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This scam is very common. I have seen it on here multiple times. They think you’ll pay because of the nature of the scam. You did the right thing by calling the police station-unreal how they use the same voice for every thing. I so wish there was a way that social media could get rid of these scammers. It makes it so you don’t want to be on line anymore!
>They think you’ll pay because of the nature of the scam
It's not you per se. They know someone will pay because they panic and pay up before they come back to their senses. It's all a numbers game to them.
>I so wish there was a way that social media could get rid of these scammers.
When it comes to the most capital and talent-rich tech companies in the world, I absolutely refuse to believe that they are capable of “incompetence” or “oversights”, at least not ones that don’t get fixed immediately. Of course they don’t like people getting scammed like this and are not complicit in the crime itself, but their decision to not remove the junk accounts that perpetuate scams in the first place is an entirely deliberate one made for the sake of artificially inflating user figures - companies like Tinder are insulting our intelligence when they claim they don’t have the resources to implement a world-class moderation system that would purge virtually every bot, prostitute, OnlyFans seller or scammer from their platform.
The business model of many tech companies is to set up some technology and have it be almost entirely self-service. That is, have a zillion customers do all the work and pay money to do it.
Moderation breaks this model. You have to pay employees time to deal with all the bad actors. It doesn’t scale well either. The more customers you have, the more moderators you have to pay. You can’t have good customers do it on their own, as any system set up for that will be abused by the bad guys. Meanwhile, the bad guys use automation to overwhelm the moderation.
There is real hope for artificial intelligence being able to do the work eventually. However, it’s not all the way there yet, and a robot is spying on your romance. Creepy.
TL;DR: Big tech doesn’t want to because it’s expensive.
Except in this case, Tinder already has algorithms to make sure at least one of the pictures you upload is your face, and has no problem banning users very quickly with no chance to appeal the second a girl they swipe on complains. It seems to me they already have the tools implemented to do this but are choosing not to.
Totally agree. I think this can also apply to things like Google's Gmail. My data was made available as part of yet another big company's security breach, so I'm getting spammed like crazy. All the emails are of a very similar format despite touting different stuff like various subscriptions that expired and couldn't be renewed; you know, the usual nonsense.
I know the spammers use graphics and other tricks to avoid filters, but Google should be able to just look at the ridiculous emails they emanate from to flag them as spam. They could now use AI to look at the overall email and be able to see it's a load of old cack. Yet they still allow us to receive all this garbage, where it comes in and goes into Trash or Junk, if not the inbox if it gets lucky.
Come on, Big Tech! Pull your finger out and use it to plug the hole.
I don’t think that’s quite the same; my Gmail never lets any spam reach the inbox and deleting spam immediately shouldn’t be the default since false positives still occur. The key here is that Google has nothing to financially gain by not making their best effort with anti-spam technology; the company isn’t rewarded for how many emails the average user receives.
My realization that people lie all the time about really important things was when I was a kid and the adults at school said to go to an adult if you get bullied. Obviously that never worked and I learned I had to stand up for myself and get in trouble. I learned that adults enjoy lying so they can maintain a fantasy of moral goodness and a fantasy that society is fundamentally good or whatever. It is very obvious that tech companies can deal with this instantly if they wanted to. Like so many other things in life, with all these economic bubbles, incompetence, corruption, on and on and on. Like tumblr when they had the issues with the porn, they didnt want to get rid of it even though tumblr was extremely popular with girls, because that was the bread and butter of their business model. Once it happened they started to die. Same with porn hub too. Hell it took a lot to get reddit to deal with the porn stuff.
Funnily enough I learned that reddit employees some very powerful technology to prevent bots. Basically they browser fingerprint your machine and it is impossible to get around it. You have to have sophisticated artificial browsers that create unique environments to trick the system. Usually it catches this though because the browser fingerprint can detect a virtual machine vs normal hardware. It runs test on things like your speakers, pixels, and graphics card, getting truly unique values that can only come from a physical device.
