Do you know how to spot a romance scammer by their online dating profile?
When you’re doing the online dating thing and have signed up with some dating sites, how do you know if the profile you’re looking at is a real person legitimately looking for romance, or just a scammer looking to steal your heart and your money. Most romantic scammers follow the same patterns. Keep reading to find out how to spot a romance scammer by their online dating profile.
To start off, for any of you fellows reading this article, if you’ve been unknowingly making yourself look like a romance scammer, you need to update your dating profile ASAP because women are on to the warning signs of what might be a scam profile! Depending on the user name you chose, you might have to delete your old profile and start from scratch.
Most romantic scammers with phony profiles are looking to steal your money. Some men might be planning to cheat on their wife, but most who have fake dating profiles are thieves.
So, let’s check out a few ways to spot a romance scammer by their online dating profile.
Profile Name
Romance scammers like to use weird number combinations as part of their user name on dating sites. Some men out there, who might not be romance scammers, do have trouble choosing a name, every name they tried is already taken, and they decide to just toss some random numbers into their user name. Don’t do it! That’s almost always a sure sign of how to spot a romance scammer.
Some legitimate guys find a name they like has been taken, so they add their age to the end of the word, but depending on how many years have gone by since he joined, this alerts women how long he’s been on this site. Some guys use their birth year. A year might look pretty obvious to women, especially if it matches the age on your profile, this shouldn’t tag you as a romance scammer, but you still might want to look at deleting your profile and starting over with a new name minus numbers.
Some guys use cute names that include numbers such as: Iwant2dateU. That probably won’t trigger a warning bell with most women. However, if you’re Lewis770, 123darrell, cocoon563, David6310, charplance123, Ron05391, 17fishing21, Jim777taco, and so on, you’re going to be ignored. Put some thought into the user name. Incorporating a hobby would be a good suggestion, like BaseballHarry.
If you like cats, don’t put use it as your profile name. For some oddball reason many romance scammers like to call themselves cats. There’s Alanthecat, Johnthecat, Brianthecat, and numerous other cats out there. These cats are prolific on POF.
Photos
We’re all visual creatures. If someone’s photo isn’t attractive to us, we’re not going to click on it and read the profile.
Romance scammers usually only have one photo they’re using. They lifted it from some man who’s photo they found online, who probably has no idea that scammers are using his image. Romance scammers can’t get hold of more than one photo. That’s a big warning sign if a man only has one photo up on his dating profile – he’s probably a scammer.
So you guys out there legitimately looking for romance online, if you only have one photo of yourself up – upload more ASAP. Most online dating profiles allow their users to post several photos. Get as many photos up as you can to distance yourself from online romance scammers.
Ladies, when in doubt if that attractive man with only one photo up is a romantic scammer, use Google’s image search. You’ll likely see that photo come up attached to many online dating sites, and the scammer is using different locations and ages. Then go back to your online dating site and send a message to the administrators the guy is a scammer. They’ll usually boot him off quickly and cancel the account.
If there is no photo on the online dating profile, it’s also probably a scammer. It might just be a man looking to cheat on his wife and he doesn’t want his photo posted in case someone he knows is browsing, recognizes him, and alerts the wife. Either way no photo = pass.
Not answering questions
Online dating sites have questions their users fill in to help searchers find them or make a decision if this might be a match. Scammers will often leave questions unanswered or “will tell you later”. These are sketchy responses and makes the person look evasive.
Such as the question: “do you want children?” The answer is yes or no. Just answer it! If you have more to say about that topic, put it in your profile.
If the question is “do you have a car”, again, just answer it. You’d think this would be a simple yes or no question. but too many people choose “will tell you later” or “unknown”. If you’re unsure, go outside and look around your driveway and in your garage. Do you see a car? Come back to the online dating profile and report your findings. Most women prefer to date a man who has a car. We’re not too keen on a man who shows up on a bike and wants us to sit on the handlebars.
