Online Dating with Matchmaking Momma

Well it appears that free online dating websites are in the news again. I have also heard from a customer who had used a free dating site in the past and I want to share her story with my readers. I will call her Gail M to protect her identity. She had signed up with a popular free dating sites over 3 months ago. She is a very attractive woman in her early 30’s. As soon as she posted her ad she got a ton of responses. Several of the men were married, 3 of them tried to pass themselves off as American business man but one look at their email said something different. The rest of the men were horrible. This site had a forum where she asked other members to critique her profile. They were brutal!! Women accused her of touching up her photo, several men said crude things and that she was their next playmate in the playpen. She felt like she was back in grade school. It did not take her long to realize she had chosen the wrong dating site to meet people.

This article was released on August 16, 2008 from the Toronto Sun: Here is an excerpt:

When the news of Stanley Tippett’s arrest surfaced just over a week ago, an Oshawa woman couldn’t help but shudder.
She realized the man accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old Peterborough girl was the same smooth-talking guy she met nearly a year ago through an online dating service.

Now the 36-year-old, who is too afraid to have her name published, says she is glad she listened to her instincts when Tippett urged her to get together for a face-to-face meeting. “Thank God I didn’t meet with him,” the woman said yesterday. Tippett, 32, has a lengthy history of stalking and harassing young women.

The woman claims she met Tippett last October through the popular website plentyoffish.com, a free online dating service that boasts more than 250,000 users logging on each day from around the world.
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Related Stories

• Sexual assault charge linked to online dating
• Officials expect to find more alleged victims in sexual assault case

Another story about Tom Currie

Currier, 34, of 6 Marsh Lane, is currently being held without bail at the Rockingham County House of Corrections and has been charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault.

The charge alleges that Currier drugged a female dinner guest and then sexually assaulted her at his home Aug. 3.

At his Wednesday hearing held in Hampton District Court, Currier waived probable cause through his attorney, Olivier Sakellarios.

Sakellarios argued the issue of bail during the hearing, stating his client should have the right to post some type of cash bail and not be held without even the possibility of release.

Deputy County Attorney Tom Reid petitioned the court to maintain Currier’s bail status during the hearing and told the court the alleged sex assault may not necessarily be an isolated incident.

Reid said that according to several women who have come forward since his arrest, Currier has displayed a course of conduct over the past several months that leads Reid to believe Currier is a danger to the community.

Currier is alleged to have met the women through various online dating services, such as Match.com and PlentyofFish.com, and allegedly made attempts to get women to meet him at his residence.

Women and men need to date safe. There is nothing wrong with meeting people at coffee shops several times until you feel comfortable with them. Bringing them to your home is something I would not personally do for over.

Another story from New Zealand, but this happens throughout the U.S.A. and Canada on a regular basis. This excerpt is from the New Zealand Herald:

June Dunleavy, 47, and Ralph Thomason, 45, both spent thousands trying to fly potential lovers they met through online dating services to Brisbane.

Ms Dunleavy, who owns a management training business, said she came from an educated background but was duped during an emotionally vulnerable time.

She said she spent thousands of dollars trying to fly the man to Brisbane.

“I waited for one and half hours at the airport. I contacted airport police who confirmed that he didn’t board the plane. That’s when I knew it was a scam,” Ms Dunleavy, who is going through a divorce, told reporters today.

“It will take me a good year to recover my losses. It was in the tens of thousands.

“He had played on my emotions. They are very clever. He was saying all the right things.”

Mr Thomason said he too was emotionally vulnerable when he was scammed $20,000.

“I was sick of being alone. I have been alone for most of my life and I work a lot,” he said.

“She said she loved me and wanted to live with me.

“I’m a construction worker. You can hit me with a brick and I can get back up, but attack my heart and I’m a soft man.”

Detective Superintendent Brian Hay said romance scams generally involved a love interest who claimed to be of English or American heritage with links to a west African country, such as Nigeria or Ghana.

Once a relationship has begun they then ask for money to buy an airline ticket to visit the victim, seal a business deal, pay for medical expenses after an accident, or to help them after a robbery or because of corrupt officials, Supt Hay said.

He said anyone who thought they might be a target, or knew someone else who was, should contact police.

I will keep posting news about FREE online dating scams and hopefully I can stop someone from being another assault victim or worse.

DATE SAFE

       

Filed under: Dating, Relationships on September 5th, 2008