Tips On how to NOT get Catfished

The New York Daily News is reporting a study of common signs that a profile is fake and that you are indeed being catfished, I also have a few tips of my own from personal experience

If that online dating profile sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

One in ten profiles is fake, according to research from dating website SeekingArrangement.com, which deletes more than 200 fraudulent accounts every day.

“We’re not talking about lying about your age or weight; we’re talking about scammers who are trying to take your money,” CEO Brandon Wade told the Daily News.

More than $50 million is stolen every year in romance scams, according to the FBI. Wade’s company compiled a list of the most common characteristics from the 60,000 accounts it’s deleted to help singles spot warning signs.

“Scammers tend to prey on a few things,” Wade said. “They want you to trust them, and they want sympathy.”

That’s why 63% of fake profiles describe themselves as widows, he said. It’s easy to feel sympathetic.

While ethnicity is divided, a whopping 36% of fraudsters describe themselves as Native American — a red flag and likely a misunderstanding on the con artist’s part, Wade said.

“A lot of foreigners don’t understand that Native Americans are Indians,” he explained. “It’s a misunderstanding. They pick Native American because they think that means American.

“In reality, Native Americans represent less than 2% of our population.”

The bogus accounts are more likely to belong to a woman (71%) than a man (29%).

 Catholicism is the most common religion among the fake profiles.

“If a person claims to be very religious and they use words like ‘God-fearing’ in their profile, there’s a huge probability it’s fraud,” Wade said.

Location varies, but many fake profiles are listed in Nigeria, the Ukraine and the Philippines.

When it comes to work, fraudsters often claim to be engineers or royalty or to be self-employed.

Wade hopes his “Face of Fraud” research encourages other dating websites to be smart when searching for fraudulent profiles. 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/spot-fake-online-dating-profile-article-1.1338600#ixzz2So31Ydkh

That was really informative, I also have a few tips of my own from personal experience so take a mental note!

Fake profiles on twitter have a low number of tweets and when they do tweet it tends to be very sexual, and thirsty! The profiles also only follow really attractive people

Fake profiles also tend to be very shallow, they will only talk to you if you look a certain way, probably because the person in real life looks the exact opposite !

On Facebook, the profile has a low number of friends, but as soon as you add their friend request they will message you!

Fake profiles will have so much to say on social media but will not even skype, call, or even text message you

And last they have no information in google or even a facebook, twitter, and now even a instagram that is current and matches! I hope this all was helpful, be safe don't get catfished be safe and stop falling for pictures you all!