Online dating in Baltimore

dating mistakesAvoid fake girls and scam sites

Dating Site Scams

If you’re out there at the bar striking out because you thought the cute girl in the slutty outfit was there trying to score with someone, you may have a better time spotting easy girls for casual dates on a casual dating site. At least then you’ll know that there function there is to find someone to hook up. Or sometimes you’re out chatting up a girl and it seems like she’s engaged and you’re hitting it off but then you call her up a couple days later and it turns out to be a fake number.

There may be no way to avoid fake ass girls in real life, but in the online dating scene, it becomes much easier. Why is that? Because when girls are fake on an online dating site, they tend be literally fake and not just feigning interest in you.

Sock puppet girls on dating sites are a kind of catfishing scam where the site will lure you into paying for premium membership but won’t have any actual legitimate users on the site for you to hook up with. Instead, what they do is steal the contents, images, and personal information from people on legitimate dating sites, or anywhere on the web, and then set up sock puppet accounts for you to interact with.

Many sites will advertise that they are free to sign up, but continued usage requires premium membership. This is not uncommon, even for legitimate casual dating sites. So you join the site for free, go through the users in your area, and find a hottie to start chatting up. You send her a message and then you get a reply back.

Wow, you think. This site really works. She responds in cordial, albeit generic way, but she seems interested in meeting you at some point and then you try to email her back, but (oh no), your free trial has expired.

Bot or Not?

While some hookup sites employ bots in order to lure you into paying for upgraded or full membership, other sites actually have employees that do the same thing. There will be no way for you to know whether or not you’re talking to employee from a single interaction like that. That’s precisely why it’s so effective. It’s easy to tell an automatic response because the language will be generic. It will have nothing to do with you. The user will not have checked out your profile. It will more or less a form letter. They have all different kinds of ways to manipulate you, but these fake ladies will not be passing the Turing test any time soon.
With employees it’s a whole different ball game. You may be chatting up Gina from Baltimore who lives 3 miles from you, but you’re actually talking to an overweight plumber sitting in his underwear in his living room. You really have no idea who’s on the other side of the conversation or what their intentions are. They are full capable of personalizing messages and luring you into paying for the premium service. Is this legal? Sure. They bury it in the terms of service.

What happens to someone who has experienced an online dating scam

Ok. So you decide it’s worth the risk so you pay for the premium membership in order to keep talking to the girl.

Most of the time you get bombarded with fees for extraneous services that you never wanted nor knew about. For instance, you suddenly now have access to a repository of porn which has gone out of copyright. Instead of hooking up with real girls, you’re watching women with bouffants and mega bushes have sex 40 years ago. The service you paid for is non-existent.

In some instances, you’ll find these sites are actually phishing scams. They’ll steal your personal information and your credit card information and then sell it on the deep web. Is this legal? No of course not. But good luck tracking down the Russian asshole who set this up.

How can I protect myself

Firstly, if you’re going to pay for a service, use paypal. It offers you some protection against fraudulent services and you can cancel payment up to 14 days later.

Secondly, if you can’t use paypal, use a prepaid credit card. Do not use your bank card or a real credit card. This will minimize the damage.

Thirdly, just trust your damn instincts. If it smells like a scam, then it probably is. There are lots of legit hookup sites out there so don’t settle for second best or sites no one has ever heard of.