Internet is becoming the most popular medium to find a partner. If you`ve been single you probably thought about dating sites. There are many legit ones, however, in this article we will explain how to recognize the scammy dating sites and apps.
There are heavily monetized dating sites either for men or women which claim to have a much higher chance for finding you a partner or a “one-night stand”.
These sites are created to quickly make a fortune without having to compete with already established dating sites. When you register and trying out the site, you may already find a match (might have different terms but idea is the same). This already is suspicious, however, if you`re not sure whether it is a coincidence or a scam check for the characteristics below.
Kinds of Adult Dating Sites
There are two kinds of adult dating sites which may be scams:
- Subscription sites: These require your credit card or PayPal account (or other payment method supporting subscriptions).
- Pay per message sites: These are “free” but in order to contact the “date” you have to pay a small fee
Fake dating sites characteristics
You can recognize a fake dating site or app in several ways:
- Appearance: An unrealistic number of beautiful women (this we saw the most common) on the site. Most of them will be from range of 21 – 35 (or older depending on the target audience) and will “like” you even though you have no profile picture and indicate 60 years old.
- Pay for identification: You only have to pay $ 1, - or $ 0,01 to gain access. The transaction is needed to “identify” you. These are usually easy ways to get your payment details.
- Positive feedback: If you “match” with these beautiful women, you may receive your first message very quickly.
- Platform: When you feel closer to the other person, you may ask to go to different medium to communicate so you do not have to pay money for every single message you write. However, usually they refuse saying they feel safe on this platform.
- Personal answers: Personal answers are usually laconic and evasive to prolong the conversation
- Suggesting going on a date: When you feel like you are ready to go on a date, the person will find an excuse not to go. Usually they mention a reason as “let`s get know each other better”
- Argument: If it happens that you have an argument, the person on the other side will keep just so you do not quit but not win either, so you increase the number of messages sent.
- Occupation: Women or men stating having full-time jobs are online all the time
These are typical heavily monetized dating sites, where men and women with fake profiles are aggressively trying to extort as much money as possible, and they might not be shut down because you are willingly writing a message for money.
Read terms and conditions
As you can see there are dating sites that have fake profiles for "entertainment" purposes and are not real. This is especially important if you are charged by message to a non-existing person!
If you are interested in Romance scam, we have prepared a more elaborate article here
