The "419" dating scam
I have also had complaints from other dating-site users (men). They were very angry to realise they had been fooled by a fake profile -some of them thought that the girls or I, as the photographer, were behind the scams. I could understand from their stories that the fake profiles are used to trick money out of love-seeking and, admittedly, pretty naive men. The trick is that the person behind the fake profile gets someone to "fall in love". This can sometimes be after months of mailing, exchange of more fake photos and sometimes even phone calls to follow up. This type of fraud is the newest version of what is normally referred to as the "Nigerian 419 scam". When you see the amount of pictures posted and hear the details of a fraud story it seems to be pretty systematic and well organised. Again... I think it is obvious why I have to distance myself and my clients/models from any involvement in these activities which are clearly of criminal character.
