Chat with me
One of the first things a scammer will do almost immediately is to try and get you
away from the site to chat with them on instant messenger. Scammers try to work very
fast in most cases and IM is much faster than conversing through emails and web site
messages. Other reasons they do this are because it's part of their plan to alienate
you from everyone else and they feel they are not being "monitored" by the site you
met them on.
Message from an actual scammer
Thanks for your reply i would actually love us to chat through our email add so we can get
to knopw each other better caseu i really wanna know nif u are the kinda woman i would
love to spend the rest of my life with...
Message from an actual scammer
so make sure you add me to this id so that we can chat more better online...i will like to
meet you in person by next month for xmas...this is my id georgebenson7797@yahoo.com i
will be waiting for you online
Scammers have many things in common when chatting on instant messaging. One of the first
and definitely the most annoying is they use the "buzz" or "ding" way too much. Another
one is that sometimes they seem to take forever between responses. This is usually
because they are chatting with many people (possible victims) at one time. Another very
annoying thing they like to do is use backgrounds, especially the falling hearts.
This is a partial list of things to pay attention to when chatting with someone you just
met: Do they use terms that usually only kids use like "coz" or "cuz" (because), "ur"
(you're or you are), "u" (you) "wud" (would), "gud" (good), "dat" (that), "wit" (with),
"hit me up", etc.? Do they call you baby, sweety, hun, etc. constantly? Do they reply
with just "ok" frequently? Do they avoid certain questions you ask or are their answers
vague? Do they seem to overuse emoticons, smileys, etc.?
Try not to get so wrapped up in a picture of someone that you ignore inconsistencies, flags and warning signs