eHarmony Blog.com

Sure, you know it’s a scam when you’ve never met your eHarmony match in person and he asks you to (a) send him money (b) cash a cheque or money order or (c) reship a package. Sure, you know it’s a scam if she mentions Ghana or Nigeria. However, at that point, you may have already invested days or weeks of your time communicating with your match. Avoid the sour disappointment, know the clues:

Top 10 clues for scammer-free online dating

10. Stories of sadness, robbery, death, medical emergency, bad luck and being stuck, and can you help?
9. He wants to send YOU money.
8. Her profile disappears from eHarmony — whether you receive eH’s warning letter or not.
7. He is unfamiliar with current events in his home town.
6. Top occupations: social worker, model, student, actor, construction, petroleum engineer, antique buyer.
5. He answers only a few of your questions, and always at the end of his message.
4. She mentions ‘fate’, ‘destiny’ or ‘God’s plan’, becomes amorous or uses pet names within two days.
3. He is highly educated but can’t put a sentence together. In fact, google these strange phrases or spellings to see if a previous victim has posted it.
2. She immediately wants to move from Open Communication to Yahoo IM, MSN or Skype.
1. Google his email address or IM handle as soon as you get it.

Top 3 habits for scammer-free online dating

In my opinion, we are vulnerable and susceptible to romance scams because the Internet has made it easy to create an online persona and to become too comfortable with it. Thus, we use email and instant messaging to avoid mortifying face-to-face confrontations. (Source: CNN) Remember, only with an online persona can a ‘relationship via email’ happen.

So the cure is simple: get out of the online persona.

• 1. Move from online communication to the phone right away.
• 2. Suggest a meeting right away.
• 3. Never send cash to someone you haven’t met.

Do the first two suggestions frighten you? Hmm, I have been matched with several people who freaked out when I suggested a meeting. Could they have been Ghanaian scammers all along? I neither know or care. What matters is that I know right away they are not ready for a real-life relationship. The question is, are you?

Next Installment

Next time I will talk about a few ideas that eHarmony needs to make itself safer for us.