Here’s a new wrinkle in e-mail scams. It plays on your curiosity to find out who has a secret crush on you. If you click on the care2.com link, you will be taken to a personal message that is shown after this e-mail:

917595 sent you an eCard from Care2! Click on the following link to view your eCard, or paste it into your browser:

http://www.care2.com/send/pickup/1311-62411-134424-2729

This Care2 eCard was sent November 8, 2009 and will be available for 14 days.

Warm wishes,
www.Care2.com
Where spreading love & laughter helps save the world.
Every time you send a FREE Care2 eCard you save a square foot of rain forest. Learn More.

Here is the e-card message you will receive. Note that it informs you that you “may have to use a CC (Credit Card) or a debit card for verification. THIS WILL END UP BEING A SURPRISE CHARGE ON YOUR ACCOUNT. DO NOT SUPPLY ANY FINANCIAL INFO TO THIS TYPE OF SCAMMER. Here’s what the card will say:

The next e-Card message will display this personal message:

n4y7h4r

Hi Barry… This is difficult for me to do because I’m shy..but I have a crush on you. I’ve never been able to tell you for reasons which you would quickly identify as obvious if you knew who this was. With that said I want you to guess who I am and approach me yourself.

To help you out with your guessing I made a few pictures and videos with Barry written on my body. They’re kind of risque photos so I had to make a profile at www.megafriendly.com (copy & paste or type www.megafriendly.com into your web browser). My username in the members area is BarryandME09. It’s a free website but you might need a CC or Debit to verify your age because I had to. Sigh.

But anyway sign up at www.megafriendly.com and once you are inside search for me. I want you to guess who I am and then approach me yourself. I’m shy and this is the bravest thing I’ve probably ever done but you need to do the rest.

Kisses
Secret Admirer

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If you now enter the www.megafriendly.com URL into your browser and click search, it will quickly make the scam clear: This is a web cam girl’s site. And their goal is to get your financial info so they can charge you later!!

The thing to remember here is NEVER to provide any further actions. DO NOT fill out the financial info even though it says “$0 charge for age verification”.

Many adult-dating websites use clever but unscrupulous marketing techniques. They begin by offering newcomers “basic free memberships” with limited capabilities unless you upgrade’ to a higher level of membership that generally costs between $24.95 and $59.95 per month (less if you purchase multiple months). However, this free, basic membership comes with a catch. Unless you purchase the upgrade, you will usually be unable to communicate with people who show interest in you, send you a flirt’ or an e-mail message.

Enter the upgrade shills

Here’s where it really gets unscrupulous. Shortly after accepting that free, basic membership, you may get several hits’ from members expressing an interest in communicating with you. Unfortunately, you will be unable to reply to their messages until you ante-up an upgrade fee. Once you do, most or all of the people who have shown interest in you will vanish into the sunset never to be heard from again. No matter. The management of the website has your money, so they don’t care.

The upgrade shills may be anywhere hackneyed phrase, but it really applies to many adult dating websites. I wholeheartedly suggest that anyone considering enrolling in an adult site first go online and check for complaints. It is easily done by entering the name of the site plus complaints into your web browser. This will bring you to several sites that hold page after page of complaints about precisely this situation.

If the site you are considering is listed with numerous complaints, keep another hackneyed phrase in mind, that being “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire!” and steer clear. Upgrading will not only fail to bring you a desired connection, it will lighten your credit or debit card balance considerably.

Even on essentially honest sites, beware of scammers

Let’s face it folks, people who you would rate 10 out of 10 because they look like they just stepped out of a magazine centerfold can connect with just about anyone they wish to when walking down the street, in the supermarket or anywhere else. They certainly do not need an online dating website to make it happen. So here’s hackneyed phrases numbers 3 and 4: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is” and “Caveat Emptor-Latin for Let the Buyer Beware’ “. Those beautiful people whose photos look like they are professionally-taken modeling shots are as phony as the day is long, probably have no similarity to the owner of the profile and are sometimes leads for illegitimate activities. The best advice is to scroll on past.

There are many legitimate sites

Not every adult website is out to scam you. But more are than aren’t. Sites whose pages are loaded with X-rated videos and provocative webcam shows that you can purchase are there primarily to sell this kind of material. If that’s what you seek, fine. Otherwise, be forewarned! And keep in mind that most dating/matching websites are classed as adult’ for a good reason. They are absolutely not for people under 18 years of age (21 in a few states).

During my investigations for this article, I discovered several legitimate sites. They, too, will charge you to upgrade, but at least you won’t be besieged by phony upgrade shills and exposed to never-ending X-rated video promotions. That doesn’t mean you can drop your guard completely. The scammers and fakers are still present although the legitimate sites quickly delete their profiles when they are suspected or discovered. Profiles of members labeled “pending review” are generally under suspicion by site management.

A few general tips:

Your early-on, interested respondents may not even be in this country, let alone near to your location. Using an IP trace program on the one or two that actually corresponded via their private e-mail addresses, I was able to trace them from a Yahoo e-mail site in Sunnyvale, California to Reston, Virginia, a well-known jumping off’ point for Internet communication with people offshore and particularly in Nigeria and Ghana. Why, I asked myself, would a person supposedly in Orange County, California be communicated with via Reston, Virginia, where the trace ended? Using some other more advanced trace programs with a few Internet tricks, I was able to trace one to Calcutta, India and another to Nigeria. Busted!

Simply stated, these early respondents’ were no more interested in me than my ex-wife. Their sole purpose was to encourage me to upgrade’ to a paid membership in the system and nothing more! They are “Upgrade Shills” who operate much like the “slot shills” in some casinos that are there strictly to encourage you to ante up your hard-earned money. Unethical? Certainly. Illegal? Perhaps, or at least it should be because this is out-and-out fraud no matter how you look at it.

Always look before you leap

This may be no two sites are exactly alike and there seems little doubt that some of them have the same ownership albeit under the surface. Here are a few good things to keep in mind if you are seriously considering this type of Internet social interaction:

(1)-Avoid sites filled with X-rated videos or provocative webcam offerings

(2)-Avoid sites that give you a FREE basic membership, hit you with a few immediate responses and won’t let you reply until you upgrade. The odds are the responses are from “upgrade shills.”

(3)-There is nothing wrong with a site encouraging you to upgrade in order to obtain the use of additional features. After all, they are in business to make money and have real expenses too. However, if they use phony come-ons from shills, avoid them like the plague. A legit site will give you a limited time period for FREE, or offer you a very-low cost trial period, both designed to give you a reasonable opportunity to determine if the site is for you.

(4)-Always check the Internet for complaints about any site you are considering. If you find a series of complaints, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Look elsewhere.

On the bottom line, if you are considering the use of an adult website for dating or meeting new friends, be aware of scams. And keep in mind that even on the mainly legit sites, scammers can slip through. So be careful and think before you spend your hard-earned money.

Websites for social interaction are becoming more and more popular. However, some use questionable marketing techniques that you should be aware of.

Many adult-dating websites use clever but unscrupulous marketing techniques. They begin by offering newcomers “basic free memberships” with limited capabilities unless you upgrade’ to a higher level of membership that generally costs between $24.95 and $59.95 per month (less if you purchase multiple months). However, this free, basic membership comes with a catch. Unless you purchase the upgrade, you will usually be unable to communicate with people who show interest in you, send you a flirt’ or an e-mail message.