# Purpose of Dating Site Phishing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 20, 2016, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876 "2016-06-20T08:11:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/1 "2016-06-20T08:11:02Z")
An online dating site profile with photo of hot chick messaged me to text them right away, I replied that I would soon and they almost immediately replied “OK, waiting”. I pursued that no further, but accidentally called them with my bluetooth. I was prompted to leave message for a “Steve” in Delaware, a different state than the girl supposedly lives in. What is their purpose behind this? Is their goal identity theft, stealing bank funds or what? Most of the interest on this website has come from these hot chicks with minimal information on their profile, no personality questions answered and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/2 "2016-06-20T08:14:18Z")
And they typically request that I text them at a phone number right away. What do they gain from having my cellphone number? ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/3 "2016-06-20T15:01:04Z")
“Oh, I want to come meet you but I can’t afford the plane ticket” “Oh, I got the money for the plane ticket, but my car broke down on the way to the airport and I had to use the money for car repairs” “Oh, the car repairs when fine but then my roof got a leak and I have to fix that before I can visit you” “What, of course I’m real, I can’t wait to see you naked, I just need a little more money…” ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/4 "2016-06-20T16:33:08Z")
It could be some financial phishing scam. Could also be as simple as people fucking with you for laughs. Back in my IRC days, it was common to go troll the various dating/romance style channels with “Oh, I’m a so-lonely f/18 – won’t someone talk to me?” and see what kind of responses you get. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/5 "2016-06-20T17:40:42Z")
This is a phenomenon exclusive to the **male** side of online dating. Women arent ruled by their libidos, so they don’t make easy marks. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/6 "2016-06-20T18:02:31Z")
Okay, but what’s with the urgent prompting to text them on their cellphone number instead of using the dating site messaging itself? Usually their profile consists of “I’m a God-fearing, loyal woman, seeking to serve her man.” And most of them reside in a nearby town with less than a hundred residents. It’s odd how such a small town can yield so many sexy babes. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/7 "2016-06-20T18:20:55Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > Okay, but what’s with the urgent prompting to text them on their cellphone number instead of using the dating site messaging itself? > > Usually their profile consists of “I’m a God-fearing, loyal woman, seeking to serve her man.” And most of them reside in a nearby town with less than a hundred residents. It’s odd how such a small town can yield so many sexy babes. The phisher can call/text them personally at any time of day, instead of being tied to the dating service site, which the victim may only log into once a week. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/8 "2016-06-20T19:30:46Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > This is a phenomenon exclusive to the **male** side of online dating. Women arent ruled by their libidos, so they don’t make easy marks. Women get suckered by promises of romance and true love and sadly, are just as likely to get scammed. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/9 "2016-06-20T21:33:38Z")
I had some experiences with these scammers when I tried some dating sites in the past. They give such ridiculous excuses. > [@](#): > > Oh, I’m not good with the internet and I’m using my friend’s account. It’s just easier if you text me. WTF? You’re using your friend’s dating account, with their pictures and description, or they let you put your pictures and description on their account, or what? If you’re the age you say you are, and your not “good with the internet” then I don’t think we’d have much in common. Or > [@](#): > > I don’t use this site often, What’s your name on FB (or what’s your phone number, or your name on some chat app). So use it more often. Is it any more difficult than Facebook? Or > [@](#): > > I live in Philly but right now I’m going to nursing school in Ghana. There seem to be a lot of American women going to nursing school in Ghana. I’m sure that Ghana has good nursing schools, but are they so good that people will travel all the way there from the US? I one time had one tell me that she was going to beauty school _in Ghana_. Now, you _might_ be able to convince me that nursing school in Ghana is so inexpensive that it’s worth going there, it’s just barely conceivable, but who travels that kind of distance for beauty school? ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/10 "2016-06-20T22:16:09Z")
I’m a married 49 year old woman and get phished with friend requests on Facebook. They seem to think I would be tempted to give up info by posing as 51 year old US Army veterans calling me " schatje" ( baby, in Dutch). ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/11 "2016-06-20T22:20:57Z")
The newest scam, apparently, is that they try to have you send sexy pictures or webcamfootage. And then they blackmail you to pay, or they will send the footage to your family or workplace. They find that info by googling. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/12 "2016-06-20T22:25:21Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > I’m a married 49 year old woman and get phished with friend requests on Facebook. They seem to think I would be tempted to give up info by posing as 51 year old US Army veterans calling me " schatje" ( baby, in Dutch). I occasionally get phishing friend requests on FB. There’s always a picture of some hot young woman and they often show one of my male FB friends as a mutual friend. Apparently when they manage to convince someone to friend them they then send requests to all of his male friends. So now I know which of my male FB friends are either gullible or desperate. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/13 "2016-06-20T22:56:42Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > This is a phenomenon exclusive to the **male** side of online dating. Women arent ruled by their libidos, so they don’t make easy marks. I’ve heard stories of it happening to women too. Probably not as common though. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/14 "2016-06-21T00:49:03Z")
