Online Dating Scams

Craigs Friend finder is one of the Get Verified scams tied to CraigsList.

CraigsFriendFinder.com  

This site has the same webpage design and code as other scams, such as the Safe and Single family of Get Verified scam websites.  This site  craigsfriendfinder.com  is just a has a sister site, craigsfriendsfinder (note the additional S).  It is the unfortunately all too typical get verified scam.  The process of sign-up asks for a user name and an email,  then on the next page you are to enter your credit card.

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The set up 

The scam starts when you get an email from “Kimi”,  she is interested in meeting you.  I will spare the agony of the sloppy email for you, but suffice it to say it is littered with copy-paste remnants and difficult to read.  Eventually, she gets around to telling you she wants you to get verified, and sends you a link to the Craig Friend Finder web site.

Craigs Friend Finder welcomes you to China

Sort of… CraigsFriendFinder.com is not where you are typing your information.  Thru use of a web programming command called IFrame, you are really typing you information in another website without your knowledge.  Remember this IFrame command, it is important.

Here is how it works

Another website, uetrk.com is coded in craigsfriendsfinder.com.  That code directs craigsfriendfinder.com to display content from another site, in a rotating fashion.

Uetrk.com is registered to Shifeng Huang, Cixi China.  However, thru connecting his company, and site CPAFull Limited, Huang reports residence in London, England  UK.

All of the sites I found in the rotation were sign-up/ billing sites for a branded dating site, with some variation on a dating theme, moonlight dining, ready to meet, and so on.  You can see a partial list at the end of this post.

CraigsFriendFinder.com is Hiding the Cost

Craigs Friend Finder is hiding the cost by hiding the terms.  By controlling the size of the Iframe you do not see the full disclosure on the billing site for the branded dating company.  This is what  you see where you type in your credit card

Terms and Conditions

By submitting the form above and providing your credit card, you agree to allow a $0.00 charge to verify your age and make sure you are not a registered sex offender.

We respect your privacy. This is a private and discreet service and your card will show a $0.00 charge from Safe Singles Ltd. There are no further costs associated with this service.

If you go to the billing site directly, in this instance gdlksng.com –  here is what you see (my emphasis)..

By pressing ‘GET MY FREE ACCESS!’, I certify that I have read and agree to the complete terms of membership and billing and that the card entered above is my credit card. Your access to Dates.Hookup includes a 2 day free trial promo to Good Looking And Single. If you choose to remain a member of Good Looking And Single beyond the trial period, your membership will renew at thirty nine dollars and ninety nine cents. Your membership to Dates.Hookup will be Free for Lifetime. You will also receive a free membership to Uberhorny.

Follow the Money – Craigs Friend Finder

Now we see how they are making their money.  They are signing you up to gdlksng.com.

gdlksng.com is the billing site to goodLookingandSingle.com.  GoodLookingandSingle is a branded dating site.  It is run by Negotium Inc, Las Vegas NV.  Like other sites in this genre, it is a front end to a white label dating site.  I have not been able to determine which white label site it is connected to.  If you want to understand how these relationship are connected, and see how the money flows, read my blog post Get Verified: Tinder, Badoo, and Craigslist – Matrix of a Scam

Without you knowing it, you have been signed up for a $40/month subscription.  You wont find out about it until you see your credit card statement.  By then, you are past  your two day free trial, and the company will use that fact to bill you until  you cancel.

No Happy Ending here

Your date “Kimi” is just a few lines of code in the web page where this all started.

If by chance you happened to type in a credit card and find out later, it is difficult to get your money back.  Information here is very scarce.  What I have been able to find, is not good, as evidenced by the BBB complaint against Fuson Inc. which owns one of the sites in the branded billing site rotation.

Of course you should never enter  your credit card in one of these sites.   Hopefully, what you can take away is to recognize the pattern early.  No legitimate person is going to ask you to sign  up to a website to verify yourself.  As soon as that happens just move on.

Final Note

One last note, to help you and to help support this site…

I presume you found this page while trying to meet someone online.  I wish you luck, but you should know that the odds are not in your favor.  The ratio of women to men in online dating works against men.    Once you work thru scammers and fakes, the Ratio’s of 6:1, 10:1 and higher means that the women will get swamped with suitors, and any message you send might not get read unless it really stands out.

I suggest that you spend some time and invest in yourself.  Find out what is attractive to women, avoid common mistakes, and gain the confidence to meet any woman, anywhere, anytime, including how to be your best in Online dating.  Click on the banner below to learn more.

Post Script

Recognizing an Online Dating Scammer

Here are some of the quick things to watch for on Craigslist, or any internet forum for that matter.

• Poor use of the English language (or what ever language is native to your location)
• The poster places quick contact information in the ad, such as  phone number, email address, Kik ID, etc.
• Fake pictures – see my page on Tineye Search
• Lots of blank spaces between the end of the text and the bottom of the post (the bot has a bug that they don’t seem to care about)
• 2 pictures that are the same
• Cell phone numbers that are not from Retail Providers – See my Cell Phone Farmer post.
• Patterns – really, they use the same text over and over again.
• Over the top language – There are some real women on sites, the approach that a woman uses (even in casual hookups) is not likely to be  like something from a porno flick.

For additional information, you can visit the FBI, which has additional behaviors of the typical scammer.

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/sandiego/news/press-releases/fbi-warns-of-online-dating-scams

 Craigs Friend Finder  (CraigsFriendFinder.com) Dating Site network

This is just one sample, the uetrk site seems to have a complex rotation, that changes based on different days, or perhaps if  you are in a different location.

Here is a page with some of the artifacts of this investigation