Romance scams occur in a number of places and websites on the internet,with various methods being used. The scammers target some particular sites where they know that they are likely to catch potential victims.
Some of the most popular types of websites that they target for romance scams are listed below:
- Dating Sites: This is about the largest fishing grounds for victims.The scammers join dating sites,both paid and free ones, in order to hunt for victims. Few of these dating sites, if any at all does not have these villains as members. No matter what the owners try in the form of preventive or security measures, the scammers are up to the task and always manage to evade the rules. It is sad to note that some dating sites still have a non-challant attitude till date to the activities of scammers and have not taken adequate measures to prevent innocent people using their services from the antics of the romance scammers.
- Chat Rooms: many free email hosts offer chat rooms as fora for users of their services. Unfortunately, scammers have turned this well intentioned facility into a bad one. The chat rooms are the places where they fish for potentisl scam victims. The scammers typically enter a chat room and try to strike up a conversation with anyone they so choose out of the people in the room. They could send instant messages to as many people as is possible,in the hope that a few would reply and chat with them. And they usually succeed with this.
- Religious, charitable and other innocent sites:Although such innocent sites as these are set up in order to offer help to the needy, and to help humanity, they do not escape the attention of scammers. The very fact that these type of websites are set up for humanitarian or religious purposes makes the people there especially vulnerable to the scammers. Such people are typically unsuspecting and have their guard let down.