How To Avoid Dating Scammers

This week, a 75-year-old man made it into the news because he was conned out of nearly £20,000 by a dating scammer. The man from Cambridgeshire was led to believe that his beloved was in need of the money to be able to access a  £5 million inheritance.  Fortunately incidents like this are very rare (which is why they are newsworthy), but we would like to help to prevent other people from being scammed, by providing the following advice.

Choose your dating website wisely

When you join a dating website, make sure that you choose one that has good reviews and preferably one that has been recommended to you.

For example, at Muddy Matches we have a number of measures in place to prevent scammers from joining the website. We even employ real human beings to read through every bit of profile text that is sent through to us to ensure that only genuine country-minded people can access the dating website.

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is

Unless you are a famous rock star, or a multi-millionaire business person, it is highly unlikely that people who are less than half your age will be wanting to date you. If you are a seventy-plus-year-old man and a gorgeous twenty-something-year-old woman gets in contact you it is likely that she is a scammer.

Be wary of people who won’t meet up with you

If you have been having romantic/ or sexual conversations with someone, it shows that they are interested in dating you. So the end goal is to actually go on a date with them so that you can meet with them in real life. If they are cagey about meeting up with you and make excuses about not being able to travel, it should act as a warning sign. If they ask you for money so that they can meet with you (such as flights from a military base), then you should report it to the dating website administrator as this is a classic scammer technique.

Never ever send money

If your date asks you for money for anything before you meet with them, this is a bad sign and it shows that they are highly likely to be a scammer. If money genuinely is an issue, then you could arrange to meet up for a free date close to where they live, such as a walk around town to see the Christmas lights.

If you are ever suspicious about someone, then you should cease contact with them and should contact the website administrator as soon as possible.