How to Spot Online Nigerian Dating Scams
Online dating may be a perfect place to search for your ideal match, but online dating also has its dark side. Scammers often take advantage of individuals searching for romantic partners, especially on online dating sites, by pretending to be a potential partner. These scammers will try to get you to give them cash, gifts, or any other personal information by playing on your emotions. Whether you are a new user or an old user looking to brush up on their scammer knowledge, you’ll need this guide to help you identify Nigerian dating scams in a pinch.
How do these scams work?
Dating and romance scams often happen through online dating websites by catfishing users. The term “catfishing” refers to situations where a person presents themselves as a completely different person on a dating site, whether for monetary gain or because of insecurity.
What happens is that scammers commonly make fake online profiles intended to attract you. They may utilize a false name or erroneously assume the characters of genuine, confided individuals like military staff, help laborers or professionals working abroad.
Dating scammers will communicate compelling feelings for you in a generally brief timeframe. They will recommend moving the relationship away from the online dating site to a more private platform like phone, email, instant message, or texting. While most people on dating sites like TrulyAfrican are genuine singles looking for love, there are bad apples in every bunch.
How Nigerian dating scams happen
Online dating scammers will put forth an admirable attempt to acquire your commitment and trust by giving you adoring words, sharing personal information about themselves, and in some events, even sending you gifts. They may require a very long time to build what may feel like a genuinely incredible romance and may even profess to book trips to meet and hang out with you; however, they never really come. Whenever they have acquired your trust and your guards are down, they will ask you (either subtly or straightforwardly) for cash, endowments, or your banking information.
It is not merely the cash that hurts in these sorts of schemes. Usually, the victim has built an emotional connection with these scammers, trusting them to be sincere and a promising significant other. That makes it even more excruciating when the mat is pulled free from under them, and the scammers run away with their income or investment funds.
Recommended reading: Nigerian Dating Guide for Total Online Dating Beginners
A large number of these schemes to deceive vulnerable individuals searching for love come from Nigeria. There is a clamoring underground economy of scammers who set up profiles on online dating sites and sweet talk clueless individuals out of their investment funds. Sometimes, these scammers quite often guarantee that they intend to find true love and build a relationship, and even telling their victims that meeting with them was destiny. These scammers usually endeavor to find middle-aged, single, or widowed women who are in vulnerable situations.
When carrying out these Nigerian dating scams, the scammers tell a rather expound story to attract potential victims. They make fake profiles with pictures of appealing individuals, mostly taken from other online profiles. They will mostly tell you that they are from the same location where their victims are from; however, the scammer will include that they are working or studying abroad, in military service, or for quite a few different reasons.
Is your perfect match genuine or a scam? 9 signs to look out for
As a new user of online dating platforms, you should always be careful about who you are talking to. Some may be genuinely interested in you, but others may be a part of these Nigerian dating scams.
To protect yourself from these scammers, always be aware and vigilant. Below are some of the warning signs that you’re talking with an online dating scammer.
1. Requesting visits
After only a couple of messages, your new match claims strong affection for you and requests a secret visit with you. If someone is truly genuine with you, they will take the time to get to know you better, even if it would take months.
2. Going off-site
They attempt to request that you continue communicating through chat or email. This usually indicates that a scammer wants to move the conversation elsewhere where the dating site cannot review their messages and requests for money.
Someone serious about getting to know you will not mind talking with you on the same site where you first met.
3. Wrinkles in their stories
Their profile on the online dating site or their personal social media page is not consistent with what they tell you. For instance, their profile picture appears to be different from their depiction of themselves, or they tell you that they are working but always subtly asking for money. Keep an eye out for any strange details they tell you about themselves.
4. Always asking for something
After they get you to trust them, they will tell you about their personal story and will then subtly ask for money, gifts, or your bank information. Someone genuine to be your life partner will not ask money for you; they will work hard to earn their income to build a successful relationship with you.
5. From 0 to 100 real quick
Their messages are often ineffectively composed, obscure, and escalate hastily from introduction to love. One does not fall in love with you right away after a couple of messages. It will take time for you to build a connection with them and fall in love. It doesn’t happen overnight.
6. Desperation for money
If you don’t send cash straight away, their messages and calls become more edgy, insistent, or straightforward. If you do send some money, they will keep on requesting that you send more.
They don’t stay faithful to their words and consistently have a reason for why they can’t head out to meet you and why they generally need more cash.
7. There’s always a sob story
They will tell you that they need a credit to pay for their travel to get back home, to purchase a mobile phone or tablet so they can stay in contact, cover a significant hospital expense, or whatever else that may play upon your empathy.
8. Laundering schemes
They will sometimes even utilize another victim as a puppet to launder cash from different victims, addressing it to their account and requesting them to send it back to “clean” the money.
9. Guilt-tripping
When scammers don’t get what they want, they will attempt to guilt-trip you into continuing the relationship and will mostly become abusive and manipulative.
How to keep yourself safe
If you are a new user, there is nothing else you can do to avoid or prevent these scammers from getting in touch with you. What you can do is to be vigilant and to protect yourself from these Nigerian dating scams. Here are a few tips to help you when you encounter one of these online dating scammers.
1. Never send cash to somebody you have not met face to face.
2. Always keep in mind and consider the probability that the person you are talking to might be part of a ring of Nigerian dating scams, especially if the warning signs we previously discussed are present.
3. Be aware of things like grammar and spelling mistakes, conflicting stories, and other signs that it’s a scam, such as their camera never working on the event that you’d like to do a video call with them.
4. Be careful when giving personal photos or videos to potential partners, particularly if you’ve never met them. Scammers are known to extort their victims using compromising images for monetary gain.
5. Let your family and friends know where you’re going when you agree to meet a potential partner in person. We highly advise you not to travel overseas to meet with someone, especially if you haven’t seen them on pictures or video calls.
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6. Be careful about solicitations for cash. Never send money or give bank information, online account details, or duplicates of essential documents to anybody you don’t have a clue or trust.
7. Stay away from any agreement with a person you don’t know that requests for advance payment through cash request, wire transfer, or electronic currency such as Bitcoin. There is a slim chance to get back the cash that was sent from these forms of payment.
8. Never share your other social media profiles with people on dating sites unless you already trust them completely. Social media platforms have a lot of your personal information. That means they can gather this information and use it to blackmail you.
9. Be exceptionally cautious about how much personal data you share on social media platforms. Scammers can utilize your data and photos to make a false identity, blackmail, or target you with Nigerian dating scams.
10. Stick to the online dating platform. Unless you have a real reason to trust them, never take your conversation to another platform such as social media. The dating site you use has security measures set up to delete accounts found violating their terms of service.
Have you experienced being scammed?
If you think you have been scammed, there are a few things to do. Report it to the site, application, or social media platform where the scammer initially got in touch with you. Tell them the scammer’s profile name and whatever other information you have gathered that may help them stop others from experiencing the same thing.
If you think you have given your bank account information to a scammer, get in touch with your bank ASAP. Online dating should be fun, but always be vigilant! TrulyAfrican is here to make things safer and more convenient for you, so start looking for your match today!
