Philippineangels.com makes every effort to eliminate the dating site rogues; we do however realize that it is impossible to block all unscrupulous rascals and so we advise all members to use caution and vigilance when you first correspond with someone new. There is just one golden rule to follow;

DO NOT SEND MONEY TO SOMEONE YOU HAVE NOT MET IN PERSON by Western Union or any other money transfer operator.

You may think that this is a statement that only the foolhardy would need to know, however the fact of the matter is, an estimated £3 billion UK pounds (US$6billion) a year is spent by men and women to people they do not know and in many cases, never hear of again once the money has been received. Much of this money is sent to provide additional funds for internet use and or costs for everyday living. If you want to show your generosity to assist your lady with her internet / living costs, we can help send for you enough pesos to help you. Please remember that internet charges are around 25 -35 peso per hour including webcam hire, so 1000 peso will last you a reasonable time online. (Up to 40 hours or over 1 hour per day for 1 month). The girls, who are fluent English speakers, will have been educated privately and consequently are likely to come from a financially secure family. This is something to bear in mind once you have begun a conversation with a lady.

Philippineangels.com is for serious people who are committed to a long term serious relationship. If you are wondering why we go to such lengths to protect, ALL members, just remember the first time you started dating. We are sure it took you many weeks to build confidence and trust in that person. In the words of Mr. Philip Collins, “you can’t hurry love”. Do not try to find the love of your life in a matter of hours or “clicks” as some websites would have you believe is possible. The old adage, “if something sounds too good to be true – the chances are, it is”.

When you make contact with a member please DO NOT give your personal ID or private email address. We recommend you to do this for your own safety and security. It is worthwhile being patient and writing a letter to a lady and posting to her home address. Likewise when she returns your letter to your home address and you are both then sure that you are who you claim to be. After this of course, you can exchange more personal information and also chat on IMS facilities available through other networks. Do be aware that the postal service in the Philippines, although efficient in its delivery, (it would not win any international prizes for the speed at which it arrived). A letter can take 2 - 3 weeks, a package of 5kg, around 4 -5 weeks, depending upon the locality in which your lady lives. Also to bear in mind, that you should keep all letters with stamps crossed for proof of receipt for use when applying for a visa.

The cost of use in most internet cafes is around 25 – 35 peso per hour to be online.  So if your lady is not a high earner, she may not be able to visit the café everyday to chat or email. Please DO NOT send money to buy a webcam, just remember that most internet cafes have webcams, so ask the lady to go to another café if necessary. If the lady is sincere and in the vast majority of cases they are, she will not be too worried about only occasionally being online to you. Provided that you are not insecure to this, this will work fine to build up your confidence and trust. Just please do not let your heart rule your brain. As a responsible dating website, we take security very seriously and do everything possible to prevent you from being scammed or be a victim of such fate. The ladies in all cases are 99% honest, reliable and trustworthy. The 1% is the one per cent we do not want you to come in contact with. However, should you fall victim of such an attempted scam, we hope we have given you sufficient advice to keep you safe, so that you simply have to report to us your suspicions and we will do the rest for you. We want you to be aware of what MIGHT happen to you, not to hold your hand or be your baby sitter.

As for sending money to someone you have not met, or have only just met. Consider this, would you hand over a fist full of dollars to a stranger you have just had a conversation with, for a 1 hour on a train journey? OR, would you part with your money to someone you had spoken to on the same train journey for a few days, but not actually seen?

We cannot stress enough that you should in all circumstances, act responsibly. Meeting online is much different to being in a live situation; you cannot use all of your senses, like smell and touch, so have to build up a mental picture of the person you are with.  It is impossible to see the other person’s body language and reactions to your conversations. Try to speak as frequently as possible by telephone, try to chat online using a webcam and if possible use the voice messaging service, so that you see and talk at the same time.  Ask to see the ladies friends and family online, the more of a rapport you build up the better chance you have of success. Of course even after many emails and phone calls, you must always remember that the acid test of knowing if you really click with someone; is meeting them in reality!

Philippineangels.com is not a “mail order bride service”. We believe that there is no such thing; she may be everything you dreamed of, however she will not come to you cloaked in bubble wrap via UPS or DHL. You really do have to meet the lady in her home country. This is even before you can even apply for a visa to take her to your own country to marry or live with you. Whatever the claims that are made by other websites, if you are serious about meeting a foreign lady to be your wife, you have to abide by the immigration rules of your own country. Another point also to bear in mind is that you have to have known this person for more than two years. Getting a visa can be a grueling and challenging experience, however help is at hand. Philippineangels.com has a specialist team of trained administrators who can process the applications for you. We strongly advise you do so as getting an appeal from a failed application can be a costly and lengthy procedure. Please see our visa and passport application pages on “Immigration and help with visa applications”.