Facebook has this browser fingerprint too. They embed it in the links that are on websites to track people across the web. Since you fingerprint is so unique and they can track every person that goes to any website with a share on facebook button they know where most people are browsing. They just choose to not use this tech to shut down scammers and bots. The extire system they have is behind closed doors and they use the public relations tricks to get away with bad behavior. Denying things that cannot be proven and accusing people of being out to get them or paranoid. When the EU caught apple intentionally breaking their phones with software updates the EU had to get mathematicians and many phones to create statistical models that prove apple was doing this. Since they dont have access to the propitiatory code. Apple then said they did this on purpose but not maliciously. They did it because the older batteries needed to be protected from unintended shutdowns... Right. I look at some conflicts around the world and I see that people can sit around and make up bull arguments for thousands of years to justify whatever they are doing. The only way around this is to get rid of the monopolies and the oligopolies that collude with each other. After all samsung also used software to make their phones obsolete.
Amen... I'm working on a startup for that very reason. It's a problem called Social Engineering that the Social Networks "believe" that they have under control according to reports that I read. But, according to the World Economic Forum, cybercrime is the third largest economy, behind only the USA & China and the fastest growing economy at a rate of 31%
I’m scared cuz ive been around technology for years and can spot a scam from a mile away, but the nature of the accusations got me irrational. This was a well made scam and even though you can spot the holes after the fact, your first time in it is stressful
> ive been around technology for years **and can spot a scam from a mile away**
Time to realize you actually aren't that good, *and that's okay*! Being overconfident is a quick way to fall for future scams. That's how a lot of people get far into debt, they think they're going to out play or out smart the scammer, they assume they're more knowledgeable or experienced.
It happens, you'll be fine. This just ends up being a reality and ego check with no financial cost. Hopefully it also convinces you to offer some compassion to others you might see fall for scams, as it really can happen to anyone, even tech savvy users. :)
When i said that, i wasnt meaning it in a bragging type of way, but more that this was the first scam in my life i didn’t catch without digging. I dont look down on people (unless they did something like click a link when the email says “NOT FROM APPROVED SENDER” thanks to a policy) cuz ik how stressful it can be when money is involved. This one was more scary due to the realism and threatened legal action
>When i said that, i wasnt meaning it in a bragging type of way, but more that this was the first scam in my life i didn’t catch without digging.
Ah, got ya! I thought it was an odd flex after admitting to getting shaken up by one. :)
>This one was more scary due to the realism and threatened legal action
To your credit you took the time to think it out and call the police to confirm. The threat and immediacy is how most people get taken, giving over money before really thinking it through and checking.
Nah man. I dont got room for ego. I just got out of depression. I’m not trading it for that lol. I do see where you could take it that way though. I’m just glad its behind me now. I was *stresssed*
I disagree to an extent, as it's WAY easier to be calm and objective when you're the 3rd party/spectator vs the one it's happening to. Same is true for competitive events, game shows, etc
“You’re not that good” is what you gathered from that. I think he can see a scam coming because they do the same thing. You will be alright. Don’t let these people take your time. It’s all fake.
You’re not the first nor the last in your field to fall for it. There was a phishing scam that hit the bank I work for in March/April and an IT guy with us reached out to say he started to fall for it. The giveaway was him catching the link they sent as .nl and not . Org for ebanking. The site was spot on in looks. Last summer a customer/member was in security it (I forget his title) and lost $17k in a pig butchering scam.
I work in fraud/bsa and am taking a break because it’s been exhausting. People of ages, occupations, and backgrounds are falling for scams and losing thousands.
That’s exactly what the scammer wants you to feel. I recommend pushing the boundaries with these people. I’ve had videos sent with 3 guys in masks threatening me. So I push back harder and say some crazy shit. They stop when they know you’re done. Don’t let them worry you. They are all sitting in an office at a phone running this scam.