Weird summaries
This is the place for the person looking for romance to toot their own horn and talk about themselves. Write about their hobbies, their pets, places they’d like to travel to, their career goals, what they’re looking for in a relationship, or maybe share a cute story. Don’t waste valuable real estate writing something stupid that screams romance scammer all over it like this:
I’m a true believer and i know the God that I serve will se me through in this endeavor. I believe the most valuable thing in life is to have true happiness, so I strive in the lord to have as many moments of happiness as possible though it’s not always so easy due to temptations. I’m more comfortable in the outdoors but find myself indoors too often. I’m kind of an introvert but funny enough I sometimes become quite the extrovert around women I like or that I think are cute. I can be very passionate when it comes to a relationship. I’ve never found “the one” and become more anxious about that every passing year. I truly believe I could rise to greatness if I just had the right motivation with God’s approval. I have a great personality that I am so confident off. I know that God is set to give me my right woman with a godly heart. Someone have to make the first move..please if the lord has touched your heart drop me a note.
And yes, the above copy and paste is from a romance scammer’s profile.
Spelling counts
Many romance scammers come from places like Nigeria, Russia, and Eastern Europe where English is not the first language, and they’re pretending to be residents of Florida or Texas or somewhere else that English is the official language. If you’re not a romance scammer and your spelling isn’t the greatest, run your profile through the spell check on your computer’s word processing program or get a friend review it. Leave the text speak off your dating profile.
Career choices
The favorite career choices for online romance scammers are an oil rig worker, construction, military, or engineering. That sucks for legitimate men on dating sites if that’s one of their careers! You’ll have to work extra hard to have a well-written profile that includes many photos.
Family
Romance scammers are almost always widowed. It’ll be a sad tale indeed because the deceased wife died in a car crash or from cancer. The “widower” usually has 2 children: one in college (probably a girl) and a younger school age child, usually a 12 year old boy. And they’re usually having financial difficulty and that college kid needs money for tuition or books or whatever and that’s when they’ll first hit you up for money.
Online romance scammers pretend to be all ages in order to appeal to younger and older women. The problem is they don’t change their family story. A man who claims to be in his 60s (when most people have adult children) and he’s still yapping about his dead wife and 12 year old son, because that’s the same spiel he uses on the profile where he pretends to be 40 years old, isn’t going to be too appealing to a woman in her 60s who has already raised a family.
User pay dating sites
Romantic scammers don’t normally pay for dating sites, unless they’ve managed to steal a credit card from somewhere. They’re cheap that way. Plus they know eventually they’ll get reported and their profile will be deleted by the dating site’s administrators. That’s a waste of money for them.
Romance scammers still show up on paid dating sites because they often have a trial period or free users have limited access. If it’s an online dating site that has both paid users and free users, there might be a symbol or a notification attached to the profile so other users can see if this person is a full-fledged paying member or not.
If it’s dating site that is geared mostly to paid members, stick with corresponding only the full privilege users. The freebie users might just be checking things out before deciding to pay, but there’s a better chance they’re a romance scammer.
Niche dating sites
Those romantic scammers know all the online dating sites but on niche sites it’s pretty obvious they’re scammers.
Niche dating sites are popular for people looking for romance with partners who have an interest in that niche. This could be a religious based dating site, vegetarians, cat lovers, scuba divers, etc. Romance scammers are easy to spot on these sites. If the dating site is all about connecting with other cat lovers, the people putting up profiles will be posting photos of themselves and their cats. A romance scammer only has one photo he uses on every dating site he can find, and there’s probably no cat. A romance scammer on a vegetarian dating site will probably say his favorite food is steak or make a similar stupid mistake.
There are too many stories about women who’ve been victimized on online Christian dating sites, where they don’t think it’s possible a scammer would hang out. Romance scammers can certainly look up scriptures and quote them or pretend about their religious beliefs. Don’t let your guard down.