> [@brainstall](#): > > Women get suckered by promises of romance and true love and sadly, are just as likely to get scammed. No, _absolutely_ wrong. Every-single-girl I’ve ever talked to about this issue has no idea what Im talking about or even heard of it before. It may happen occasionally to women on dating sites but with nowhere near the frequency as on the guys side. Its practically an industry there. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/15 "2016-06-21T02:29:12Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > I’m a married 49 year old woman and get phished with friend requests on Facebook. They seem to think I would be tempted to give up info by posing as 51 year old US Army veterans calling me " schatje" ( baby, in Dutch). I’ve had several friends get spoofed on Facebook - I’ll get a friend request and think “Hmmm, thought I had l already friended her”. In both cases someone had cloned their profile, including photos, and sent friend requests to all that person’s friends. I haven’t figured out what the point is except maybe to set things up for identity theft or to rip off your friends down the line. Someone we basically had his life destroyed by falling for an online dating scam. Long story, but he spent quite a bit of time in a South American jail. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/16 "2016-06-21T02:31:17Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > The phisher can call/text them personally at any time of day, instead of being tied to the dating service site, which the victim may only log into once a week. Plus: the scammer will probably be caught and have “her” dating site profile shut down pretty quickly if the site is even remotely reputable. Direct communication means the mark won’t have communications cut off, and might not even hear of the shutdown. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/17 "2016-06-22T12:51:19Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > No, _absolutely_ wrong. Every-single-girl I’ve ever talked to about this issue Oh, good! So you’ve done actual research on the matter and you’re not just talking out of your ass. I will be sure to give weight to your expert opinion what with your exhaustive “Every-single-girl I’ve ever talked to” controlled data analysis. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/18 "2016-06-22T13:37:25Z")
As others pointed out, there’s a number of potential scams, could be looking for money, for personal information to steal your identity, to blackmail you, or maybe just for grins and giggles. The whole point of quickly jumping off the dating site is to make sure they don’t lose their mark. The fake profiles disappear faster and faster. I’ve literally seen ones where I see I got a like or a message and the profile is already gone 10 minutes later. If they can get you to text them or use yahoo chat or whatever, they can keep working you, send you more pictures, and do whatever else they need to to complete whatever scam they’re trying. And, sure, it seems to me that women are less likely targets as, after all, many get swarmed with “hey baby” messages already, so they’re going to get lost in the noise. But that said, I have known women who’ve been scammed, though admittedly, the ones I know were middle aged and divorced. I’ve never met a 20 or 30-something that’s been a scam target, but I’m sure they’re out there. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/19 "2016-06-22T14:05:37Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > No, _absolutely_ wrong. Every-single-girl I’ve ever talked to about this issue has no idea what Im talking about or even heard of it before. It may happen occasionally to women on dating sites but with nowhere near the frequency as on the guys side. Its practically an industry there. So it’s **exclusive** to males and it’s **absolutely** wrong that it happens to women, and somehow I could find information about it in [seconds](http://www.kmbc.com/Online-Romance-Scams-Continue-To-Grow/12231372) and know plenty of women who’ve received the kind of attention described in the [wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_scam) on online scams. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876/20 "2016-06-22T14:57:36Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > No, _absolutely_ wrong. Every-single-girl I’ve ever talked to about this issue has no idea what Im talking about or even heard of it before. It may happen occasionally to women on dating sites but with nowhere near the frequency as on the guys side. Its practically an industry there. It happened to a close friend of mine twice in row. She connected with a guy on POF, they spent a month or so exchanging increasingly personal messages and then…BAM… he hit her up for a large sum of money. She cut him off immediately and reported her to the site. Then she met another guy on the site and the same thing happened. She is an older woman in her late fifties. She’s overweight and , objectively, not very attractive. But IRL - there’s something about her and she’s always had lots of boyfriends. So she’s not desperate but apparently these scammers peg her as an easy mark. She’s given up on on-line dating because of this. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purpose-of-dating-site-phishing/757876.md?page=2)