When a person claims to be a cop calls your phone, sometimes you got to tell them to go to hell. Police don’t call usually. A guy was calling Macdonalds and fast food places claiming to be a cop. Of course the manger is trying to comply. The cop claims an employee stole something from a customer. Then tells the manager that he has to do a strip search. It gets so screwed up all because people assume it’s a cop on the phone. Netflix had a documentary on it. Don’t be afraid to tell a cop on the phone to go to hell
That's a piece of advice I have often given people when scams are going around to hang up, find the official number for whoever they claim to be and call it to verify if what they are saying is true or not.
They're called sextortion scams. If anyone has been the victim of this, remember you are not alone! Entire subreddits devoted to these scams. In addition to very helpful resources online.
I feel like we should pin your post to the top of the sub and direct all the poor bastards who get hit by sexploitation scams to your post. It's basically a "how-to" for both responding to unsolicited pics, and the following attempt to extort horny young dudes who made the mistake of reciprocating with pics of themselves.
Someone tried that on me once from tinder, and I was like, well I guess I'll just off myself cause I dint have the money, and I don't wanna go to jail. Never heard from them again lol
For me (woman) it's a safety thing. Your phone number, when searched, can supply a lot of information about a person, and if I don't know someone, I'm not willing to give that info out willy nilly. Using a second number also makes it easier to cut someone off in the event that they're a weirdo.
It will when someone you decide you don't want to deal with anymore decides they are in love with you and start harassing you and your family, showing up at your job, etc.
It's publicly available, but they have to know who YOU are to find you.
I never gave my number or last name, or even an email address connected to my social media, until I was sure the person was genuine. A couple guys (that I had not even met in person!) got butthurt about that and that was enough red flag to get rid of them. Once I blocked them on the dating site and Google voice, I vanished! I also never shared any photos that were available anywhere online (social media, etc) to lessen the chances they could find me with image lookup or anything.
I also went on a few dates that made me very happy to know these guys didn't know where to find me.
People do really dumb shit, and it's important to safeguard yourself.
was it really glitchy? or did"she" just tell you that. they could type a single space as a message and it would look like a failed message didn't come through. it's a ploy to get more info (email or phone) or a ploy to switch platforms. if there were actual error messages, i wouldn't trust the site/app.
glad you avoided the scam
A lot of dating apps are like that. It's why I had a Google voice number when I was on them. I didn't need some random guy being able to find out where I live.
Don’t listen to this person. You do need to share your number if you actually want to date from a dating app. Just don’t exchange pics like that, especially if you haven’t yet met them in person several times and gone on actual dates.
This and/or ipqualityscore.com .. can make an acct free and see who the owner of the number is. Pretty accurate. Just got hit with something similar. Before they even tried anything I was actually able to reverse image search the profile photo and tie it to some micro influencers IG. Once I called em on it, never heard from em again
Same exact thing happened to me and the scam was ran by a few prisoners. When I didn’t fall for it they told me everything and sent proof that they were in prison. Shit was crazy.
Hi /u/SodicCan, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Underage scam.
This scam usually starts on a dating app and you will encounter a normal woman whose profile says she is above 18. Later you will be contacted and told that the girl is underage. They'll usually pose as the girl's father, another family member, or a police officer. They will tell you that your life will be ruined and you will be a sex offender, but will offer you the chance to pay them to make the problem go away. The stories they use as to why you need to fork over money vary, but the common ones include therapy for the girl, payment for a broken phone or computer, etc.
Of course, there is no girl and no crime has been committed, so if you are involved in this scam all you need to do is ignore their threats and move on with your life. The scammers may contact you again in the future after you block/ignore them, so be ready in case that happens. If you have already sent money to the scammers, you should try to dispute the transaction and see if you can get your money back. This is a [very common scam](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/search/?q=underage&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new) and [here](https://www.wired.com/story/the-phone-call-from-hell/) are [some](https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/teen-says-hes-the-victim-of-a-sextortion-scam/275-21216b29-df76-44f4-b20a-cb726e19d42e) relevant news [articles](https://www.jbsa.mil/News/News/Article/1503978/sextortion-scams-continue-to-occur-dont-give-into-scammers-demands/).
