Uk to take action against romance dating scams

[vita]

At last, an official body is taking it seriously.

The UK is to set up a National Fraud Agency so that people scammed online can come forward and report what's happened to them.

In this link a woman talks about how she was scammed. It's the usual story which we know so well on here - the scammer woo'd an individual over a long period of time before trying his scam.

BBC News - 'Online dating scam cost me £50,000'

We know this site is littered with scammers. On here, they mainly target the women members, although there are also occasional female scammers. More than any other factor, they have created a shroud of suspicion and mistrust in private messages and on the forums.

I personally have become more and more closed down to interactions on this site as a result and I'm sure many other members feel similarly. I've stayed for what I have in common with the other women here.

What we really need for action against scamming to be effective is an international effort - but the UK initiative is a good start

[bigglesworth]

I had a scammer trying to romance scam be too, wanted $40,000.00 for some shipment to get to the US, yeah right. It took a while to get rid of the guy and he threatened me and cussed me out, the whole nine yards, but he's gone. The US cannot do anything about these guys UNLESS you give them money then they can TRY to go after them. It is a slimy world of treacherous people out there. Be careful and don't be a victim And Vita, I have stayed for the same reasons you have, the ladies on here.

[lynda]

The UK has taken a step toward what has become an international issue hope the other countries can take a look and follow in their footsteps. Vita this is a good thread and look forward to hearing what others have to say. Yeah, I am rather like yourself and really take a step back and look at who I talk too and I am also here mostly for the ladies.

[valerie]

We seem to have an unusually large number of scammers on this site lately. I didn't get any for quite awhile and now they are coming like locusts. I'm really pretty sick of it and I wish Admin would just make the free members wait until they've had a chance to validate them as REAL....like the location is real and the pictures match the description. Please....they post a pic of some blond model and say they have black eyes & black hair! LOL This tells me that they are either stupid, or they have more than one person working on the profiles so the info doesn't match.

The other kind are the guys posing as dudes in their 40's or 50's...AS IF that would appeal to most of us! DUH!!! Some of them write rather well, but if you put the grammar under the microscope, it's very poor. But then my second major in high school was INGRISH....otherwise known as English, so I wince in pain when I see I've omitted a comma or used a pronoun incorrectly. ;-)~

I don't claim to have this down to an art form, but if we all just report the emails we suspect as being scammers (TOS), we come closer to the GoCougar we want to experience. Even giving you their email addy (unsolicitated, in first PM) is a violation of TOS. Maybe we just should stop wasting time kavetching and DO something.

[barbcast]

This could be simply resolved. Make the MEN have to PAY. Or at least a credit card validation for age. Who runs this anyway? I think it needs to be protected more, I too am sick of guys who are full of **** and have lately started to wonder if there are ANY real, nice YM who are seeking ROMANTIC interaction, not camscam or some other game.

[wetnwild]

Barb, I think that is a good idea! The first cougar site I ever joined was that way. Women were free, men had to pay. I met a great guy on that site! And I don't remember having all these problems with all these scammers! I agree with Val, there are a TON of them on here lately!! I have been getting 4-5 emails a day that are obvious scam (copy and paste) emails!

[sealion]

on a funny note I've gotten alot of scam letters here from people posing as 18-25 year old women. Should they pay? But in other websites you get the same thing...paying or not. People will scam. I can't say that GC has been that good about removing scammers...there are some here who I reported who seem to be still here. By the nature of dating women will get more scam mails (because traditionally the guy is supposed to do the first asking/approach)...however as a percentage of mail received, I would suspect that guys have an equivalent percentage or even greater percentage of scam mail received (on this or other dating sites). Thus barbcast I would be a bit a bit cautious because there are reasons to making women pay too and it isn't all that effective either.

I remember reading in the paper about another dating website where even though it was paying, the company was alleged to have people setting up fake profiles just to encourage others to pay to join (i.e. the fake profiles would message someone until the person joined) and that wouldn't stop the nigerian-based scammers too.

[violet]

I would think there might be fewer scammers posing as females on go cougar, because they would be more likely to go after older men (lonelier and with money).

[bayridgebabe]

Even if men were required to pay I'm sure there would still be scammers, maybe not as many but there would still be some. The ones asking for money will pay to get it back tenfold. Hey, it's still a good idea, making the men pay to belong on GC sorry to the good guys on here.

[chilledice]

Hang on now! if anyone is going to PAY then it should be both men and women!