• This is an urgent warning to all our members...
  
  A recent twist to Online email scams is that some
  fraudsters, mainly of African origin, have been creating
  fake profiles on dating and PenPal sites, complete with
  very attractive looking photos that they have copied off
  genuine profiles on other dating sites!
  
  Probably their email scams have become too well known so
  now they are seeking fresh ways of defrauding people.
  
  A large amount of financial fraud originates from countries
  like Nigeria and Ghana because these countries do not have
  laws against wire or internet fraud and they have therefore
  become centres for Internet frauds and scams.
  
  We have some concerns that a couple of our recent new
  members are in fact Nigerian scammers who have created some
  of these fake profiles (complete with fake photos) so that
  they can scam money, tickets and visas from our genuine
  members.
  
  For this reason if someone's profile says they are in
  North America or Europe, but in their communications with
  you they come up with some story about being temporarily in
  Nigeria or Ghana or some such far away place, and they ask
  for your help with either money, tickets and/or a visa to
  get back home to America or Europe , then there is a strong
  chance they are one of these con artists running one of
  these scams.
  
  In fact anyone from overseas who almost as soon as you get
  to know them suddenly wants money, tickets, visas is quite
  possibly running a scam.
  
  Another scam to beware of involves Cashiers Checks and
  postal money orders...
  
  A person from another country, usually an African country,
  or someone claiming to be an American temporarily visiting
  or working in an African country will ask for your help to
  cash a check or postal money order.
  
  They will claim that they will be charged very high fees in
  the country they are in so they will suggest they send you
  the money order so that you may cash it at your bank and
  send them back the money via Western Union.
  
  Do NOT fall for this very common trick. The check or money
  order is almost certain to be either stolen or a forgery
  but your bank will not discover this until several days
  after they cashed it for you so you will end up being stuck
  with a bad check and out of pocket for the money.
  
  Never under any circumstances, send money to a stranger via
  Western Union. Western Union does not require any ID from
  the recipient, just a code number supplied by you. Once you
  have sent the money, you can't recover it. You may never
  hear from the recipient again, and they will be untraceable,
  and you will be in trouble with the authorities for
  cashing a bad check!
  
  The granddaddy scam of them all of course is that they
  claim to have a substantial sum of money tied up in a
  "lost bank account" or "deceased relative's estate" and
  for some long and complicated reason they need your help
  to get these millions of dollars released and they are
  willing to split the amount with you .... we hope none of
  members fall for that tired old trick.
  
  For those who don't know, in that trick despite being heirs
  to a huge fortune they are temporarily penniless and need
  you to wire them some of your money to pay bribes, taxes,
  fees and legal expenses to get their fortune released.
  Be warned that they will bleed you dry until you get
  suspicious and stop sending them money.
  
  The fortune never existed and never was going to be split
  with you, they only wanted to scam all the expense money
  out of you!
  
  Other warning signs are that right from the very start they
  seem very eager to get you away from using our confidential
  message board system and using either your real email or an
  online instant messenger system such as Yahoo! Messenger or
  MSN Instant Messenger, or even telephone.
  
  Genuine contacts are never in a rush and will be quite happy
  to communicate with you on our secure system for several
  weeks or even months before swapping to something more
  personal.
  
  
  
  With all these dangers in mind, please report any suspicions
  you might have about any fellow member to us at
  with as much detail as you can give so we can investigate
  and block the accounts of any offenders.
  
  Apologies to any genuine members from Africa - sadly a few
  bad ones have spoiled it for everyone else.
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  ~Jeff,
  Help Desk
  PenPals Plus
  http://www.dating-now.com
  
  Members Only Login Page
  http://www.dating-now.com/login.html
  
  Headquarters:

  April 7th, 2006 at 6:08 am

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