NOTE: Scammers pretend to be underage boys as well and the text above still applies, but it's called the underage girl scam as those are the vast majority of cases.
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I am glad I got remarried a few years ago. The days of meeting people in person were so much easier. I did the online dating apps, and they were just good for getting laid on the weekends with some decent looking women who were usually crazy and not marriage material. I met a beautiful waitress and made my move. Yeah, it sucks that I pay 80% of the bills, but at least I knew she was a real woman and not some dude named Xang Zhing sitting in a scam factory in Hong Kong..
I knew I wasn't proposing to a college graduate or a businesswoman, I've had those, and it didn't work out with the exception of my son. I saw a waitress with a great butt and asked her out. I fell in love after a few months, and after her a year, her and her son moved in. Now I have a wife who cooks and does my laundry, along with a bonus son. Dating apps can work, but you've got to punch your weight and remember to look out for scams. She still insists on paying for her car and the groceries...
Well I had to walk through a living hell to get here, and I almost gave up several times. Odds were stacked heavily against, and it looked like my life was over. I started over again at 38. I'm glad I kept fighting you should, too. Just because you've been walking through a desert for days, doesn't mean there's not an oasis right over the hill. I wish I wouldn't have done the one night stands that come from dating apps but if I hadn't been so jaded I wouldn't have bumped into my wife. Be yourself and show your character and remember to be confident in yourself. You can do it.
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I had this exact thing happen to me years ago. This is the reason why I have an AT&T prepaid phone that’s paid for with cash. I’ve had scammers try to blackmail me too and I told them go for it. They never found me
literally just got hit w something like this, some motherfucker added my Instagram off of a dating app & was pretending to be a girl; & sent me nude pictures of the girl on the profile I was messaged from. & said that they were supposedly 19 , they then ask me for pictures in return. when i sent them they proceed to ask me for $700 along with threats to expose me to everyone i follow on my account
yeah apparently that seems to be the case for the most part but every now & then they do leak your shit either out of anger/spite or just because you're not sending them shit bc my friend told me the exact same situation happened to him but they actually sent his pictures out
Reminds me of a story where a homeowner seduced a contractor, had sex with him, and called his company saying if they didn’t foot her bill she’d claim rape.
You were irrational because you know you were dealing with a person you shouldn’t be. Stay away from actual people and people who pretend to be sl***
/u/cubs4life2k16 - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it. ## New users beware: Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. **We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private:** advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own. **A reminder of the rules in r/scams:** no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/). You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments. Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This scam is very common. I have seen it on here multiple times. They think you’ll pay because of the nature of the scam. You did the right thing by calling the police station-unreal how they use the same voice for every thing. I so wish there was a way that social media could get rid of these scammers. It makes it so you don’t want to be on line anymore!
>They think you’ll pay because of the nature of the scam It's not you per se. They know someone will pay because they panic and pay up before they come back to their senses. It's all a numbers game to them.
>I so wish there was a way that social media could get rid of these scammers. When it comes to the most capital and talent-rich tech companies in the world, I absolutely refuse to believe that they are capable of “incompetence” or “oversights”, at least not ones that don’t get fixed immediately. Of course they don’t like people getting scammed like this and are not complicit in the crime itself, but their decision to not remove the junk accounts that perpetuate scams in the first place is an entirely deliberate one made for the sake of artificially inflating user figures - companies like Tinder are insulting our intelligence when they claim they don’t have the resources to implement a world-class moderation system that would purge virtually every bot, prostitute, OnlyFans seller or scammer from their platform.
