Suspect you may dealing with a Nigerian scammer? Here is a wonderful list compiled by the Romancescams Yahoo group. Not all signs on this list are equally alerting and not all of them necessarily mean scam, but if he/she generally fits the pattern, it is most likely scam!
They might be a scammer if...
Their profile picture looks professionally done and can be found on a modeling website FocusHawaii.com, NewFaces.com, Q6.com, TheModelMax.com, BlackCuties.com, PerspectivePhotography.com to name a few
- Their height/weight is not proportional -e.g. 6’ and 95 lbs
- They claim to have blonde hair and blues eyes when the picture is dark hair and brown eyes or vice versa
- They have a wedding ring on the photo yet they claim to be single
- They claim to be Native American or some other ethnicity when the photo is Caucasian
- They claim to be older/younger than the photo looks
- Their specified age range seems to have no limit-e.g. 25-60
- They have weird usernames containing "4real" or "4luv"
- Their first names are also weird, like Martins, Williams, Kevins, Waynes, etc... (instead of Martin, William, Kevin, Wayne)
- The women names are often misspelled, like Jenifer instead of Jennifer, Ashly instead of Ashley, or Marry instead of Mary.
- Their last names are usually Cole, Moore, Smith or Williams
- They say they are "XX by name" and "XX by age"
- They say "am" instead of "I am", for example: "am Williams by name..."
- Their photos are rotated 45 degrees
- They say they are from Keller, VA. Why? Because it has the same zip code as Nigeria: 23401
- Their occupation is often "building contractor" or "petroleum engineer" for men and "model" for women
- Their introductory letter often contains the phraze: "Remeber the distance or colour does not matter but love matters alot in life." (typical for Senegal scammers)
- They immediately want to get off the website and onto Yahoo IM or MSN IM
- They are not usually around on the weekends to IM
- They IM at unusual hours for your time zone
- Their profile seems to disappear off the website immediately after conversation begins
- Their spelling is atrocious
- They are notorious for using 'i' instead of 'I'
- They consistently use webspeak or abbreviations: u r ur cos pls/plz ma sry brb div acc
- Their grammar is not consistent with how Americans speak, French speak etc...
- They often mix up their phrases:
i will like to heer from you soonest
I am kool
Do you have anyman you care to meet
Do you have any man you planning to meet
Looking for someone to love and care for in life
Am cheerfull in life
I will like to meet someone that is careing and loveing for real in life
i am too young for my age if you don’t know
Ok so how will you feel if i says i dont mind you
i will like you to be my best friend
You are so pretty for my likeness
- They appear uneducated with their speaking/writing skills
- They misunderstand our slang or comparisons such as night owl/early bird, poker face
- They immediately start using pet names with you: hon/hun baby/babe sweety/sweetie
- They over-use emoticons
- They are notorious for using BUZZ
- They do not like to answer personal questions about themselves and tend to ignore questions
- The details they give you on IM are often different that what was stated on their profiles, one of the more common ones they give different answers to is their birthdate, height/weight, and age
- If you catch them on an inconsistency they will claim a friend or relative must’ve been using their id to chat with you, they will always try to come up with a coverup and of course, you are always wrong or mistaken
- They often misspell the cities/towns they claim they are from and are unfamiliar with any of the local landmarks and attractions
- They do not know common questions that every US citizen would know the answer to
- If you ask them a question they don’t know they will usually be offline for a length of time so they can go look up the answer on the internet always claiming they had a phone call or had to go to the bathroom etc..
- There are other times they are gone from the conversation for a length of time and will sometimes come back at you with a different name, they’re usually conversing with more than one person at a time
- They typically ask you to get on your webcam yet they never seem to have a webcam of their own
- They like to send you poems or love letters, most of which can be traced back to lovingyou.com, sometimes they even forget to change the name in the poem or letter to match your name
- They claim it was destiny or fate and you are meant to be together
- They claim God brought you to him/her
- They immediately want your address so as to send you flowers, candy, and teddy bears, often purchased with stolen credit cards
- They claim to love you either immediately or within 24-48 hours
- They ask for your phone # but when they call you can barely understand a word
- They may give you a phone # but it’s typically a calling card or a call center, you can rarely get them on the phone
- They are so in love with you that they cannot live without you BUT they need you to send them some money so they can come to you
- They typically claim to be from the US (or your local region) but they are overseas, or going overseas mainly to Nigeria, sometimes the UK for business or family matters
- They often do not know the correct time difference between where you are and where they claim to be
- They often claim to have one parent that is of African descent
- A majority of them claim to have lost a spouse/child/parent in a horrific traffic accident or airplane accident or any of the above are sick or in the hospital
- They have no close family or friend or business associates to turn to, even the US embassy, instead they can only rely on a stranger they picked off the internet
- They tend to ask you to send them cell phones and laptops
- They would like to mail you packages or letters and have you forward them on for them, sometimes to Africa, sometimes to another US address
- To them love equals financial assistance: if you do not send them money or help them out with what they ask, you do not love them
- They will ask you to open a bank account for them in your name, often in Wells Fargo bank
- They will ask you for your bank account information
- They will send you a check or money order and ask you to cash it for them and wire the money to them via Western Union
- They frequently send fraudulent checks via Qchex.com
- They often claim they are in the hospital and the doctor will not perform the necessary operation unless you send the money
- Even when they are in the hospital they can IM with you because the doctor has a laptop and is so very generous to let them use it
- They claim they’ve been mugged and have no money and are being held hostage in the hotel and are not being allowed to leave until the bill is paid, often they will let you talk to the "hotel manager" who will verify the story
- They also claim they’ve somehow "lost" the company money and cannot pay his employees: there is always some desperate story as to why you have to send money
- If you deny them or question them they become verbally abusive and will resort to threats
- Above all, if you call them a scammer they are highly offended and some will start throwing words at you in their native language.