Flowery, loving messages
If you receive a message from someone on an online dating site that goes like this:
“Hello sweetie. You have a beautiful smile and I feel I have fallen in love. I believe the most valuable thing in life is to have true happiness. I love children and am widowed with a teenage boy and a girl who goes to college. I can be very passionate when it comes to a relationship. I seek my soul mate and become more anxious about that every passing year. I have a great personality and am so confident that God is set to give me my right woman. If I have touched your heart drop me a note.”
You have probably been propositioned by a romance scammer. Check out my post on Lines Romance Scammers Use to make sure you don’t fall victim.
Always remember when it comes to meeting people on online dating sites – nothing is real until you meet in person!
Have you ever been suckered by a romance scammer? Do you have any other tips on how to spot a romance scammer by their online dating profile? Leave a comment!
For a little fun watch my YouTube video where I’m profiling Western Match and talking about online dating scammers.
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[…] further reading, see my post Spotting a Romance Scammer by their Online Dating Profile to identify scammers based on how they write their profiles on Internet dating […]
[…] you on the hook to repay. If you’ve signed up to an online dating site, you’ll be dealing with romantic scammers who want to steal your heart and your money. Read my article Lines Romance Scammers Use to see what […]
I think one scammer has befriended me
I was scammed and it ended with me figuring all of it out by listening to other people then doing some investigating on my own. He didn’t get much out of mea couple iTunes cards amd.a.couple hundred of dollars. Please be careful once one gets ahold of you there will be more!!!
Sorry to hear about that Margaret 🙁
But at least you’re very lucky when we hear stories in the news of people scammed out of tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
At least moving forward you’ll be more cautious and learn from this past experience. And you figured it out quickly. As you noted, once they get ahold of you, they want more dollars out of you.
They’ll steal your heart and your money. And make it tougher on the guys who are legitimately looking for a romantic connection.
I believe that I am being scammed her name is samantha Jonathan or samantha Johnson and the same story about marriage and I want to know does anyone else know her
Hi Charles. Perhaps someone who knows who this person is will see your comment and respond. You can try doing a search on Youtube, there’s a lot of people who name names on romance scammers. You could always try Dr. Phil! Don’t give Samantha any money if she asks. Tell her you’re not a bank and suggest she go to her bank if she needs a loan.
Great article, and so true! In fact Online Dating has become hugely popular while increasing in recent years to where experts are estimating that 40% of relationship today start online. By the year 2025 that is supposed to increase to 50-60%. Amazing. There are tons of wonderful and safe online dating sites (both free and paid), if you are careful and use common sense. Be sure not to disclose personal contact information until you verify the person on the other end is REAL, GENUINE and SAFE! (via Skype or some other visual means). Paid dating sites of course offer additional premium features such as built-in surveys and personality tests, but we suggest starting with Free sites that avoid the fluff and concentrate on what ‘s most important; That is open, unlimited communication so you can find that perfect partner in the shortest time possible! We have tested and reviewed almost all the top dating websites and 2 of our favorite FREE sites include POF.com (not niche-specific includes all demographics) and Filipino4U.com (Asian singles and Western/English men).
Remember, be safe and smart out there! Stay tuned as we will be providing additional detailed reviews of our favorite dating sites.
Asia Minola, MA
Online Dating Coach – Relationship Counselor
UNLV – BA Sociology
Just adding a bit to the above comment which contains some good advice. But…. I’ve never heard of filipino4u and Asia is using that website in her profile, so it’s obviously self-serving advertising. Read that into it what you will.
Hi I’ve been speaking to a guy called Alberto lorincz who lost his wife in a car accident 6yrs ago and has a son at college and although quite a few things seem try alarm bells ring…has anyone else come across him?
Those are definitely red flags, stories that romance scammers use. Make sure you’re doing a reverse image search. Also check out this post for more advice: http://thelifestyledigs.com/are-you-dating-a-romance-scammer/ Whatever you do – do NOT send money. You are not a bank.