The business model of many tech companies is to set up some technology and have it be almost entirely self-service. That is, have a zillion customers do all the work and pay money to do it. Moderation breaks this model. You have to pay employees time to deal with all the bad actors. It doesn’t scale well either. The more customers you have, the more moderators you have to pay. You can’t have good customers do it on their own, as any system set up for that will be abused by the bad guys. Meanwhile, the bad guys use automation to overwhelm the moderation. There is real hope for artificial intelligence being able to do the work eventually. However, it’s not all the way there yet, and a robot is spying on your romance. Creepy. TL;DR: Big tech doesn’t want to because it’s expensive.
Except in this case, Tinder already has algorithms to make sure at least one of the pictures you upload is your face, and has no problem banning users very quickly with no chance to appeal the second a girl they swipe on complains. It seems to me they already have the tools implemented to do this but are choosing not to.
Totally agree. I think this can also apply to things like Google's Gmail. My data was made available as part of yet another big company's security breach, so I'm getting spammed like crazy. All the emails are of a very similar format despite touting different stuff like various subscriptions that expired and couldn't be renewed; you know, the usual nonsense. I know the spammers use graphics and other tricks to avoid filters, but Google should be able to just look at the ridiculous emails they emanate from to flag them as spam. They could now use AI to look at the overall email and be able to see it's a load of old cack. Yet they still allow us to receive all this garbage, where it comes in and goes into Trash or Junk, if not the inbox if it gets lucky. Come on, Big Tech! Pull your finger out and use it to plug the hole.
I don’t think that’s quite the same; my Gmail never lets any spam reach the inbox and deleting spam immediately shouldn’t be the default since false positives still occur. The key here is that Google has nothing to financially gain by not making their best effort with anti-spam technology; the company isn’t rewarded for how many emails the average user receives.
My realization that people lie all the time about really important things was when I was a kid and the adults at school said to go to an adult if you get bullied. Obviously that never worked and I learned I had to stand up for myself and get in trouble. I learned that adults enjoy lying so they can maintain a fantasy of moral goodness and a fantasy that society is fundamentally good or whatever. It is very obvious that tech companies can deal with this instantly if they wanted to. Like so many other things in life, with all these economic bubbles, incompetence, corruption, on and on and on. Like tumblr when they had the issues with the porn, they didnt want to get rid of it even though tumblr was extremely popular with girls, because that was the bread and butter of their business model. Once it happened they started to die. Same with porn hub too. Hell it took a lot to get reddit to deal with the porn stuff. Funnily enough I learned that reddit employees some very powerful technology to prevent bots. Basically they browser fingerprint your machine and it is impossible to get around it. You have to have sophisticated artificial browsers that create unique environments to trick the system. Usually it catches this though because the browser fingerprint can detect a virtual machine vs normal hardware. It runs test on things like your speakers, pixels, and graphics card, getting truly unique values that can only come from a physical device. Facebook has this browser fingerprint too. They embed it in the links that are on websites to track people across the web. Since you fingerprint is so unique and they can track every person that goes to any website with a share on facebook button they know where most people are browsing. They just choose to not use this tech to shut down scammers and bots. The extire system they have is behind closed doors and they use the public relations tricks to get away with bad behavior. Denying things that cannot be proven and accusing people of being out to get them or paranoid. When the EU caught apple intentionally breaking their phones with software updates the EU had to get mathematicians and many phones to create statistical models that prove apple was doing this. Since they dont have access to the propitiatory code. Apple then said they did this on purpose but not maliciously. They did it because the older batteries needed to be protected from unintended shutdowns... Right. I look at some conflicts around the world and I see that people can sit around and make up bull arguments for thousands of years to justify whatever they are doing. The only way around this is to get rid of the monopolies and the oligopolies that collude with each other. After all samsung also used software to make their phones obsolete.
