Scammers are everywhere..............Beware!

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w30bob

Hi Gang,

Cautionary tale for y'all. So last week a very pretty gal in her 40's pops up in my inbox and in the heart (Liked You) thing. Very pretty gal. She says she's going to have to get an ostomy soon and doesn't think she can do it without help. She's in Florida, and asks me what I'm looking for............and suggested we converse off forum in an internet chat room. I told her what my expectations were regarding meeting someone on here for a relationship, but didn't see any reason to take the conversation off of here, as that's a pretty typical Red Flag!Lo and behold....the next day she's gone without a trace, as are all our messages.

Moral of the story is be careful. Scammers are trying to get email addresses, which they'd get if you register for a bogus chat room. They sell the addresses to advertisers. I'm guessing Admin on here figured it out and deleted everything, but had I not known about the bogus chat rooms I would have been temped to help her. I still find it a bit hard to believe someone would come on here and try to scam folks like us.............as if we don't have enough troubles without them. But scammers know no bounds. Be careful out there and if something seems too good to be true.........or just not right in some way........you're probably being scammed.

regards,

bob

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Why Join MeetAnOstoMate?

First off, this is a pretty cool site with 33,093 members. Get inside and you will see.

We're not all about ostomy. Everything is being discussed in the forums.

It's a very special community, embracing all ages and backgrounds. People are honest and truly care.

Privacy is very important - the website has many features that are only visible to members.

Create an account and you will be amazed.

Puppyluv56

Thanks for the info Bob. There was a guy that popped up on my messages a year or so ago. Don't remember his name now but he gave me this bogus story about living in Florida but was overseas and could not get home. He was wanting money to get him Back and he could get to his own money. Yeah right. I have never been in another country that I did not have full access to my money. He was a smooth talker and I am sure someone would have fallen for that story, not this chic. The scammers are out there. It is big money! They take from the poor, struggling people, or just those with big hearts. There is always a hole in the story! Look for it!

Pup

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Xerxes

Scammers are very common on this site. I have encountered three in the last year. So, as Bob says, BEWARE!.

Xerxes

Bill

There was  a spate of scammers on here a few years back . However, there were also some savvy ostomates who immediately warned the rest of the population as well as reporting them immediately to admin - who took their correpondence off site.

I would have been taken in by one of them, except (as Bob indicated), 'something' did not seem quite right, even though I could not quite put my finger on what it was. A day or so later another ostomate posted that they had the same correspndence and publicly called out that poster.  Now, normally, I would respond to people who seem abusive online, as I would view them as 'bullies'. However, in these cases, the harsh responses were attempts to rid the site of  'bully/scammers'  who were trying to harm people whom they obviously percieved as 'vulnerable' (Which, in certain ways we are). Fortunately, not all of us are also 'gullible', so looking out for each other (as we normally do) has its advantages!

Best wishes

Bill

ron in mich

Hi all its an everyday thing on my phone with the friend requests on FB, a young girl in a suggestivepose asking to chat.

 
Staying Hydrated with an Ostomy with LeeAnne Hayden | Hollister
Past Member

Live Learn! first sign on someone mentioning £££ and if pic is of a knock out woman or hunky man chances are there fake......no offence intended to all the beautiful ladies on site....I never trust anyone online and lucky I'm not on the site for dating

Earth Angel

So scary!!! I'm new to this site and I probably wouldn't have thought twice! Thank you so much for bringing this to light!! It's good to know we have good people who care here!

w30bob


Hi Panther,

nbsp; What you say USED TO BE true. nbsp; I'm on the dating site Zoosk, and scammers are now using any pics they can find. nbsp; Ranging from "not bad looking" to "oh my". nbsp; So they no longer only use the pretty people pics. nbsp; Seems they're adapting. nbsp; Those SOBs. nbsp

later,

bob

Bmokind

I had this happen to me as well. A guy who said he was in FL. We chatted on WhatsApp some and then he asked me to send a gift card to his daughter cause he was leaving the country for a job? He also said he was scheduled to get an iliostomy I reported him to admin and he seems to be gone. Maybe came back as that woman! ;If anyone seems weird report to admin. I won't be chatting up anyone off the site anymore, that's for sure!! Thanks for posting this! I just came back to do it. It's been about 3 weeks now.

freedancer

Yes, they are everywhere. I had an account onSenior Christians website for a while. I met a really nice fella, at least I thought. We started corresponding and he kept trying to get me into another chat room. I did my research and know that one of the first red flags is that they try to separate you into another chat room. He sent photo's of himself (nice ones not naughty) and talked about his home he had in the UK. I started to pick up on unusual English language annomalies. He would say things in the wrong order and when most people are interested in what the other person says, he never commented much on my side of the conversation. He called one day and the voice was definantly non American. He said he attended a spacific church in Chicago so I researched the church and wrote to the Pastor. I told him who I was and why I was contacting him. He wrote back quickly and stated he had never met this person and no one with the name of the person was on the church directory. He said he was a small church so knew all of the regulars and rememberd most of the visitors. I have a program that tells you if the person's photo is on other websites or dating sites as well. The Pastor told me I was lucky that I found out when I did. I immediately blocked my phone number, reported him to the site manager and pulled my profile. I also blocked him on my email and computer. It is so hard these days to really know if a person is being truthfull. You have to do your research. If they try to get you off the computer and into a private room, tell you they have feelings for you shortly after you meet, promise to "someday go on a vacation" or "come for a visit" shortly after meeting or ask for money, block them and run for the hills!I'm sorry you had to go through this but you can use this experiance to help you to be cautious next time. The one thing I notice most of all is the command of the English language. There are always small give aways when they write or speak. It just seems to stand out. One of the things I did was to keep the conversations and read them closely for odd speech patterns. I also watched the person's story and if it keeps changing when you ask them things in different ways, you can find out alot about them. There are lagetimate folks that use the dating sites. My father found his second wife on a dating site. You just have to have a way of checking out the person. Hope you find your special gal. Good luck now, take care. Pamela Conley

ron in mich

Hi all i recently was locked out of facebook due to hackers, and then got an email from facebook to send a copy of my drivers license to confirm it was my FB site, then i knew i was hacked and uninstalled FB from my phone and desktop PC.

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