Seeking recruits for the frontlines

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Jan 2016 Posts: 8

Hi, I run an internet dating site, not one of the big names, but we get plenty of romance scammers, and although I understand basically that posting the scam details here will not work because you have a problem with fake posts, (something we also get on our dating site so I understand the issue) but I'm looking for really just two or three people interested in joining my site to see that I am real and then I can feed them leads on romance scammers in action.
Only interested in established scam baiters, so I do not get duped myself too.

Should also mention the site is free, so that's not an issue, although it also means we get more romance scammers than a site with a pay wall would get.

*** BANNED *** Joined: 26 Jul 2012 Posts: 1116

Hi keithcee,

I'm going to reference this thread here and have much of the same conversation I had with this person with you: https://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=271968

As a site admin I would highly suggest that you consider who your clientele are by geographic location. Do you really want to offer dating services in West Africa? Russia? Antarctica? Unless you want to offer dating services globally, block out entire countries from your site.

Now, as has been noted in that thread, this may not be enough. Scammers are smart and they will get around IP checks. For that I would suggest you read the above thread and note the reasons why I suggest putting up a warning page (providing your site TOS/AUP will legally allow you to) for confirmed fraud artists. This is provocative to the scammer (makes them want to use your site less) and it allows you to not only show yourself as responsible but toot your own horn in the sense of advertising.

If this is confusing please do post up some questions and I'm sure people will try to help you come up with solutions that may help above and beyond baiting. As a site admin you have some measures at your fingertips that can and probably will be more effective than just baiting when it comes to deterrence.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Jan 2016 Posts: 8

I should start by saying I sort of found this site by accident and thought it might be a fun thing your users would enjoy to go after these scammers, definitely not my main plan of attack. However, some things that are unique about romance scammers is they just have to get a response to their offsite email address and they take it from there, they are not deterred by being banned or deleted, many even create dozens of profiles at once anticipating that they will be deleted, throttle their activity to a few emails per day, and say in their messages "I'm deleting my account soon so email me directly". It's possible labeling them "scammer" versus "deleted" will help, I can try it. They might also not appreciate their IP address and email being posted, in short I do realize there is more I can do but I also want to maintain a friendly site for users versus a lot of scam warnings all over and saved scam profiles.
Similar to the other thread, I have done country blocks, IP range blocks, etc.

*** BANNED *** Joined: 26 Jul 2012 Posts: 1116

Yeah they can be fairly smart about getting past the fence. Another thing that you can do, and again this boils down to a well written TOS/AUP that legally checks out and allows you to do so in your jurisdiction of both hosting and where you live, is saying that any account found to be involved in fraudulent operations will not only have a warning posted to it but that their on site communications will be pulled up, anyone they were in contact with will be warned about the person (again feel free to talk about why you are the best dating service around when you do so), and say that you can and will publish any information that the scammers put on your site.

Worse, after you do all this let the scammer know you did it, citing your TOS/AUP.

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