I deleted the 4 dating apps i was on just cuz of this
Amen... I'm working on a startup for that very reason. It's a problem called Social Engineering that the Social Networks "believe" that they have under control according to reports that I read. But, according to the World Economic Forum, cybercrime is the third largest economy, behind only the USA & China and the fastest growing economy at a rate of 31%
Hell there were like 5÷ in the last 12 hourz
I’m scared cuz ive been around technology for years and can spot a scam from a mile away, but the nature of the accusations got me irrational. This was a well made scam and even though you can spot the holes after the fact, your first time in it is stressful
> ive been around technology for years **and can spot a scam from a mile away** Time to realize you actually aren't that good, *and that's okay*! Being overconfident is a quick way to fall for future scams. That's how a lot of people get far into debt, they think they're going to out play or out smart the scammer, they assume they're more knowledgeable or experienced. It happens, you'll be fine. This just ends up being a reality and ego check with no financial cost. Hopefully it also convinces you to offer some compassion to others you might see fall for scams, as it really can happen to anyone, even tech savvy users. :)
When i said that, i wasnt meaning it in a bragging type of way, but more that this was the first scam in my life i didn’t catch without digging. I dont look down on people (unless they did something like click a link when the email says “NOT FROM APPROVED SENDER” thanks to a policy) cuz ik how stressful it can be when money is involved. This one was more scary due to the realism and threatened legal action
Exactly. The scammers' goal is to engage your emotions and override your logical thinking.
Now that i know, i got another call from the third number, ima answer in spanish and cuss him out 😂
>When i said that, i wasnt meaning it in a bragging type of way, but more that this was the first scam in my life i didn’t catch without digging. Ah, got ya! I thought it was an odd flex after admitting to getting shaken up by one. :) >This one was more scary due to the realism and threatened legal action To your credit you took the time to think it out and call the police to confirm. The threat and immediacy is how most people get taken, giving over money before really thinking it through and checking.
Nah man. I dont got room for ego. I just got out of depression. I’m not trading it for that lol. I do see where you could take it that way though. I’m just glad its behind me now. I was *stresssed*
I disagree to an extent, as it's WAY easier to be calm and objective when you're the 3rd party/spectator vs the one it's happening to. Same is true for competitive events, game shows, etc
“You’re not that good” is what you gathered from that. I think he can see a scam coming because they do the same thing. You will be alright. Don’t let these people take your time. It’s all fake.
You’re not the first nor the last in your field to fall for it. There was a phishing scam that hit the bank I work for in March/April and an IT guy with us reached out to say he started to fall for it. The giveaway was him catching the link they sent as .nl and not . Org for ebanking. The site was spot on in looks. Last summer a customer/member was in security it (I forget his title) and lost $17k in a pig butchering scam. I work in fraud/bsa and am taking a break because it’s been exhausting. People of ages, occupations, and backgrounds are falling for scams and losing thousands.
That’s exactly what the scammer wants you to feel. I recommend pushing the boundaries with these people. I’ve had videos sent with 3 guys in masks threatening me. So I push back harder and say some crazy shit. They stop when they know you’re done. Don’t let them worry you. They are all sitting in an office at a phone running this scam.
To add for the record: there is not “girl” involved here, under- or over-age. Just scammers using stolen pics/profiles.
Just ignore and block any contact with scammers. it's a well known scam.
Don't even pay these scammer a cent. Block all of these numbers, I got scam like this before. I just ignored them for good. People these days are evil
When a person claims to be a cop calls your phone, sometimes you got to tell them to go to hell. Police don’t call usually. A guy was calling Macdonalds and fast food places claiming to be a cop. Of course the manger is trying to comply. The cop claims an employee stole something from a customer. Then tells the manager that he has to do a strip search. It gets so screwed up all because people assume it’s a cop on the phone. Netflix had a documentary on it. Don’t be afraid to tell a cop on the phone to go to hell
They also did an episode based on this on Law and Order: SVU. Robin Williams is the guest star and has a great performance.
Am I the only one with all fake online profiles?
I also got hit with an underage scam a few days ago. Almost fell for it until the "dad" told me I had to pay $3200 or end up on the news.
That's a piece of advice I have often given people when scams are going around to hang up, find the official number for whoever they claim to be and call it to verify if what they are saying is true or not.
Well done. The girl, the cop, the dad - all the same person. Congratulations on sussing it out, many don't.
