Dating Sites Scams: Tips To Protect Yourself

What’s the biggest mistake that an online dater can make? Well, they can be too confident and careless, and that may have very, very serious consequences. When looking for a date, especially on global sites, you should keep in mind that online dating scammers exist and that everyone can meet them. In this guide, we’ll tell you how to distinguish scam dating sites from safe and trusted mail order brides websites and how to protect yourself when looking for a match on the web. 

What distinguishes scam mail order brides platforms from good sites?

First, we’d like to emphasize that legit and safe global dating sites exist. So do scam platforms. So how to distinguish scam sites from the platforms that are worth using? Here are a few things that are considered red flags: 

• Low-effort profiles
• Fake photos of ladies that can be found on different sites on Google search results
• Photos of different people in one profile
• Tons of messages from incredibly hot women per minute
• Similar messages sent by different people
• Weird messages obviously generated by bots
• No email verification, no moderation
• Low-quality support

If you notice anything from the list, this is a bad sign. If you notice a few things, this proves that this is definitely a scam platform. 

Dating scammer list: 3 real examples of mail order brides site scams

How to understand how mail order bride scam works? The best way to do it is to look at the platforms that use the most popular dating scam techniques. We’ve found a few most typical scam sites, so why not analyze them? 

1. Cherry Blossoms. Cherry Blossoms has been a pretty popular dating website, and there was a time when it really connected people worldwide, but those times are gone. Over the last decade, the number of fake profiles became overwhelming—now, finding a real woman on the platform is nearly impossible. Fake photos, fake profiles, women asking for money in the chat, and very poor-quality support that seems to know nothing about how the site works prove that this is now a scam site. 
2. GoDateNow. Users call it a scam-machine for a reason. For many reasons, actually. The girls on the site look like top models, but it seems that photos are provided by ladies who’ve never been registered on the site. Ghostwriters are contacting men using their profiles. How did we understand that? The thing is, every man receives tons of messages like “Hi, you seem interesting” per hour, and that’s more than just suspicious. 
3. J4L. J4L works pretty much like GoDateNow. Once you create an account, you get hundreds if not thousands of messages from women, and the vast majority (we mean, 99% of them) are generated by bots. And you can notice that immediately—they really look like auto-generated text. Photos are fake, and those we assume that the small part (very small, actually) of profiles may be real, this is a website you definitely shouldn’t use—the main goal of J4L is not to connect you with a woman but to make you purchase credits again and again. 

And there are pretty many sites that use the same scheme. Find Bride, Dream Singles, Elena’s Models, BridgeOfLove—you should avoid these and similar platforms at all costs. 

How to avoid dating site scams: Safety tips

Some may argue that you can spend pretty much money before you understand that you’ve joined a scam site. That’s true. Use these tips to spot the scam sites much faster and protect yourself and your money. 

1. Read the reviews on the website published by trusted aggregator websites and written by real users. Try to learn as much as possible about the platform. 
2. Take a very close look at the profiles, Google random photos (use search with an image) that seem suspicious to you. If you see them posted on other sites, just leave the platform.
3. Read the information in members’ profiles. Is it written by real people? Are there many similar self-descriptions? 
4. How many messages from ladies do you receive? It’s pretty normal for mail order brides to contact you first, but there should not be dozens or hundreds of messages in your inbox right after you create an account. 
5. Read messages carefully. Are they written by real people or seem to be auto-generated? 
6. Use call services and video chat—having a conversation in real time is the best way to find out if a woman is real. 
7. Make sure that there are no hidden costs—a transparent pricing policy is a good sign. 
8. Never, never send money to anyone, no matter how “close” you are. Even if it seems that you meet your soulmate and they tell you about an “emergency,” just don’t. 
9. Create a strong password, create a new email for a dating site.
10. Choose the platform that uses good data encryption software. 

Yes, dating sites scams exist. Data leaks, money loss, all this can happen. However, there are ways to avoid such a scenario. The first rule is to be careful and not think that this will never happen to you.There are good mail order brides sites, too. The thing is, you should never choose the first random site that promises you to find the love of your life just because it looks good. Careful analysis will take time, but safety is worth it. So remember the tips that we provided in this guide and use them to protect yourself and date safely.

Devin Schirm

Devin is a relationship coach with years of experience in helping both men and women overcome their fear of romance and failure. He’s proficient in interpersonal psychology and bases his advice and opinions not only on academic sources, but also on his own observations and even experiments.