'Mature' Asian ladies, do you realize you are a target for scammers?

West African scammers are increasingly looking for middle-aged or older 'Asian' ladies to scam. While you may think you may not have enough money to attract scammers, the few hundred dollars they can extract from you, is sufficient reason they will target you.
West African scammers are generally young, black males, from the nations of Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Ghana.
They will pretend to be anyone, or anything, online. When they try to scam middle-aged ladies, they pretend to be anything from handsome soldiers, to middle-aged businessmen and professionals.
The pictures they use are STOLEN, and the real person in the pictures is not who you are in contact with, or has anything to do with the scam.
The 'stolen' picture aspect is one primary reason you must insist on seeing a face on webcam, and not accept any excuses for not seeing this person on cam.
Scammers will not be able to show 'that face' on a webcam, with the exception of a few scammers who have short videos of 'that' person, or a person who looks similar, they can feed over a webcam, making it appear that person is live, and on cam.
The 'recordings' are usually easy to detect, if you pay attention. They will repeat, or will be of short duration, and the scammer will claim they are having 'cam' problems. If you are in contact with a real person, and hope for a real relationship with them, it is normal to expect to see that person often on webcam.
There is no excuse to not show a face on webcam. Most modern laptops have them, many or most home computers, and most internet cafes, also.
A person serious about finding 'love' online, will have a cam.

These scammers will often claim to be affluent, and world travelers. This gives them excuses to be stranded in various remote countries, and ask you for financial help.
Do not send money! Real 'world travelers' have resources for emergencies like this, and can always contact the embassy of the nation they claim to be from for help.
Rich men, and men who work for large, international corporations, have resources for emergencies, and just need to make a phone call. Don't send money!

These scammers may also claim they are on the way to meet you, in your country, and ask you to accept a package they are sending you. Do not give your address, or pay fees for a 'package'. They may claim the package contains gifts for you, family treasures, funds they are trying to hide, or materials they need for the work they claim they do. You will be asked to pay 'courier' or customs fees for the FAKE package, to FAKE courier, or customs people. There is no package!
The sole purpose of this 'package' is to extract money from you. No other reason. No love. No real person. It's a scam.

They may talk to you on the phone, and give you a phone number to contact them with that is appropriate for where they claim to be, or from. Please remember, it is very easy to set up 'fake' phone numbers, for any city or country in the world. I can set up a phone number that is for China, the UK, USA, or anywhere, and be anywhere in the world.
If you talk to them on the phone, you may notice the English they speak has an accent? They will claim the accent is due to them being raised outside the US or UK, due to 'mixed' parents. If you are not an native speaker of english, you may not notice the accent isn't 'right', but most native speakers of english are not fooled.
I have talked to Asian ladies who have lost life savings to these scammers. Whatever money you have, or can get, is important to them, as it is to you.
West African scammers may also try to get you involved in money laundering, or depositing fake checks or money orders. This may be under the guise of a 'work at home' opportunity, or as a favor for the fake man, who claims to love you. He may say he has paychecks from a company in your country he is having difficulty cashing, and ask you to do it, and send him the proceeds, by Western Union. Please, don't do this! The checks are fake, and will not be detected as such,until after you have sent him the money. You will be repsonsible for reimbursing the funds to the bank, and may be prosecuted for fraud!
There are some real, nice people, online, hoping to meet other real, nice people. I am not trying to scare you, just warn you to not waste time on fake or fraudulent people, and be smart when using the internet to meet people.
Two sites that can help you with scammers, are:
Romancescam.com
Dragonladies.org