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Scammers...

Scarecrow

Member
I received a private message with some questions and thought I would share part of my reply with the rest of the community...

Be extremely careful - scamming is an industry world wide and probably at least 9 of 10 girls online are just trying to make money, and they are VERY good at it - I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. If you already have a woman* I would suggest that she become friends with her and chat with her as much as possible, she will have insight about her to offer you; if she thinks something doesn't feel right pay attention to her intuition.

One of my businesses in the Philippines is an Internet Cafe and I see girls come in with their husband or boyfriend. Often they will actually be playing online games with their husband or boyfriend on the next computer as they chat with other men. Recently one was talking to an Egyptian that apparently she has known for a while because she was all but demanding that he send money because her brother needed an operation because he "had a broken bones". Others will simply watch over the shoulder of the girl as they chat with as many as four different men simultaneously.

The absolute best piece of advice I can give is to hire an investigative service like this one here in the Philippines to investigate EVERY girl you become serious about:

http://www.philippines-pi.com/

Better to spend a little now than a lot for nothing. There are genuine girls out there but it is hard to separate them out of the crowd. If they can fall in love with you through a keyboard it is likely that they are scamming you or desperate and willing to say anything (these will just use you to get there then leave you once they have citizenship).

Absolute rule #1 is NEVER send a penny in any form until you have met them in person AND had them investigated. Usually the family (mom and dad) are the ones encouraging this behavior and coaching them to scam. There is a girl that comes in here from time to time. The first time she was here both her mother and father were with her. The times after that her mother came with her. There was a case recently in Afghanistan where a family severely beat their daughter because she wouldn't become a prostitute to help the family financially.

Absolute rule #2 is don't even consider a girl without less than a Bachelor Degree AND a job. If she is educated and working it is unlikely that she is a scammer. Your investigative service will be able to verify her education and employment.

Just remember that there are 3 billion women on this planet and you can choose which one(s) you want to keep. Don't get attached to any of them until you know for a fact that they are genuine (investigative service) and have a sincere interest in you (let your woman chat with her). If she knows that you are not just running on testosterone and emotions she will realize that it will be difficult to scam you and will likely find a reason to break off the "relationship" and move on to another target.

I decided to post this because I had answered the Private Message only a short time ago and then here came this couple and she was desperately trying to contact "Michael". Honey, I love you, I'm sorry, etc...were used many times...they don't even mind if you look over their shoulder too - and others in the cafe often do watching them operate.

It is an industry and considered by many to be a legitimate way to make money...the mentality is that if you are stupid enough to send them money they might as well be the one getting it instead of someone else that would do the same thing to you. "Someone else would scam them if it wasn't me, so I might as well do it and get the money" is their reasoning and way of justifying it.

* I use the word "woman" instead of wife because "He is my man" or "She is my woman" are more accurate biblical translations than husband or wife.
 

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Wow! Just Wow!

Had a friend back around 2000 who courted and married a girl in the PI. She then sabotaged the process so that she COULDN'T come to the states. Kept him supporting her for a long time, cause she was his wife. Finally, he moved there. Nope! Wasn't about to live with him. Had her own boyfriend, and had had all along.
 
Many of them are programmed from the time they can walk and talk to provide for the family in any way possible. Frequently they leave home for the bigger cities and become prostitutes. Once they aren't as desirable as the younger ones they will end up going back home and typically will take a boyfriend then begin their Internet scamming.

Even many that aren't scammers say that if they were to move to another country and get married to someone there they would want to send a fair amount of the money available back to their families. They are just programmed to think that way and believe they owe their very lives to their families. I also hear complaints from those that have done just that - their family actually expects them to send money and gets very angry with them if the same amount or more doesn't keep coming. To me they are prostituting their daughters in more than one way because they are acting just like pimps ... "make us more money".

Leaving and cleaving is a foreign concept to them...you simply belong to them and their family like a possession and they will treat you like they own you.
 
Wow Scarecrow, scamming is not acceptable but taking care of your family back home' is one of the cornerstones of that culture (I have family from the Philippines) and as long as no one is being abused, what is the problem? Taking care of your family is a noble thing, we could use some more of it around here.

At the end of the day if anyone sends money to someone they have never met, talked to or seen...well they really should not be left in charge of a computer. I cannot believe that people are still doing that, you would think that online fraud has been around long enough that people would not be so naive. Except that often people get an idea in their mind and nothing is about to stop them because as far as they are concerned, they know exactly what they are doing and don't need any advice, thank you very much!

I will also point out that many of the women are not educated to degree level but are, in fact, genuine.
At the end of the day, do not assume anything.
Do not send money
Do not fall in love with anyone you have not met - x1000
(Please, can we avoid replies of present successes from anonymous online love, the failures are thousands of times more numerous than the successes)
Take your time and don't get desperate.

If those simple rules are followed people won't get scammed at all.

Bels
 
If men wouldn't send money to them then they wouldn't scam. It's easy pickings if someone wanted a second wife looks in the Philippines, easy pickings for the scammers who will go along with anything for money and they will do it in a way that will tug at your heartstrings.
 
I agree with Bels on the fact many internet dating things fail! I have been through it! Never sent money to a woman though. I found it better to just let it happen and it did locally! So there was no concern about finding a way for her to get here. She already was!
 
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