A Guide to Online Romance: And How to Weed out Scammers

By Judith Pearle

n online romance our first line of contact is faceless and voiceless. And we rely on what the person tells you. The book helps to shorten your search for that special someone. How to identify scammers so as not to be cheated of your hard earned money. The book touches on typical profile of scammers, their mode of operations , the different types of scams, how to identify red flags and case studies of real scammers. As well as a whole chapter on Facebook and the friend requests. Who is genuine friend and who is fake.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Aug 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781543760040

Judith Pearle

Judith Pearle considers herself to be an educated, intelligent and a working professional. And yet she was swayed by these very polished scammers . There are very sophisticated scammers out there who obviously make a living as a romance cheat. The less sophisticated ones are easy to spot as they very quickly ask for money . It is the first group of scammers that ladies really need to be aware of. When she first registered for dating sites as a paid member she stupidly assumed that all those guys registered on these sites are also on the same page as she was. It was after many connections later that she realised guys who registered on dating sites are more likely scammers. It made perfect sense to pay a few hundred dollars membership fees to have access to a rich data of lonely souls looking for love. Dating sites whether paid or free are rich hunting grounds for these unscrupulous scammers looking for victims. This prompted her to write a book to at least help ladies who are venturing into dating sites for first time . To let them know how to spot the frogs or the toads and to hopefully shorten the learning curve in their search for their Prince Charming. She hopes her book will help them to kiss less frogs before meeting the one. Or to avoid meeting scammers altogether.

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Copyright © 2020 by Judith Pearle.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

CONTENTS

Chapter 1     Introduction

Chapter 2     Statistics

Chapter 3     Seeking Love Online

Chapter 4     Profiling Of A Scammer

Chapter 5     Mode Of Operations

Chapter 6     Types Of Scams

Chapter 7     Facebook

Chapter 8     Red Flags

Chapter 9     Case Studies

Chapter 10   Conclusion

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This book is written based on my analysis and conclusions after connecting with close to 70 guys online over a period of almost 24 months both on dating sites and Facebook. Some are for short periods like weeks and some for months. They ended when they asked for money. But this is not to say that I was not fooled. I was too, sometimes intentionally on my part just to test outcomes.

I got divorced at age 45. At age 50 I stopped going out on dates when Lucky, an unwanted dog came into my life. But he passed 15 years later and I found myself living alone for first time. The emptiness and loneliness hit me and I decided to venture to see if I could meet a life partner to do something and nothing with. That was when I ventured into online dating sites. And it was like opening a can of worms. 99% of the guys I connected with are actually scammers. However I did learn a lot from connecting with them. I am not religious but believe more in energies and forces of the universe shaping our lives and destinies. So when almost every single one of my connections turned out to be a scammer I thought to myself that perhaps the universe is giving me a message. Why not write a book to help women seeking love online on how to identify scammers and understand how they work, manipulate and control you into believing them and getting you to part with your money.

When I first started my intention was to find love again but as I discovered that none of the guys I connected with shared the same agenda I began to switch to experimental mode. I wanted to get into the minds of these predators to see how they work and think. I responded to every contact who wrote to me and I accepted every friend request on Facebook from guys. I pretended to fall in love fast just to test their reactions. I tried to put on different persona. I even tried asking for money first, went missing in action too and for one guy I even pretended to commit suicide because of his pressure on asking me to find the money for him. Then I pretended to be my daughter telling him about my suicide attempt. It actually was quite fun being on the other side of the fence to test how much they believe me. And frankly it is not difficult to just use words alone to manipulate a person. I can now understand why so many women get conned.

So I really hope that this book is of great help to you ladies looking for love online. If you have benefited from my experiences and is saved in losing your money to scammers please make a donation to animal shelters in your vicinity. Or promote my book to friends who may need to read it too. My intention in writing this book aside from helping women is also to be able to raise funds with it to serve animal shelter groups - an issue close to my heart.

CHAPTER 2

Statistics

Romance Scams is the second top ten scams after Investment scams which top the list of online scams.

According to Better Business Bureau victims in the US and Canada lost USD 1 Billion to scammers in the last three years alone. The rest of the world is not spared either. Women and men from across the globe, from east to west, from north to south have fallen victims to unscrupulous scammers. However women form a higher percentage of victims - 60% women and 40% men.

Contrary to belief those more highly educated are also more vulnerable to becoming romance scam victims. Possibly because they are more likely to use dating websites.

a) United States

Americans looking for love lost at least USD143 millions to scammers last year 2018 according to reports filed with the Federal Trade Commission. The number could be higher if we were to take into account the unreported cases. The total loss has more than quadrupled since 2015, when Americans reported losing USD33 millions to such