Well I know that they are there, but I havent worked out what they want. i have been told not to give my Number , not to give my name, so what can i give. How will they use my number, and what for, this is very confusing, anybody have any tips to make this a little easier.

With your number I can find your house, with your name I can do the same but slightly more difficult. Actually, I can find most of this stuff with just a username because they are usually repetative and common to the person using it (e.g. you use it for more than just one site).

The internet is a wonderful place full of knowledge and social sites, but it can also be a place of terrible things.

Usually I email back and forth with someone before giving any personal information, first names are usually alright because they tend to be common (phone books, email, etc.). Phone number should wait until you trust the person enough, same with other personal details...never give out banking information to anyone in email, never discuss banking in an email (this goes for your bank as well).

Hope I've helped.

Your money..........

One thing I've seen a LOT of is people trying to get you to talk to them off the site. This usually involves them giving you their Yahoo contact information.

And there's really no legitimate reason for them to do this -- our site has e-mail and IM right here, so there's no need to go to another venue.

I've been catching scammers for years, and I can tell you that I've never seen a case where someone trying to redirect people to Yahoo (or elsewhere off-site) was NOT a scammer. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just saying I've never seen it.

Once they get you off-site, they'll start trying to get your money, your personal info, whatever they can scam you for.

So -- if anyone contacts you and tries to get you to go talk to them off-site, report it. This site is really good about eliminating scammers, but we have to know about them!

I guess I should report it. It just happened to me this last week.

I got the, i'm having a hard time using this email so would you chat with me on Yahoo. UM, you just sent a couple email to me and you're having what?

Lets see, you type a message and press send. HM thats really is hard to do. Wait! am I doing that right now?

i had this guy that i was talking to for awhile on yahoo (this was years ago) and he had mention he wanted to go to school and he had ask if he could use my paypal account. i thought first and i knew it wasent a good idea and then he said oh i just want to pay for my schooling.....LOL!! it would had been me paying not him..... i block him from my yahoo and that was the end...

i have another guy on my yahoo i dont recall how i came across him. but i dont talk to him that often and he doesnt bother me.. but there was one time i had said hi to him and out of the blue he stated he was a scammer.. but like i said he doesnt bother me... he told me that he pays for the info he needs and thats how he scamms others

Mailing lists...what a lazy way to scam.

Yeah, I love those. "I can't get my computer to work, so just contact me on Yahoo." What, do you have Yahoo Psychic Network in your brain?

i had this guy im me years ago
i was talking to this guy that i seeing at the time
and that guy that im me bluntly came out and i said i know you i slept with you...... (i dont think so) i look at his profile and i said i never have lived in your state i cant recall what his profile said where he lived) and he said oh i just moved here. yea right, i think i had ask if that was the case when did this occure between you and me.. (last week) that was funny.. didnt know the guy and i didnt care to.. he was a total freak....... the guy i was seeing ask me if i actually knew him....... HECK NO I DIDNT!!!!

LOL bummer so all those nice men are not nice. Ok they can go onto the same list as the will you marry me in the first message.

Why would you give anything to a scammer in the first place?

Dont trust ANYONE named Mikey, he is a real perv!!!

A thief of money,identity,hearts,info,etc.They all rank somewhere between a dung beetle & wood termite.If you identify one on this site then exercise the report/block feature immediately & they will be dealt with swiftly & accordingly.Stay alert & safe.Godspeed!Cy

I am active on the boards here and am no scammer.
My IM on here rarely ever works.
I have met a few people here and other sites who I communicate with on Yahoo.
Yep, I've had a few scammers.
Just have to be careful also about who you report.
Not everyone who wants to get with you on yahoo is a scammer.

Often the username is a giveaway when it comes to scammers. They often use a full name followed by a couple numbers. They figure this will make you trust them more, even though the name is false. Often the word love is part of the username too. When in doubt, Google the username....it might just turn up on an anti-scammer list.

Another online scam isn't about money, identity, etc. Sometimes it's as simple as they want into the US the cheapest way possible: by marriage. This is what my stalker wanted....and why she wouldn't give up. When she couldn't have me, she asked about my brother.

There are also much more dangerous scams....where they try to lure you out of country to mug or kidnap you. Sometimes they just want money, ransom, traveler's checks, etc. But the worst ones want your organs to peddle on the black market. There are certain countries I am very wary of for this reason. One of them might surprise a few people.

Your on-site IM probably doesn't work because of the pop-up blocker in your browser. You need to change setting or add an exception to have it work properly.

Nooooooo!!!! Do not help these people. They definately want your email address and they will give you a fake one. Pretty soon you will wind up with so much ugliness that you will have to right your ship. Email on site with them and ask different questions. Because if they don't answer your questions, you have got them. Africa, Nigeria, Ghana,etc are some of the places the say they are from. Watch out and be wary!!!!

Another thing I've found is that there's often a discrepancy between city and state -- if you see Honolulu, Tennessee, or Oklahoma City, Rhode Island, it's probably a scammer. Although, in some cases, odd combinations turn out to be legit, like Paris, Texas.

User names are really helpful, too -- lots of female scammers like to use "sexy" or "hot" or words of that nature in their user names. That's not always the case, though; I've seen some who were legit.

Probably the best indicator for me, though, is the sheer similarity of the messages they send. The content is almost always literally word-for-word the same.

Russian scammers are fun because their grasp of the English language is tenuous enough to allow for some interesting phraseology. My favorite one, which I've seen dozens of times, is the attempted compliment, "I am to be liking your structure."

I can not stress this ENOUGH !! A total perv !!!! Hi sweetie

I chatted with one gal, she preferred Yahoo chat, she was not a scammer. BUT we had chatted here for awhile first.