Like so many under developed countries it is easy for guys to get sucked into an online scam, not always for the obvious huge scams, like “please send me money to come and marry you”. Some scammers make a tidy living from members, asking for money to buy a webcam, so that you can see them. By sending a few dollars from the odd member every day, scammers can make a nice littler earner. Again we don’t want to hold your hand, but common sense will tell you if they are chatting to several others at the same time. Still not sure? Ask them to turn the cam on screen to show you their innocence.

Talk on the phone

This is an excellent way to get to know someone better. A call can reveal much about an individual's personality and the way they communicate. Please be careful not to give too many of your personal details like your phone number to somebody you do not know that well. Take your time you must feel comfortable and trust has to be built into your relationship over time before you begin giving out your personal information. As for trust, a well known scammer technique to suck you in, is that they ask for some money and when the other person queries this, the reply is; “why? don’t you trust me? I will come and live with you and make you happy..etc,etc.” Of course if someone you have not met asks you trust them, obviously (hopefully) the answer should be most definitely be NO. Do not let your heart or genitals to rule your brain!

Scammers often prefer to use yahoo as the most popular email service. At present very few scammers use Hotmail or Gmail, although they are both not immune from being used as scamming email addresses. The email address will often contain a username similar to their registered dating site username. The next most obvious sign of a dating site scammer will be his or her username. Generally, their username will consist of love related or relationship related terms.

The personality description used by the dating site scammer is probably the biggest giveaway and sometimes the most humorous. Most commonly, the dating site scammer will use the following phrases or word combinations in their personality description:

• They either live in a common scamming country or region (Nigeria, Senegal, and Russia) or they will state they were originally born in the USA, London, Australia etc and are currently living in Nigeria, Senegal, and Russia etc.
• They will start a sentence with "Am" eg. "Am Jennifer Smith by name…"
• States they are god fearing, or have the fear of god in them.
• The dating site scammer will describe themselves as "real, honest, sincere, loving, caring (often spelt like that), genuine".
• They will often tell you about their tragic life story or history. Often this will include the death of both parents at an early age, they are recently widowed, they have a sick child or a child has died.
• In combination with their life story, the dating site scammer may also claim to do saint-like activities such as work with disabled people and students, work for a charity such as UNICEF, or even work for the United Nations.
• Alternatively, some dating site scammers (usually from Russia) are very sexual in nature and desire to be loved and cared for by you and to please your every desire, despite only having read your profile for 5 minutes.

At Philippineangels.com we scrutinize all photographs before being published on the site, to eliminate the - almost too professional pictures of professional models. Scammers have been known to use photos that are very clear and appear to be a "posed" by a professional model and use these on their IMS id, but somehow never allow you to see any more pictures. Alternatively, many male scammers from African countries will send a passport-like photo of themselves. It will be very grainy and somewhat aged. Some photos may also appear to be everyday snaps, but are very tiny - almost thumbnail in appearance. We reject such pictures as they are not guaranteed to be authenticated by the member.

The message sent to you by a dating site scammer is almost always your first contact with them. In most cases, the message is likely to be very self contained and not just a simple "Hi, want to chat?" It will include many of the keywords and phrases used in their personality description (see above) and will often request you contact them directly via their email address or to add them directly to MSN or your computer's Instant Messenger. A good example of a typical message would be similar to the following:
“Hello, am Jennifer Smith by name, am 25 years old,from Philippines  but currently living in Lagos,Nigeria I got my first Degree from Greemwich university, London, and am currently working for Unicef. am real, loving, faithful careing lady who is god fearing and would like to talk to you more. Please contact me on emailaddress@email or add my name to your MSN. Love Jennifer xxoo”.

So, what do I do if I think I have found a scammer?

If you believe the person contacting you contact fits the descriptions of a scammer or you suspect some unscrupulous activity of a member please follow the following procedure:

• Report the scammer to us at alarm@philippineangels.com with all your correspondence and we will use this information to investigate the origin of the scammer.
• If the scammer has listed their email address in their message to you, contact the scammer's email provider. In many cases this will be a free email service such as Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail. If possible, send them a copy of the message sent to you by the scammer, including the scammers email address.
• Ignore them. After completing the above steps, delete their message to you immediately. You should not continue corresponding with them and under no circumstances give them any personal information such as your email address or phone number.

For more information about scammers and the games they play, check out the following links:
http://www.stop-scammers.com/
http://www.datingnmore.com/fraud/scam_database.htm
http://www.safe-dating.com/category/nigerian-scammers-female

Oh and just in case you have forgotten the golden rule of online dating....

DO NOT SEND MONEY TO SOMEONE YOU HAVE NOT MET IN PERSON by Western Union or any other money transfer operator.

Good luck and enjoy your time with Philippineangels.com; we know that for the successful, there is a wonderful life ahead of you.