LTGTBT: Tips

THEY MIGHT BE TRYING TO SCAM YOU IF…

Their profile picture looks professionally done and can usually be found on a modeling website.
Their height/weight is not proportional — i.e. 6' and 95 lbs.
They claim to have blonde hair and blue eyes when the picture is dark hair and brown eyes or vice versa.
They have a wedding ring on in 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- i.e. 25-60.
They immediately want to begin communicating by Instant Messaging (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 from the website immediately after conversation begins.
Their spelling is atrocious.
They are notorious for using "i" instead of "I".
They consistently use web-speak or abbreviations. Examples: u, r, ur, cos, pls/plz, ma, sry, brb, div, acc.

Their grammar is not consistent with their country of origin.
Examples:
- "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.
They immediately start using pet names with you such as hon/hun, baby/babe, sweety/sweetie.
They over-use emotions.
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 than what was stated on their profiles. One of the more common ones they give different answers to is their birth date, height/weight, and age.
They excessively use the buzzer on IM even when asked to stop. They type a sentence and if you do not respond immediately, they hit the buzzer.
If you catch them on an inconsistency, they will claim a friend or relative must have been using their ID to chat with you. They will always try to come up with a cover-up 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 most US citizens 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 are 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 coming from a website… 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 number, but when they call, you can barely understand them.
They may give you a phone number, but it's typically a calling card or a call center. You can rarely reach 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 see 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 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 met on 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.
They will ask you for your bank account information.
They will send you a check or money order, which will end up being counterfeit, and ask you to cash it for them and wire the money to them.
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 you because the doctor has a laptop and is so very generous to let them use it.
They claim they have 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 have somehow "lost" the company money and cannot pay their 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.