Recently there have been numerous accounts by users who have been scammed by other users into sending them money. This activity has been going on for a very long time and as long as the dating sites have been around.

Users of online dating sites must understand that online dating sites such as free dating sites cannot totally eradicate the number of scammers that join their site. There are good reasons for this and this is due to the hundreds, if not thousands of members that join these sites every day. Even if every member is screened manually, scammers can easily disguise their identity, photograph, their origin etc. and still manage to sign up to the site.

Because of the nature of their business, these scammers do some repeated tasks to ensure that they can rapidly find their victim and these are the areas that users need to be aware of.

You will find a good listing of checks that the federal government has posted on this link…

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/11/onlinedating.shtm

Basically there are common traits that most people can spot scammers by;

- They usually give you their undivided love and attention right from the beginning

- They are often from abroad but they may claim they are from the US

- They always want to communicate outside of the messaging system of the online dating site

online dating scammers come in many shape and form