Not just scammers, but also time wasters, not knowing what they want, non-serious, and the list is endless.........
Hmm..well, after about a week and a half as a member of the site, I think I've seen enough to at least come to a initial assessment - I'd say it's overall quite a GOOD, nay, VERY GOOD place to meet some quality women. That's why I don't quite understand your negativity. I guess the potential is there, but all I have to say is that in the 10 days or so I've been on the site, I've made real solid connections with a single, early thirties, no kids girl who has a Master's in the sciences and who puts sentences together very well (in Spanish). Extremely articulate. Another great connection I've made so far is with another master's degree holder who's a teacher and a chef! (not pro, just a real good home cook!).
Yes, a few who I
thought were solid, disappeared out of my life as quickly as they appeared, but in those cases, the communicaiton was in ALL CAPS at one point, besides the fact that it was easy to tell (at least for me), that they were responding to my messages out of a lack of desire to be rude.
And yes, often times the girls do use their second given name (instead of their first name) in order to "protect their privacy"...sometimes they'll even invent a first name whole cloth. More often than not, they'll call themselves, for ex. "Carolina" on their profile, but their real name is "Yorleny" and their full name is "Yorleny Carolina Mendez Pardo". They could conceivably do this because they're hiding something, such as a Facebook profile with photos of a boyfriend, and i don't doubt that this may be the case
in some cases, but most of the time, it is out of desire simply to have some privacy among any friends, coworkers, or family members who they think may some day find and read their profile.
Again, I've found a few ones that have disappeared out of thin air, but I've also found a some incredibly high-quality women that I'm very excited to meet when I go in September. The personal details these promising ones have offered up to me has the ring of truth. I may have an advantage here in that I communicate quite quickly in chat, in real time, no translation program is used at all, and I'm pretty perceptive when it comes to picking up nuance in written and spoken Spanish. I think this is a skill that anyone, no matter their first language, can pick up given enough motivation/practice/experience.
So, in sum, I haven't met a "scammer" once yet (except for someone w/o picture claiming to be from Ghana). And the ones who are "flaky" and don't know what they want are easy as pie to detect.
Thank you everyone once again for your great input & wisdom. Much appreciated!
Caliche
