Online Romance Scam – Hello My name is Fatima, i saw your profile today and became intrested in you,i will also like to know you more,and if you can send an email to my email address,i will give you my pictures here is my email address ( *******************@yahoo.com ) I believe we can move from here! Awaiting for your mail to my email address above. Fatima.
You are probably thinking, what the heck is that?!?!? Well, I was thinking exactly the same thing when I received the above private message from SEOmoz.org. At first I was thinking, “Is this person interested in talking about SEO or business or something?”, but when I re-read it, I pretty much knew the intent was completely different. For some reason, I also knew instantly that it was a scam, hence I searched “I saw your profile and became interested in you” and a whole host of website turns up.
After a few minutes of research, I found out that it was something called a “Romance” based scam. So its basically a method for scammers to fish your information, and ultimately rob you of your whole life’s savings. I guess this stems from the fact that in this technological day and age, most men and women are searching for dates online. Having a supposedly interested person contact you is like a god send and hence stirs a man’s egotiscal side as well as a women’s emotional side.
I guess this post is basically me trying to help decrease the chance of someone falling for this trap. If something is too good to be true, do a search on Google and you will find all the information you would need.
7 Comments
Warenwirtschaft
I thought these mails were just to lure me into some kind of dating platform. But you may be right, they could try to rob everything for desperate customers.
luz
I also receive the same emails. Though i thought those only were promotions from a dating site.
SEO dude
This is blackhat affiliate marketing. They join some dating site affiliate program that pays lets say $1 for every signup you send them. Their main objective is to get you to sign up. So they will say something along the lines of: “My hot pics are on this site if you want to see them” after making sure you are interested.
The moaning blogger
Thats the only trouble wit email, all the spam that comes with them, i can’t imagine anyone falling for all this crap but they must do, otherwise they wouldn’t be getting sent, but i agree with warning people, if this post stops 1 sucker then it was worthwhile.
Jack
it’s a 419 scam, that changed its form a little bit. after couple of letters this Nigerian or Togo-based princess suddenly claims to be a nephew of some executed Bank president, 15,000,000$ waiting for a foreigner with bank account, third part is yours, and the usual scam of 20,000$ taxes you should send to a nigerian lawyer to arrange the deal and to stay crying at home without anything
John
Jack,
Sounds like an interesting business proposition. I can cover the 20,000$. Let’s get in contact and hash this thing out.
anonymous87
Oh my, i thought nobody else had the same problem :S at beggining i thought it was real but now, that i recieve hundreds of those..it sucks ..any1 knows how to make rid of that?