Online dating.

[Philippa Jane]

I was desperate at one stage and so I did enter a number of online dating sites.
I have yet to pay for any of them but I still get hit on.
Currently I am getting so many visits from Pink Cupid and they are mostly from the US.
One in particular is a person called Taryn from Los Vegas. A very nice 60 year old lady ??
She (if it is a she) keeps trying to connect with me so, tonight we have tried to call on WhatsApp.
That has not worked and I don't think it will because for a very Caucasian woman she texts like an Asian call enter worker.
I messaged that we were on a different time zone and gave the time in Australia and the time in Los Vegas.
The reply was: Yes sweetie what your currently time now.
Then : Share me your picture you look good on your profile picture sweetie.

Now colour me sceptical but I smell a con job here.
My profile bio shows which country I am in and that I am not looking anyone further than a 250 k radius from Perth.
Yet they keep coming.

I am on a senior lesbian site where I had to prove who I was and yet every now and then I get some creepy old dude looking for a partner. Seriously !!
You have to wonder at the mentality of some guy going onto a gay girls site looking for a date

What has the world come to??

[Sandi Beech]

Philippa,

I am not in the market for dating, but if I were, I do not think I would use online dating. Some may have success, but I feel like there is too much room for internet abuse these days. But I do not know for sure. Good luck anyhow. Be careful.

Sandi

[Billie R]

I think the first clue would be her using the term ?sweetie.? A 60 yr old lady is not going to use that term. However, a sixty year old plus? would use that term. Smells of a scam.

[OrdinaryAverageGuy]

I've had a few "wrong number" texts which turned into conversations, always by a "female". The big red flag is when "she" can't text anymore and wants to switch to Whatsapp . Why? Texting is free and we were already doing it for an hour. I don't understand what the scammer is hoping for, but that's the end of it for me. Sucks that we just can't have fun talking to someone anymore, we have to be worried that it's a scammer.

[kimdl93]

I have a relative who got drawn into an ongoing relationship, if you could call it that, with some one who claimed to be a woman much younger than he was, and various other representations about education, family etc. He received pictures, but the pictures were not always of the same person. Of course, in the end, the whole thing turned out to be a ploy to extract money. I suspect most are.

[docrobbysherry]

We were recently treated to a day at Disneyland by a friend of my Asia T buddy. She works there and is also Asian. I'm not sure why she told us but her dad in Asia was catfished by one of these online, scam, "girlfriend" women out of $350,000 of her money he was holding for her. Or, so she said!

[Debs]

I find just going out to non lgbt bars and clubs, the ladies are so curious they will sit and chat with you for hours, believe me its true I go out a lot

[AmyJordan]

Hi Philippa

Firstly let me say I cannot believe you are still single and having difficulty finding a loving partner you are such a lovely attractive person.

Yes online scamming is a huge problem but you also hear of many successful relationships stemming from meeting online you just have to be vigilant and be on the lookout for red flags.

I personally would hate to be single again it seems so difficult to know who to trust.

You met someone lovely recently although that unfortunately didn't work out romantically it shows there are nice people about just take your time, you will find somebody and it will have been worth the wait.

Amy x

[GaleWarning]

It's seventeen years since I last did some online dating. A lifetime ago.
I followed the guidelines laid down by the dating site - in particular, that the first face-to-face meeting should take place in a public venue. I had one personal rule ... the lady had to suggest a personal meeting, not me.
The first comment I got quite often, was, "You look just like your photograph!"
It was an great experience ... I met eleven very interesting and diverse women ... only one proceeded to a second meet-up. That died, too.
I lost interest after only a few months, though.

[alwayshave]

Philippa, three times a week I get a text message telling me my EZPass (Electronic Toll Device issued by the State of Maryland) is having problems and I need to contact them. However, the text originates in Brazil. People are never going to stop scamming. As to creepy guys on a lesbian site, just desperate.

[CarlaWestin]

Well, I used to live in a place called Las Vegas but according to the internet there is no Los Vegas. With the advent of AI, I would fear a search with an image could produce enough ID to compromise personal financial information.

[racquelr]

Whether they are a scammer or not, constantly calling me "sweetie" would be enough of a turnoff for me that I would move on.

[Brynna M]

Really I'm just sorry you have deal with it. Connecting with another person in this day and age is hard enough without having your guard up for scams.

[Philippa Jane]

Thank you ladies for the comments.
Even with me going onto WhatsApp as requested I could not actually speak in person to Taryn.
Still at work, speak later.
I did say that the language used was not giving me confidence and asked the nationality of her parents, thinking she may be from Europe and English is her second language.
No reply.
Well today I have a long text . She calls me 'my love' and she 'misses talking to me' and 'drawing comfort from my words'.
It's not the same without you babe' 'talk soon, my heart. I miss you'.

My response was to say this is not normal language for two strangers and smacks of a con job.

You are BLOCKED. Ha ha it is fun and games.

And just for Amy there is another lady in my life which I will get to.

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Correction from me .
My bad typing "Los " instead of "Las" Vegas.

[JulieC]

If I were single again, I would not attempt to date. Philipa, I'm sorry you've had to deal with this crap. You show courage in trying!

Scams; I always start with the assumption that any interaction through any means is a scam until proven otherwise. Phone calls, texts, in person, doesn't matter. There's so many scams today you can't really trust anything that you do not personally initiate. I had an medical office contact me about a past due bill (wasn't my fault). They wanted me to give them payment information right there over the phone. I told them it wasn't happening. They got mad, even rude. I told them they had a hell of a nerve to call, out of the blue, demanding money in a day and age of scams being rampant. Did they really think I was going to give them payment over the phone from an unsolicited call? Insane, and I told them as much.