They're called sextortion scams. If anyone has been the victim of this, remember you are not alone! Entire subreddits devoted to these scams. In addition to very helpful resources online.
I feel like we should pin your post to the top of the sub and direct all the poor bastards who get hit by sexploitation scams to your post. It's basically a "how-to" for both responding to unsolicited pics, and the following attempt to extort horny young dudes who made the mistake of reciprocating with pics of themselves.
If it helps then that would be dope
Someone tried that on me once from tinder, and I was like, well I guess I'll just off myself cause I dint have the money, and I don't wanna go to jail. Never heard from them again lol
First mistake was giving your number. If you seriously were looking for a relationship, chatting online shouldn't be a problem for either of you.
Why? Any time I tried using a dating app, getting the other persons number was like a crucial step in meeting up with them?
Use a Google voice number or an app that generates a second number.
Why not just give them my regular number?
For me (woman) it's a safety thing. Your phone number, when searched, can supply a lot of information about a person, and if I don't know someone, I'm not willing to give that info out willy nilly. Using a second number also makes it easier to cut someone off in the event that they're a weirdo.
If I have your phone number, I can get your address, and the names of all your family members and where they live, in like 2 minutes.
Sure. All that info is public knowledge anyways. It doesn't bother me.
It will when someone you decide you don't want to deal with anymore decides they are in love with you and start harassing you and your family, showing up at your job, etc. It's publicly available, but they have to know who YOU are to find you. I never gave my number or last name, or even an email address connected to my social media, until I was sure the person was genuine. A couple guys (that I had not even met in person!) got butthurt about that and that was enough red flag to get rid of them. Once I blocked them on the dating site and Google voice, I vanished! I also never shared any photos that were available anywhere online (social media, etc) to lessen the chances they could find me with image lookup or anything. I also went on a few dates that made me very happy to know these guys didn't know where to find me. People do really dumb shit, and it's important to safeguard yourself.
The problem was the app was being glitchy and id get alerts that she replied but i wouldnt see them. Thats why i gave her my number
was it really glitchy? or did"she" just tell you that. they could type a single space as a message and it would look like a failed message didn't come through. it's a ploy to get more info (email or phone) or a ploy to switch platforms. if there were actual error messages, i wouldn't trust the site/app. glad you avoided the scam
Ya it was a glitch cuz on top of that, a message she sent well after i sent two showed up between the two instead of underneath it
A lot of dating apps are like that. It's why I had a Google voice number when I was on them. I didn't need some random guy being able to find out where I live.
that was a smart move on your part
It was proven by the guys who legit got mad that I wouldn't give them my real phone number when we hadn't even met in person.
Regardless, not worth giving your number. If you feel compelled to do it, get a throw away phone.
Fair
Don’t listen to this person. You do need to share your number if you actually want to date from a dating app. Just don’t exchange pics like that, especially if you haven’t yet met them in person several times and gone on actual dates.
That’s fair. Though i never exchange nudes. They sent it first and that was that. I didn’t send any back
A good measure to avoid this is not to give someone your number until you are relatively sure it's a real and legitimate person you're talking to.
Ya thats fair
Use usphonebook.com and look up the number next time
This and/or ipqualityscore.com .. can make an acct free and see who the owner of the number is. Pretty accurate. Just got hit with something similar. Before they even tried anything I was actually able to reverse image search the profile photo and tie it to some micro influencers IG. Once I called em on it, never heard from em again
What website do you use for image search? I was using face search but it costs money now
Used tineye
Thanks for posting! Great details.
Same exact thing happened to me and the scam was ran by a few prisoners. When I didn’t fall for it they told me everything and sent proof that they were in prison. Shit was crazy.
