lured to give their hearts, and then convinced to part with their money, said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
“These arrangements only end up in heartbreak,” said Bowdich, who was flanked by officials with the Internal Revenue Service, the state Attorney General’s Office and several investigators with local law enforcement agencies.
The FBI has a couple of suggestions in this regard:
Do not send money to someone you have not met and have no reason to trust.
Never provide your personal information, including your bank account information, to someone you do not know or trust.
No matter how good the story is, never send money or provide personal information to someone who just met and especially to someone whom you have not met face to face!
Dating Apps
One more issue in regard to trusting online dating is the use of dating apps. Read our article Tinder Dating Disaster and remember to always use common sense. Another grim aspect of dating apps was reported in the New York Daily News. A man was charged with sexually assaulting a tinder date.
A California teenager was arrested after he allegedly attacked a girl he met on Tinder, police said Wednesday.
Jake Powers, 19, is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at a Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. home in July, according to authorities. The two had agreed to meet after a short conversation.
Police say Powers grabbed the girl as they made their way to the back of the residence, put her in a headlock and slammed her to the ground before covering her mouth and sexually assaulting her.
The suspect is in custody with bond set at a quarter of a million dollars. His dating profile on Tinder was a fake. The victim in this case is warning others to be more careful and not be so impulsive when meeting up with someone they meet on apps like Tinder.