Hi I’ve been speaking to a guy called Alberto lorincz who lost his wife in a car accident 6yrs ago and has a son at college and although quite a few things seem try alarm bells ring has anyone else come across him?
Iam talking to army mantaking alot of my money George cozma. Also williams. Bruce wolfe seen photos of so called son in africa he is in hospital with a broken leg from accident coming home to me by planeshowed photo in hospital says he is from fla i found a photo video saying he is rominan
Sounds like all the red flags are there including George Cozma name shows up on romance scammer alerts, pretending to be in the US military when the man who’s photo is stolen is Russian. Also scammers pretend to be in the military and need money for hospital. Real military pays for all these costs and health benefits include family. Don’t send any more money. You’re not a bank.
Forget about him or her.
Thanks for your alerts, l was almost scammed by a man named Nablu, he used the UK line, his accent was Nigerian and he was not too much in talking. He claimed to have one child and a young sister, after researching the photo he used was for the innocent Austrian businessman, l told him off though he kept refusing and blocked him.
Hi Audrey. Thanks for sharing your story. And way to go for doing a reverse image search and figuring out you were being romanced by a scammer! Yes, blocking them is usually the best option. But sometimes I like to play with them first!
This doesn’t just apply to straight people! There are a ton of scammers on gay and lesbian sights as well. Also please be careful about sending your photos to people. I sent one to a girl on one site just to find a profile with my picture on another one. They also can’t be reached on the phone and won’t do a video call.
Tay, you are absolutely right! These romance scammers are lurking on every niche dating website out there. Plus social media, gaming sites, The advice is the same for everyone. Do a reverse image check. If you’re not close enough to meet in person do a video chat. Scammers will come up with every reason in the book why they can’t video chat. The real reason is because they don’t like the photo they stole and uploaded to their profile.
I was scammed using a picture of Tony Barbaud. He is a celebrity in Lebanon. He contacted by Facebook using the name of John Phillip. He is an oil rig engineer and needed money to keep his Internet on. There were red flags along the way mixed with truth which made info hard to find to verify if he was real. After sending money he seemed to lose interest for a few days then came back asking for more money with a lame story. I gave him a hard time and he got mad and signed off. Took me hours to find a site for info about male scammers (on Pinterest). Had the picture with what appeared to be close to 75 names the scammer was using. Be careful of these scumbags they can be very convincing. Search everyone who asks for money on ever website.
Hello Sheila. Thank you for sharing your story and I’m sorry to hear that you were scammed. I can tell you I wouldn’t know about any Lebanese celebrities and scammers count on that. Anyone who has an occupation as any type of engineer or anyone claiming to work on an oil rig are huge red flags as scammers. They use these locations because it’s hard to meet in person when you’re stationed off shore on an oil rig which could be for months. And scammers use that to their advantage to avoid requests to meet in person. People who work on oil rigs have all their needs met by their employer including Internet and meals. They don’t need to buy these things. Yes they’re very convincing and this is their job so they become very good at what they do. My Facebook profile is private and the friends I have on there I know who they are. I occasionally get strangers putting in a friend request or try to message me. If I don’t know them I block or delete or whatever Facebook calls it. And most of the men who try to Facebook contact me have two first names. In other words, their last name is also a name that men use as their first name. Another scammer tactic. If someone gives you their name you can try Googling and add “scammer” and see what happens. Best of luck moving forward and getting your life back on track.
Here are the scammers I have come across
John Bianucci, David Andre Stewart and Edward Whitbeck.
I gave them no money, I am an intelligent person, I googled, I ran properly checks, background checks. Facial recognition. I just got out of a 37 year marriage with a narcissist. I can spot these scammers lies pretty quick. I have decided to play with them a bit. Have some fun, give them a taste of their own bs.
Hello Donna. Well congratulations on getting out of a marriage with a narcissist. Now you can start living your life to the fullest! And double congratulations on spotting scammer lies pretty quick. Have some fun and play with them. Tell them you haven’t eaten today and ask if they can buy you a pizza LOL.