Online dating scams have become a real problem since the number of victims is estimated in hundreds of thousands. One of the scam types where men become victims more frequently than women is a mail order bride scam. Since men come to mail order bride websites to find matches for serious affairs and even marriage, they’re more vulnerable and tend to be cheated much easier than others. It confirms the importance of knowing what mail order scams are and how to recognize them, so our team has focused on this issue in this piece.
Legit mail order bride websites
Are all mail order brides scams?
Many men who know little about the mail order bride industry wonder: are mail order brides a scam? Whether they don’t believe many success stories or aren’t aware of the fact that many websites verify their members, this statement isn’t true. Naturally, it’s absolutely possible to meet a fake woman scamming guys online even on these sites, but their number is surely much smaller than on traditional dating sites.
How many mail order brides are scams then? The percentage of verified members is only 10%. The team conducts manual checks of all members too. Therefore, only 5-10% of ladies may seem untrustworthy on such sites.
Most popular mail order bride scams and how to recognize them
JIWH’s team has analyzed different surveys and criminal reports to make the list of the most popular scams on mail-order bride sites. Some of them are similar to ones that happen on dating sites, but there are also industry-specific mail order brides scams men should be able to recognize too.
The worst mail order bride scams by type
A vast majority of international dating site scams can be divided into several types. These are the most widely spread ways to cheat and get benefits online.
- Hunting for easy money: this bride scam usually implies getting into a man’s trust within a short period of time and asking him for money on many different things like tickets to visit him, funds for serious illness treatment, covering debts, etc.
- Desire to get a residential status in a foreign country: many girls attract American men to get a green card and move to the USA. This American dream makes ladies pretend and marry without real feelings.
- Getting man’s sensitive and financial data: there are mail order bride scammer organizations that create very attractive profiles and try to lure out men’s personal information to later use it for stealing funds from their bank accounts.
- Blackmailing: some mail order bride scammers encourage men they interact with to exchange nude photos or run a live video chat to get compromising images. After that, they start blackmailing a person and get illegal financial profit from him.
- Malware scams: having earned a person’s trust, fraudsters send a link to follow and steal a person’s confidential information.
How to recognize and avoid scams from mail order brides
Men who join a mail order bride website should understand that none of the security measures introduced there can protect from a cute foreign girls scam for 100%. Much depends on their attention and readiness to care about their safety. One of the ways to achieve that is to learn how to recognize the Internet bride scam and people behind it. These are some hints on how to succeed in that.
- Scammers’ profiles always look excellent or vice versa lack details;
- They try to develop relationship fast and make quick love confessions;
- You can search a suspicious woman by photo on Google and see if there are any social media pages and whether these photos aren’t stolen.
- Criminals often find excuses to avoid real life dates and even live video chat;
- These people find unbelievable excuses why they need money or some personal information of yours, so be careful with strange requests and questions.
Why people think that mail order brides are a fake?
It isn’t a secret that scams and deception are popular practices online, and not only the dating industry suffers from fraudsters. Since the number of people who tried to find a wife online and even could pay the mail order bride price for one were cheated by scammers, it has resulted in their disappointment in this way of matchmaking.
You should understand that a frustrated man who has lost money and happiness at one moment is more likely to leave negative feedback about the site than ones who have succeeded there. People always lack time and desire to leave positive comments, so the domination of negative testimonials and a growing number of cheated people have left such a negative impression about the whole industry. People are more likely to remember mail order bride scams reviews rather than over 10,000 happy couples created in this way.
Conclusion
Our team has done research on the topic of online dating scams, and we can conclude that mail order brides are not a scam. Thousands of happy couples who met each other online confirm this fact in spite of numerous disappointed users. Is scam possible on mail order bride sites? Surely, there’s no sphere that can protect itself from scammers for 100%. And the final question: how many mail order brides are scam? Unfortunately, no one knows that. Our opinion is that around 5-10% of mail order bride websites look and behave suspiciously. This percentage is lower than on other sites since these wife finder platforms make manual scans and apply lots of other security measures to minimize their number!