Internet Dating Scams
Since the introduction of Internet to govern our daily lives, not just our lifestyles but also the entire outlook that many of us used to house in our heart regarding the world outside have undergone seas changes. Take for instance the world of entertainment or education, business or ecommerce – everything is now accessible from our desktops. Moreover, Internet has helped us reduce the geographical distance between two individuals and enabled us to get in touch with virtually strangers. However, like any medium of communication, Internet also has its loopholes. And with the baddie opportunists all around the place, these loopholes are so vulnerable to become the vices of the medium!
You must have already heard about the various Internet dating scams that are so much in vogue these days. Call it a limitation of the medium or call it its inadequacy, the Internet is increasingly become the site for several violations and Internet dating scams stand a cruel testimony to it. While on one hand we find several entities trying to bridge the racial, geographical, and sexual gap between several individuals with the help of several social networking sites, on the other we find several individuals preying on these sites for their personal benefit.
Amongst these, Internet dating scams top the chart and the trend is only increasing with the increase in the number of people subscribing to these sites. This is how a usual Internet dating scam operates. A scammer usually creates a fake identity and manages an account in a social networking site, more specifically an online dating site. Once over with the registration, which is most of the times accompanied with a fake name and a fake photo, the person simply waits for people to contact him/her for dating purposes. In due course, either the scammer approaches a person for a potential romantic relationship or is approached by a vulnerable person.
What follows for some time is simple and predictable – the victim and the scammer correspond regularly and all symptoms of a potentially successful relationship are carefully chiseled by the scammer till he/she urges the victim to send money for dealing with an emergency situation that has suddenly sprouted up. Otherwise, the scammer may also tell the victim that he/she needs the money as airfare of meeting the victim. The most vulnerable victim complies and is thrown to the utter frustrating situation when one fine day the scammer stops interacting or the victim is left awaiting at the airport for a lover who is never to come!
These events not only drain the victim off money but leave him or her mentally devastated. Obviously, the victim suffers a lot of anxiety and frustration, while the scammer plans his/her next catch. If the scammer is professional, he/she may lay the bait on more than one victim simultaneously. Although these events cannot be controlled by the owner or the manager of these online dating sites, these happenings can be made to fall flat if the users are a little more alert and if they know how to deal with these situations.
Have fun and take care!
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