Where to draw the line

[Vintage]

Was watching oprah interview a few online scam victims, most of them in chat rooms. many of the culprits stole their profile pics from a modelling site and posed as rich american/british businessmen. and thousands have already been scammed.

as always with social networks and dating sites, never give out your personal information or give the other person money. if the other person was indeed a 'rich businessman' he wouldn't need your money. dating sites are not bad, but you need to take certain precautions.

[David Tan]

You gotsa be wary of your identity card or passports. Never provide a copy without crossing out the numbers and stuff. I know some businesses demand a photostat copy as a requirement for their services.

Consider that if a forger gets his gruby hands on some copies, forges a new passport and matches their clients with your face that looks oh so similar. All types of crimes can be commited in your name.

Actually, I was just thinking of the above. Don't know how true it can be.

[Sky.bobi]

Everything in the known universe tagged affiliate program.Affiliate programs can earn you some extra money. Can we make money from dating sites also?

[GreedIsGood]

Not unless you're promoting a dating site or actually own a dating site you can't.

[psyche18]

It's funny how people still fall for email scams when Internet education programmes warn the public 1) not to give out ANY personal information to strangers and 2) if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't.

Cupidity and susceptibility have led to the downfall of many, and will continue to claim victims as long as people exist.

[David Tan]

If we look to scams in a 'marketing' point of view, they're actually applying the principles rather well in that they accurately identify a real need (in this case a desperation for 'quality' spouse) on the part of the scammed (clients) and comes up with scams (products/services) to get the client to buy into their promises.

There are products out there that don't tap very well into a real need and are more of a fad. There are those like weight loss products however that taps very well into the desperation of a customer.

Professional scammers got an answer for everything. Even if we take some precautions, they probably have more experience in circumventing your defenses than you can in building secure ones.

After all, if you got a hot hunk/babe wanting your 'love' for the FIRST time, you pretty much don't know much about the precautions to take. So ask for lots of advice or you'll learn it the HARD way.

[Tephus]

I think we're starting to go out of topic here, but I agree with David. In the context of dating sites, don't even go there if you don't want to get conned.

[zul200289]

Originally Posted by David Tan

If we look to scams in a 'marketing' point of view, they're actually applying the principles rather well in that they accurately identify a real need (in this case a desperation for 'quality' spouse) on the part of the scammed (clients) and comes up with scams (products/services) to get the client to buy into their promises.

There are products out there that don't tap very well into a real need and are more of a fad. There are those like weight loss products however that taps very well into the desperation of a customer.

Professional scammers got an answer for everything. Even if we take some precautions, they probably have more experience in circumventing your defenses than you can in building secure ones.

After all, if you got a hot hunk/babe wanting your 'love' for the FIRST time, you pretty much don't know much about the precautions to take. So ask for lots of advice or you'll learn it the HARD way.

great post!

Well, I was gonna talk but seems like this is an old thread. oh well.