Easy tips to fight a rip off

Tips to protect yourself against rip-offs

Tips to protect yourself against rip offs

The internet can be a risky place if you don’t know your way around. Scammers are not easy to recognize and a rip off can be realised too late. A lot of money can be lost this way. Fortunately, there are some tips and tricks to spot a scam and fight it before it’s too late. If you’ve been a victim to a dating site rip off, you should definitely do something. There are ways to defend yourself accordingly. After all, you want to get your money back if possible. That would be the best and fairest solution – but that’s not always easy. Either way, hopefully you won’t lose more money.

How can you get your money back?

Follow our tips and don’t let them get away with ripping you off!

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Subscription rip-off

  1. If you’ve fallen for a subscription trap which can happen easily, it’s important that you cancel the subscription immediately. Get in contact with the operator directly by e-mail. It’s important to act quickly as some operators may not be helpful if you delay.. You’ll then have to write a letter cancelling the subscription. Make sure you keep records of the notifications you have sent them. Consider getting a lawyer if you need to.
  2. If the operator has referred you to collection agency already, stay calm. Rip off operators will try to intimidate customers to get their money. But as a rule, the operators never go to court because they don’t have a legally valid contract. If you’ve received collections letters, which can happen even if you never bought credit or signed up for a subscription, just act in the same way as the operators and do nothing at all.

If you do receive other official letters or a dunning notice, get some advice on the best steps to take.

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Casual Dating
  • 50+ million members worldwide
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  • 766.000+ members trust our scientific approach
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Fake chat and subscription rip-off

Credit card / direct debit

If you believe you’ve been ripped off, or lost money on an online dating site, inform your bank immediately. Let them know the transactions were not authorised and they should help return your money.

If you paid your membership or bought credits with your credit card you have some more time to dispute a transaction. The legal period runs for eight weeks. After this time, it depends on the goodwill of your card provider. If your payment was made by direct debit, it is also possible to charge back within a period of eight weeks. In the case of an unapproved and unauthorised debit, it’s possible to have the amount reversed within 13 months. So there is time to act but it is important that you do something as soon as you recognize the scam.

PayPal

Many people pay with the service of PayPal because it works quickly and easily. If a debit was made via PayPal you should write a complaint to the customer service team immediately. The great thing about PayPal is that the customer support team is helpful and respond quickly. With PayPal you have the chance to reclaim your money retroactively for up to three months after. If you made your payment by credit card, even up to six months after.

In most cases, your money will be refunded because the dating rip off operators don’t want any trouble. They also need the services of PayPal which is an advantage for you. PayPal is known to freeze accounts until the dispute is resolved.

Skrill, MicroPayment, Klarna, Instant, etc.

Fake chat and subscription rip off

If the payment was made via one of the mentioned service providers you have to inform your provider about fraud immediately. Most payment service providers give you the chance to do that retroactively. The period of time you have to do this varies from provider to provider. You will find this information in the terms and conditions of the service provider or in the FAQ’s. You can also contact the respective customer service department to get information on disputing a transaction.

Dating rip off operators don’t want any trouble with a payment service provider like PayPal. They need to avoid problems with these providers as their accounts could be blocked or frozen for a long time.

It’s very important to make a complaint immediately if you spot a scam. The faster complaints are made, the faster the rip off operator’s accounts will be closed. That means that the operator may lose a lot of money.

We check many dating portals

We can only advise you to always read the terms and conditions of a dating portal thoroughly. If the operator is located abroad and/or the imprint and the terms and conditions are displayed as a graphic, you should rethink the registration.

Either way, you can always ask us and inform us about any rip off sites you’ve come across. Only then are we able to to check the website. We would then write a corresponding test report to warn others of a dating rip off.

We check and test many dating portals and have a list of trustworthy and recommended dating websites. If you check out and register with one of our test winners, you’ll have no concerns about getting ripped off. You can fully trust our recommended test winning sites.

We recommend one of our test winners!
Logo Ashley Madison
Casual Dating
  • 50+ million members worldwide
  • Single, attached, looking to explore, or just curious to discover what’s out there
Logo Be2
Matchmaker
  • 766.000+ members trust our scientific approach
  • Good balance: female 57% / male 43%
Logo Academic Singles
Dating sites
  • 190,000+ members in Australia
  • Relevant matches based on your personality test