How to identify potential internet love scams

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​I noticed internet love scams in Singapore has been increasing in the recent years but what is surprising to me is the age of the women who got scammed are mostly middle-aged women, not young girls.  Refer to some of these articles:-

www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/online-romance-scam-woman-loses-80000-manipulated-into-becoming-money-mule

sg.news.yahoo.com/woman-who-fell-prey-to-2-love-scams-jailed-for-helping-scammers-launder-proceeds-051308767.html

www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/6-years-jail-for-woman-who-misappropriated-more-than-13m-from-employers

I only linked a few articles but i'm pretty sure i have read more.

Anyway, what spurs me to write this is that i actually came across several suspicious online profiles of men on Facebook and Instagram trying to message me all the time, that could be potential love scams and they have such similar traits that are so easy to identify and suss out, it just appalled me why some women couldn't see through it.

I'm going to share some screenshots of the suspicious profiles i chanced upon and tell you why i find them very dubious.

Some suspicious traits that i noticed in these profiles are:-

1. They have little to no friends/family on their social media accounts. 
2. They always post attractive photos of themselves.  (Tall, hunky and muscular)

3. Their relationship status is 'Single'.  (I know this sounds pretty normal, but i find it unconvincing when they look like models or celebrity!  Do you think they need to randomly chat girls up on IG or FB if they really look like that?)

4. Their profile always state they are staying in some 'Ang moh' country but they are actually from another country or even Singapore (and some don't even look local!)  And they usually have no other information of themselves except their relationship status and their 'ATAS' location.
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5. Their feed is filled with photos of food, photos of other countries (mostly ang moh), or their own selfies.  But you will never find any photos of them with friends or family.  

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The screenshot below are from my Instagram Direct Messages.  Every other day i will receive messages from single males, trying to hit me up or start a conversation with me.  I always ignore them. 

From this screenshot, you can tell that they look rather attractive (not fat or ugly at least), definitely don't look local to me, some of them look like they are from China or ABCs.  And they always have very little followers. 

A closer look into their Instagram feed.....  I used emoji to cover their faces because i don't want to explicitly expose anybody even though i'm pretty sure they are fake and the person behind these accounts dont even look anything like that irl.  So as mentioned in my first passage, you can find that these accounts have consistent traits...  single attractive males, always alone, enjoying life and sometimes you may even find a couple of luxury items post in their account just to portray themselves to be pretty well-off, to attract females i guess. 
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Below is another screenshot from facebook where this guy dropped me a message.  You can see that he looks quite attractive from his photo even though i censored part of his face and he has a good build too. 

His profile has nothing to show except alot of handsome selfies and what is more dubious is look at how he states that he is living in the UK but he is from Singapore.  Does he even look like Singaporean to you? Seriously, he looks Korean to me.  

These are some of the dubious social media accounts i have came across which to me, can be a potential internet love scam!  I am NOT downright accusing they are scammers, but someone who created such accounts using what seems like fake profile photos and posting doubtful information of themselves, surely they dont have any good motive?

And if these men really look so attractive like their profile pictures, im pretty sure they dont have to resort to chatting girls up on facebook or instagram because girls would be throwing themselves to them in real life.

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I actually responded to one of them and try to 'expose' them

Above are screenshots of conversations with one of them.  (looks fit and muscular too)

So out of extreme boredom i decided to respond to one of many such messages one day, and i mentioned how there's alot of internet love scams going on in Singapore and im very careful.  The guy only managed to carry on the convo for awhile and stopped messaging because i think he knows ​我不好骗. 

So by now you would have noticed from all the screenshots i posted, these males looks pretty attractive in photos, are there really so many single and attractive men out there (i hardly see such men on the streets btw) who are looking for girlfriends online?  If all these aren't suspicious enough for you or anyone to be cautious, then i really don't know what will.   But just be more careful or you can watch the TVB Drama i recommended below. 

Previously i watched this TVB Drama called the On-Lie Game, i think it did a good job showing how women can get scammed of all their money online without having to meet someone in person, where everything is purely based on a fake profile picture and constant messagings of sweet-nothings, empty promises and the other party showing the women alot of attention.  It's an eye-opener to see how there's actually a big syndicate behind to run such online scam operation.  They would hire people under the disguise of a legitimate business, just to sit behind a computer whole day and prey on their potential victims and slowly con them into giving them all their hard-earned money.  Once they get the money, they will become uncontactable! 

I really hope women out there, especially those around 40-50yrs of age will not be so gullible and believe they can find 'true love' over the internet just because someone came along and show them alot of attention, they are highly likely paid to do it.  
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​#lovescamsingapore #lovescams #internetlovescams #cybercrime #onliegame