I have found most paid dating sites are no safer than free ones.
The keys to a safe site are the willingness of the staff to check new profiles, monitor the site activity, and actually have some knowledge of internet romance scammers, modes, and traits.
While most sites will claim to be safe, they are not.
You always need to protect yourself from scammers, and not assume the site is making any real effort to keep scammers out. They don't!
Screening for scammers takes a modest amount of time, which most sites do not wish to spend.
I find it inexcusable that many sites simply do not care about the safety of the members.
There's no reason to have a site full of profiles with stolen pictures of celebrities, other than to play the members for suckers, and make money from them.
Maybe you are thinking 'this is a free site, how do they make money?'
If you notice on most dating sites, as well as other websites, there are various banner ads. These banner ads pay the site owner for clicks, and/or sales derived from a person clicking on the banner, and purchasing a product or service. This can be very lucrative if you have a high amount of traffic.
More traffic=more money
I have seen many large, dating sites that are full of fake profiles. Fake profiles of pretty people, generate more paying members, or traffic. More paying members, or more traffic=more money.
If the profile is truly fake, you will never get that person to respond to you.
If a profile using a stolen picture responds, or contacts you, you are generally in contact with a scammer!
There is a large network of 'paid' dating sites that have pages of pages of pretty, sexy ladies, all who are fake. A man will join, and get flooded with messages from sexy ladies. To reply to them, he has to pay for each message. The lady is totally fake, the purpose of the sites are to make money by these fake messages. Period. The people writing the messages, and pretending to be the pretty lady in the pictures, is actually a college student, male or female, or other person, making a living writing these messages....OR....the messages are actually 'pre-written'.
Most of us in Western countries would not want to make a living writing messages to lonely men for $1-2 dollars, each, but, for a person in a developing country, where a monthly income of $300 a month is a living wage, making money this way is attractive.
I strongly recommend you avoid most paid dating sites, even if you do not patronize my site.
What do you need to do to protect yourself on any dating site?
Never send money to somebody you only know from the internet, or phone calls!
Safeguard your personal data! (Full name, address, phone number, email account that is connected to your Facebook account, and/or you use for personal business, and family.)
Always expect to see 'that face' on webcam!
I'm always amazed that SCAM VICTIMS can go months or years, talking to a scammer, using stolen pictures, and never expect to see a live face on cam. They'll send thousands of dollars to fake people, and accept the various BS stories about 'No cam' the scammer gives.
If the person can get on the internet, they can use a cam. There are no valid excuses.
Seeing a face on cam is an important filtering tool you must learn to use.
If a person won't show a face on cam, and often, you need to assume they are fake, or hiding something. Be polite, but demand to see a face on cam.
Scammers will come up with many excuses, or ask you to send money to them so they can buy a cam.
Don't do it!
Be careful!
AsianLonelyhearts is a new, scam-free, dating site! Curious about what information about you is out there? You may be surprised!
