Scam Happens! Think First With Your Head - Then With Your Heart

Quality of the site is very important to us. We hate scam and do everything we can to prevent it here. But scammers are good at what they do and some get through the screens. It's sad that there are those who try to take advantage of people in this way.

Most Important!!:

ANYONE who asks for (or offers) money on a dating site for ANY reason is a SCAMMER! The excuses and reasons for needing money are amazingly diverse and creative! It may be for a sick relative, or to get them out of a legal jam in a foreign country, or they lost their wallet or passport while traveling, or their ex ran off with their money for rent or food for their children, or they need money to travel to visit you, or their car broke down and they can't come this weekend unless they get it fixed but they can't afford to pay for it until payday, or their flight to visit you suddenly got canceled and they need more money for an alternate travel plan, or they have or inherited a large amount of money and need a bank account to deposit it in your country, or they want to hire you for a job but need you to pay a certain travel company to come there, or they promise you a sexfull weekend but you need to pay for gas-bus-airline expenses ahead of time, or you have won a prize and need to send postage for mailing it, or your 'fabulous' photo has been chosen for a large billboard ad campaign and you need to send money and info to setup a portfolio, or they want to send you bogus cashiers checks to cash for them and then you send them the money for them, or they want to pay you a commission to take orders for online sales, then to collect the money and send to them, etc, etc. These are ALL SCAMS(!) and you will never see them or get your money back. You will spend a lot of time in regret of being duped and YOU may even get into trouble with your local law authority for some of these. REGARDLESS of what they tell you... sending them money will NOT 'help' you or anyone else... it will only subsidize a billion dollar a year illegal business and encourage this kind of internet abuse to continue. Don't Do It!

DON'T SEND MONEY or any info that is none of their business to gather!!

Be aware and Prevent Scam:

1) At ConnectingSingles, free onsite mailbox, chat and IM are provided to protect your anonymity. Use them and stay on the site for a while or until you feel VERY sure. Scammers will try to get you to communicate with them offsite quickly, away from the protection of site systems and member-reports that will eventually identify and expose them.

2) Don't be pressured to meet someone at another site that may be set up ONLY to tempt you with explicit or sexual photos IN ORDER TO gather your personal identity or credit card info for scam purposes.

3) Scam comes in many forms. It's sad to see how some website owners try shortcuts and scam other sites for free advertising. Sending someone to a site to solicit and draw members away with fake profiles is scam. It speaks poorly of their business ethics and is just plain tacky. Don't trust solicitors.

4) Don't give out personal info early-on. The email address or photos you send to an online stranger may be gathered for mailing lists (phishing) and misused for spam and scam. The 'real looking' photos they email TO you are likely the photos exchanged offsite with members like you who were encouraged to send the photos to the scammer after being promised a personal photo from the scammer in return.

5) Don't send private photos of yourself or family that might end up being used to
scam someone else.

6) Check out the following pages we created about dating scammers:

• Have you been scammed? Help us fight scammers!
  
• Current scams
  

7) Report them! We don't want anyone to get scammed. Read about the red flags on our scam-warning pages to become aware. Contact Us if you receive suspicious mail on the site. We encourage members to send reports, to protect other members, and to help in keeping scammers off of Connecting Singles.

8) Don't give up: Most people are honest and seeking someone special in their lives. But be extra leery of those who push you for your offsite email address, photos or personal info early-on, or who want to meet you at other URLs, or who get angry when you hesitate over their questionable requests. Trust your instincts. Don't be misled. We provide the features you need to get acquainted at ConnectingSingles without giving out your personal info...

Use the site to meet. Use caution to stay safe.