With on-line dating having come into the light and grown so prominent over the past few years I feel it is important to bring to light some of the scams that have come along with it.
I admit it... I have nothing to be ashamed of. My name is Mitch and I am an occasional on-line dater. With my divorce is behind me the only restraints to my social life are my calendar and my girth. Aside from that I am free to do as I please, within the bonds of legality and for the most part good taste. With that out of the way I would like to share with you an experience from a little while back... probably eighteen months ago, making it winter of 2006. Believe you me, if your feet are wet in on-line dating you will want to read on.
I was contacted by a pretty young lady and we started chatting back and forth. She was from Toronto (at the time I was still living in Montreal) and she had just finished school. For whatever reason she was in West Africa for a beauty pageant, and would be coming back to Canada within the week, with a stop-over in Montreal. We chatted for a few days and we were excited to be able to meet while she was in my hometown.
Wouldn’t you know it, before she could catch her flight home, there were problems with the hotel bill, and as they were holding her passport she could not come home without settling it up. She asked if I would be able to help, and had at hand the wire transfer information for the hotel.
Until my now ex-wife made it her mantra, I am ugly, not stupid. I could smell a rat, and having just gone through the divorce I was more than a little familiar with the sensation of a woman trying to get money from me without offering anything in return. I refused to help, and broke off contact with her, and gave no more thought to it.
A few weeks later I got a phone call from Toronto, from a man with a heavy African accent, claiming to be the woman’s cousin. Remember folks, I had never spoken to the woman, so someone actually went to the trouble of finding my cell phone number (not the hardest thing to do, as at the time it was easy to find, and there are precious few Mitch Garvis’ in the world). He told me that she was in the hospital and needed money to pay the doctor... or some story like that. I told him that if he gave me the name of the hospital and her room number I would have a friend bring the money to her (of course I would not, but I wanted to see what he would say). He told me that it was unnecessary, and that I could just wire the money to her. I do not remember the precise details, but the long and the short of it is I hung up and never answered if I saw that number calling me.
Jump forward to this afternoon; I was contacted by a very attractive woman from Etobicoke on a dating site. She was young, attractive, just finished school... and after a few minutes chatting proudly told me that she was in West Africa for a beauty pageant.
Run for the hills, Mitch... We’ve uncovered yet another on-line scam that takes advantage of your heartstrings!