women or people posing as women are
contacting other women I have a friend
who I think would be great for you
earlier this week we introduced you to
Eric Resnick founder of profiler help
raqami News six investigation uncovered
that con artists are using photos for
their online dating scam many people are
falling for these dating scams so we
brought Eric Resnick back to new six at
9 to talk with you more about what
people are falling for and especially
this new form of kind of catfishing
that's the term that a lot of people
know posing as someone who you're not
with women targeting other winner well
would this scam in particular what
you're getting is it could be a woman it
could be a man it's probably it's
probably a guy in Ghana or Nigeria or
Eastern Europe or South Africa and he's
using a photo he found on the internet
and he's using profile and he's using a
fake profile of a woman so that he can
seem less threatening when he approaches
other women and it usually opens up with
you know don't worry I'm not a lesbian
I'm not trying to pick you up but I was
just looking at match and a male friend
of mine came over and he saw your
profile when I was showing him how to
use the dating site and he thinks he'd
be really great so you should contact
him at his email address off the dating
site which is the first big flag when
someone is telling you in that first
message hey let's get off the dating
site you lose that first level of
protection for your identity as soon as
you've given up your email address to
someone because they'll see it when you
email them you you end up exposing
yourself to them being able to search
you online maybe find your Facebook
profile your Instagram profile and then
they get tons of information about your
background so they know what they need
to tell you to make you fall in love
with a woman sorta exactly it's a like
it's an imaginary wingman yeah you know
so it's so what is kind of your history
your services you provide with profile
helper well I started profile her back
in 2005 I've worked with over 13,000
online daters
then I help them write their online
dating profiles I help coach them on how
to best use the dating sites they can
actually get past the dating game and
actually find people the same way that
I've found my wife on a dating site and
we'd actually just got married in March
and then I also focus on a lot of online
dating safety when I do my coaching so
that people can have a positive
experience and not end up in a situation
where you can lose your entire life
savings if you're not careful so you
help people formulate their own profiles
because that's really key with online
dating you have to have a catchy cool
profile that looks legit and also
deliver a lot of information about
yourself in a quick format well and
that's the interesting thing is you've
got to be interesting but you can't be
salesy you can't be true you can't come
across as someone who's trying to
convince someone to love you and the
real key when I tell people how to
succeed in online dating don't worry so
much about the people who are emailing
you because people primarily care what
they want not what you want focus on the
people that you can find using the
search tools on the dating site so that
you can actually decide is this someone
that I'm interested and someone who
sounds like they're also interested in
me then you reach out to them as a rule
people generally email I think probably
around 80 percent more people than they
should on dating sites mainly because we
think they're attractive or there's
something about them that we want in our
life but we just don't stop to think do
they want someone like me in my life and
that's equally important especially if
you're looking for a relationship and
you know you always think okay let's say
the 55 and older that can tend to see
these kind of these money scheme to send
us money and maybe we can help you but
you're saying oh so it doesn't have to
only be a certain age it affects many
people occasion yeah it can affect a lot
of times you'll see it affect men in
their 20s and 30s who have been on
dating site for a while and a lot of
times those will be not so much property
development type count phishing scams
but someone will pretend to be a woman
and then they'll say they're local but
then you'll find out that they're in a
different country and they're still
probably not in the country they say
they're in
and they want to come visit you but they
need money for a plane ticket or they
lost their job and so they don't have
money for their internet bill and if you
lose their internet they won't be able
to keep talking to you you know and then
so for reasons like that I always tell
people don't use online dating for
long-distance relationships the whole
point of online dating is is to actually
meet people and date them it's not a
penpal situation right so only date
people that you can actually meet that's
the only way you'll really ever know if
they're real now that being said you
still have to be careful because there
have been some recent scams up in New
York where people have met I believe on
plentyoffish
where they've met people at a place and
then we're asked to sign forms for them
to fill out a survey because it would
really help this other person out and
the next thing the person knew their
bank account was empty and taken so you
know just as a basic rule if anyone asks
you for money on the internet the answer
is no the answer is no and then reported
them immediately to the dating site that
dating site can kick them off if you go
on a date with someone who you meet
online meet them in a public place don't
have them pick you up on the first date
don't sign any paperwork from them on a
first date and you know and it's easy
it's it's very easy to look at people
who get victimized by these scams and
and not feel for them you say oh I would
never fall for that
but these scammers are very good at
targeting people who are vulnerable for
very specific reasons yes or just
getting out of a relationship no we'll
make sure that we include all of those
tips because we really appreciate that
and all the advice I know a lot of our
viewers are going to want to hear about
it solutely well thank you so much for
joining us we appreciate it
my pleasure