Finding Love after 50 Facebook group
On Life and Love after 50 eNewsletter - November 24, 2017 The Finding Love After 50 Facebook group And info about romance scams As most of you know, we have a Finding Love After 50 group on Facebook. There are 476 members. It’s a “closed” group, which means people must request to join the group if they want to participate. To protect the members, I review each request to ensure we don’t allow scammers or people with negative intentions from joining. It amazes me the number of people who ask to join whose FB pages are too suspicious or too commercial. Some people try to join who have absolutely nothing about themselves on their sites. Others have pictures posted having nothing to do with finding love. They will not be allowed to join. I created the group a couple of years ago because many Champs wanted a place where they could post pictures and messages and exchange comments with others. I do not participate on the page as much as I should. Been pretty busy lately. Will make more of an effort. But when I do check it, I am often pleasantly surprised with the posts. There is valuable information there. For example, I checked Tuesday morning and saw a post that Elizabeth Board entered on October 19. It was about a new Nigerian scam and how a big scammer group was busted and jailed. I know most of our Champs are savvy enough not to get taken by a romance scam. But, we have newcomers that sign up for the newsletter and some of them are naïve. Information that Elizabeth posted might be very helpful to them. I am providing a link to it at the end of today’s newsletter. Also, once again, the statement “Don’t fall in love or send money to someone you’ve never met,” applies here. As the post that Elizabeth shared points out, it still is happening and it’s sad. Please be careful you aren’t promoting your businesses too much; a few have left the group lately saying some people are promoting too often. To join the “Finding Love After 50” Facebook closed group, Google the site and request to join. Or, follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/48063349638/ I will review your application. And, I intend to get a bit more involved with our group as well. Email me with questions. -----------------------------
Romance Scams lead to nowhere
Romance Scams can lead to a dark hole
Example of a romance scam--in Ohio, of all places (no) And speaking of senior romance scams, a while back, one of our Champs, Steve, sent me a story about a friend of his who got caught up in a senior romance scam. I want to share that with you today. The more we all learn about this, the lesser the chance we will get taken, and perhaps we can stop a friend from being taken. Steve said, “I have a story to tell you that once again verifies the darker side of dating websites, and quite frankly the darker side of humanity. About a month ago, I was speaking with my friend and former co-worker John and he was telling me that he was contacted on the website Our Time by a woman in Ohiowho was interested in meeting him. “She told him that she would be willing to fly into the airport closest to him (Liberty, Newark, NJ) if he could pick her up. She sent him a picture and said that she had recently come to the US from Eastern Europe but was a citizen and spoke English. “John is 67, divorced, lives alone, and has two grown children. John is a toxicologist (retired), I am a chemist (chemical sales--still working), and we worked together back in the 90s. Anyway, I wished him luck, and told him that the next time he and I spoke I would look forward to him telling me about his new lady. I sincerely hoped this would work for him. “Last night I gave John a call (month had passed) and he proceeded to tell me that over the last month he was corresponding with the OH woman. “Initially, the correspondence was cordial though he could never pin her down to when she wanted to make the trip to NJ. He then offered instead to come to OH, and her response was she wanted to come to NJ and insisted he had to send her money! “Suspecting that this was a setup (many of these scams appear to be originating from Eastern Europe) he refused and cut off contact. “End of story? Nope! The next thing he realizes is that his Our Time account had been compromised. She had gone into his account and changed his profile to male seeking male, at which point, of course, he started getting contacts from men. Other items in his profile had been changed as well. He made a phone call to the website to explain the situation and according to John, they didn't appear to be concerned! He then deleted his account. “Fortunately for him he wasn't suckered into sending money which of course would have no end and he never would have met the "lady from OH." “I remember the recent story of the lady who sent over $100K to someone in Nigeria. I can't help but feel bad for her. One of the unfortunate lessons here is to be ‘on guard’ with any of these sites. “However, certain parts of the world are notorious for endless money scams. Nigeria especially is ALWAYS a red flag (they have a million dethroned princes that have $10 million they want to hide in our bank accounts). “Eastern Europe is another red flag. Scammers from Eastern Europe particularly bother me because my own grandparents (dad's side) came to the US from Eastern Europe to seek a better life--not to scam people! Thank heavens they decided to leave Eastern Europe when they did. “The chemical industry even gets contacted by Nigerians looking to buy shiploads of chemicals (pesticides we manufacture). All are scams in an effort to steal. Years ago, offers to ‘purchase’ came in letters (the stamps were beautiful!). Today they come in emails, and you know immediately what they are up to (I play around with them in an effort to torture them back). Eventually they ‘get smart’ and go away. “If these scammers put their time and talent to real work and a real life, imagine what they could accomplish. That we can't change, but ‘BEWARE AND BE SMART’ is the moral of the story here.” Thanks to Steve for the heads up. For more questions about our Facebook page, send me an email. The link to the CNBC Nigeran romance scam story: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/10/18/the-new-nigerian-scam.html
