For people, it’s rather challenging to start romantic relationships over the Internet. That’s why each user of the dating site has a need to be sure that he or she is safe there and has no chances to become a victim of scammers. Recently the international dating platform VictoriaHearts has improved its anti-scam protection. Administration of the site encourages other dating platforms to do the
Who Are the Scammers?
Scammers are people who create fake profiles on the dating sites and pretend to be ideal romantic partners to ask for money, valuable gifts or personal information like credit card details. They can communicate with you for months, declaring their love and telling fine words. But once these people make sure that they have gained your trust, they ask for money, gifts or intimate photographs of you. After receiving what they want, they disappear, leaving you broken-hearted.
How to Spot a Scammer?
Here are some wake-up calls that will help you to spot a scammer. If you notice one or more of them while chatting on the dating site, beware. Maybe, your “special person” is a common scammer.
- He or she starts talking about love, though you don’t even know each other pretty well.
- He or she suggests you leave the site and move your communication to the more private chattel like messenger, email or phone.
- He or she often calls you by another person’s name.
- His or her profile information doesn’t correspond to the information he or she shares with you (for example, a level of education, hobbies or even occupation).
- He or she asks a lot of questions about you but says little about him- or herself.
- He or she tries to gain your sympathy, telling sad stories about personal emergency he or she is dealing with. It could be an expensive operation to his or her family member or financial problems due to robbery or business failure.
- If you have sent him or her money, he or she asks for more.
- He or she asks you to accept money into your bank account and transfer it to someone else later. Do not agree to do it under any circumstances. It is a criminal offense called money laundering.
- He or she promises to visit you in your country, but something is always on his or her way. Of course, he or she asks for money to solve these problems.
- He or she insistently invites you to visit his or her country. It can be dangerous. There have been cases when scammers lured victims to their countries to rob or kidnap them.
So, if you have noticed one or more wake-up calls from this list, you should contact the support specialists of the site and explain them the situation. While they clarify it, be careful. Don’t go on a date with your virtual partner or send him or her money or gifts.
And if you are afraid of being a victim of scammers, you’d better choose the site with a good anti-scam protection where you can feel safe.
How Do Dating Sites Protect their Users?
Let’s examine which measures dating websites can take to prevent scams, using the example of international communication platform VictoriaHearts.
This site has its own anti-scam policy. It contains all necessary information each user should read before chatting with other members. You can find the link to this anti-scam policy at the bottom the site’s main page.
You can follow it and read all tips and tricks even if you are an unregistered user.
If some member of VictoiraHeart has suffered from the actions of scammers, the company returns him or her all money spent on this communication. It usually includes credits spent on both gifts, instant messages, and video calls.
As for scammers, the administration of the site punishes them with a permanent ban.
“We call on our users not to rush to move the relationship from our website to more private channels. Users who are chatting on the platform are under our protection. So, they have a lower chance to become a victim of scammers. And even if that happens they will get their money back”, said the official representative of the site.
”Unfortunately, we cannot insure users who decided to move from VictoriaHearts to other channels of communication against money loss. In this situation, we can only ban a scammer after receiving the complaint from our member”.
However, VictoriaHearts offer its members a service called “Request contact details” that allows users to exchange contacts in the safest way. This service is free and available to users who meet two simple criteria – they have successfully passed IMBRA Verification and spent a certain amount of money on communication with a member, whose contact details they want to get.
To use this service, open the personal page of your partner on the site, push the “Request contact details” button, and fill in a form. Then wait until he or she approves your request.
VictoriaHearts team members have also created the service that protects users from scammers on the first meeting. This service is called “Request meetings”.
It can be purchased by a user who has decided to visit his partner’s country and has enough money to cover all travel cost. No one can purchase this service for other users. And this condition makes it impossible for scammers to extort money for buying tickets and solving problems with visas.
Buying this service, a user gets help with a trip planning, finding an apartment, choosing a perfect place for a first date either. Also, this service includes the services of an interpreter and a manager who accompany couple on their first meeting. Thus, both man and woman can be sure that they are safe and nothing bad is going to happen with them.
Like the previous service, “Request meeting” can be ordered on the personal page of each member only if two partners are ready to meet each other in real life. If a woman, for example, refuses to go on a date, a man gets his credits back.
So, each site that wants to deter its audience should take care of the anti-scam protection. The safer users will feel themselves on the site the more successful and popular this site will be.