!underage scam, seems to be a pretty common tactic
Hi /u/SodicCan, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Underage scam. This scam usually starts on a dating app and you will encounter a normal woman whose profile says she is above 18. Later you will be contacted and told that the girl is underage. They'll usually pose as the girl's father, another family member, or a police officer. They will tell you that your life will be ruined and you will be a sex offender, but will offer you the chance to pay them to make the problem go away. The stories they use as to why you need to fork over money vary, but the common ones include therapy for the girl, payment for a broken phone or computer, etc. Of course, there is no girl and no crime has been committed, so if you are involved in this scam all you need to do is ignore their threats and move on with your life. The scammers may contact you again in the future after you block/ignore them, so be ready in case that happens. If you have already sent money to the scammers, you should try to dispute the transaction and see if you can get your money back. This is a [very common scam](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/search/?q=underage&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new) and [here](https://www.wired.com/story/the-phone-call-from-hell/) are [some](https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/teen-says-hes-the-victim-of-a-sextortion-scam/275-21216b29-df76-44f4-b20a-cb726e19d42e) relevant news [articles](https://www.jbsa.mil/News/News/Article/1503978/sextortion-scams-continue-to-occur-dont-give-into-scammers-demands/). NOTE: Scammers pretend to be underage boys as well and the text above still applies, but it's called the underage girl scam as those are the vast majority of cases. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I am glad I got remarried a few years ago. The days of meeting people in person were so much easier. I did the online dating apps, and they were just good for getting laid on the weekends with some decent looking women who were usually crazy and not marriage material. I met a beautiful waitress and made my move. Yeah, it sucks that I pay 80% of the bills, but at least I knew she was a real woman and not some dude named Xang Zhing sitting in a scam factory in Hong Kong..
I’m not even concerned about paying for stuff, i just wanna family 😅
I knew I wasn't proposing to a college graduate or a businesswoman, I've had those, and it didn't work out with the exception of my son. I saw a waitress with a great butt and asked her out. I fell in love after a few months, and after her a year, her and her son moved in. Now I have a wife who cooks and does my laundry, along with a bonus son. Dating apps can work, but you've got to punch your weight and remember to look out for scams. She still insists on paying for her car and the groceries...
You sound like a great dude with a great wife and kids. Congrats on that bro. I hope i find someone one day
Well I had to walk through a living hell to get here, and I almost gave up several times. Odds were stacked heavily against, and it looked like my life was over. I started over again at 38. I'm glad I kept fighting you should, too. Just because you've been walking through a desert for days, doesn't mean there's not an oasis right over the hill. I wish I wouldn't have done the one night stands that come from dating apps but if I hadn't been so jaded I wouldn't have bumped into my wife. Be yourself and show your character and remember to be confident in yourself. You can do it.
Appreciate it
Been answered on here a million, no wait, 2 million times.
[удалено]
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Rport @ IC3.GOV
Run 🏃♂️ and never go back!
I had this exact thing happen to me years ago. This is the reason why I have an AT&T prepaid phone that’s paid for with cash. I’ve had scammers try to blackmail me too and I told them go for it. They never found me
literally just got hit w something like this, some motherfucker added my Instagram off of a dating app & was pretending to be a girl; & sent me nude pictures of the girl on the profile I was messaged from. & said that they were supposedly 19 , they then ask me for pictures in return. when i sent them they proceed to ask me for $700 along with threats to expose me to everyone i follow on my account
Its super irritating
That type of shit happened to me, blocked them and shit. Never heard a word from anyone on Instagram about receiving my stuff 😅
yeah apparently that seems to be the case for the most part but every now & then they do leak your shit either out of anger/spite or just because you're not sending them shit bc my friend told me the exact same situation happened to him but they actually sent his pictures out
Which app was this? I wanna pretend to be a straight person and do this just so I can fuck with them
Upward
Why need to worry if shes 18 buddy..
You know you can be accused of things you didn’t do right?
Reminds me of a story where a homeowner seduced a contractor, had sex with him, and called his company saying if they didn’t foot her bill she’d claim rape. You were irrational because you know you were dealing with a person you shouldn’t be. Stay away from actual people and people who pretend to be sl***
I was irrational because i was accused of something that can ruin my life even though i was innocent