It isn’t always Simpler!
I’m not saying that it is impossible to find out for sure but there will always be times when you are going to ask yourself “Is this person for real or are they fake?” I’m here to at least try to show you how you can tell and how you can verify they are who they are. I will show you some great tips and tricks on how you can do just that!
How was it received?
Having seen so much trouble with getting scammed, I thought we should at least look at how it is received and try to show you some great techniques to know if they are really who they are saying they are, or if they are just trying to get money from you. These are what I call the Nigerian Dating Scams but some call them also the Russian Dating scams, which to me are the same!
- Check the Headers — There is an example but your main questions is how do I do that? The Mxtoolbox blog has a great tutorial on how to do that!
- Are they from Nigeria? — Anytime you get an email with an Nigeria then they are most likely a Nigerian Scam but I’ve seen this in many ways but recently I’ve heard from friends who were scammed while they were trying to find romance on dating sites.
- Check the “X-Originating-IP:” or “Recieved: by” fields in headers! — Finding the IP of the sender can be first step determining if they are legit or fake emails. You can find out about an IP by going to Whois.net and putting in all the IP’s that you find and seeing where that IP is in the world.
- Syntax and Grammar — Having seen this in emails past, some scammers seem to need translation services and thus the grammar and syntax on emails are off for your location. This is a great indicator that there is something wrong. You should always have a red flag go off in your mind when you see those types of emails.
- Good looking females or Males — Depending on who you are trying to meet on an online dating service, then you will receive hits with these good looking people to try to show you how lucky you were to be found. This is another way they lure you into sending them money. (See an Example up at top)
Identify some Keywords!
Just because you got an email, doesn’t mean that you can’t read between the lines. Whenever I get emails about some of the stuff like this you have to read the emails carefully. Some of the most common word to look for are:
- Relocate — If the email promises talks about relocations, then you should be weary of the person.
- You’ve Won — This is also a great way to know that you may be scammed, because how were you entered in the contest in the first place.
- Someone is hurt — compassion is something that the scammers, although you never know who they will saying is hurt you can expect them to want you to send money. You should never send money to anyone to anywhere because you don’t know what they will do with the money once they received it!
I could go on and on about all the scams that are being used in emails but if I do that you’d be bored to tears. So I am just trying to help you recognize how and what to look for when you are dealing with email correspondence with another person. One thing I always remember is “Never assume the person is real, until you can verify their identity”.
Paul Sylvester
