Online Dating Investigations

Want to be sure your online crush is real?

With online dating so popular, you would imagine it would be easy to meet a significant other nowadays, right? Wrong. There are 40 million Americans using online dating websites. That is a lot of profiles to sift through. If you happen to find a potential match, it is understandable to be excited. You must also be smart though. Before your heart gets too invested in someone, look into an Online Dating Investigation.
A whopping 53% of people lie on their online dating profile. Being dishonest about age, appearance and income is one thing, but 10 percent of all new profiles are actually fake. Yes, completely phony, yet carefully created to accomplish a mission of fraud. This is a massive amount of deceit occurring. It is only wise to look into an online dating investigation to ensure the person you meet is sincere and, for that matter, “real”.

Online dating scams are a legitimate threat to all participants. The best line of defense is to conduct an online dating investigation to avoid any fraud or possible criminal activity.  Criminals know online dating sites are an ideal way to take advantage of (possibly vulnerable) users. Our suggestion is to look into an online dating investigation prior to an emotional attachment.  These scammers are professionals at forming bonds or connections, sometimes emailing and chatting for weeks or months prior to asking for anything in return. By this time, it may be too late to think clearly, to realize you should be performing online dating investigations on him/her.

Online dating investigations help to reveal a person’s true identity. Only when you know this can you really begin a relationship. In the meantime, here is some information you should know about the most common scams:

Common Internet Dating Scams

• The Basic Swindle
  The most common scam is when the con artist, after forming a relationship with their victim, requests money for seemingly valid reasons, like a family member in the hospital or a sever car crash. After the money is sent, they cut contact.
• Money Laundering
  Money laundering is also a fairly common scheme. It involves asking victims to end money or stolen objects, like laptops and cellphones, so that they are harder for the law to trace. Scammers also ask their victims to forward packages and cash checks.
• Internet Scandal
  A recently rising scam involves con artists growing so close to their victims that intimate photos and/or conversations take place. Scammers then publish this private information and will only remove it when given a large fee. Even then, there is no guarantee that the information will be removed.
• Catfish
  A term based on a heartbroken filmmaker's movie, a catfish scam is when someone uses fake online profiles to appeal to their victims romantically. These scammers use fictitious names and photos to lure people in, sometimes for no other reason than to have a relationship.