I figured out my own little diabolical means of dealing with nigerian-esque scammers. So yahoo just takes up space, takes forever to load up at the start and is generally a nuisance on the taskbar... Ironically, people here say that the pay sites are for the more "serious" men, but personally, I have been contacted by more scammers and fakes from those sites than on Po F.
When I start receiving emails with pictures of russian models, I start sending pictures of the african actors in the movie "the gods must be crazy", and claiming it is me. If the guy to whom you are chatting/emailing fits more than a few of the following, he may be a scammer:- His photo is attractive (and also not his, of course)- He's either divorced or widowed, and depending on the age group he's targeting, usually with 1 child around 12-13.- He's originally from a country outside the US - they usually pick France, Ireland or Germany.- He describes himself as self-employed or an entrepreneur, or says he has a good job, making from K on up.- He wants to send you a lot of photos of his house, cars, etc.

Plentyoffish dating forums are a place to meet singles and get dating advice or share dating experiences etc.
Hopefully you will all have fun meeting singles and try out this online dating thing...
If they can't be bothered to formulate well constructed sentences with polysyllabic words with care and patience, then they don't deserve your attention. I agree that IM or videochat is good to further scope out the guy and to "communicate in real time" as Serendipity said.
The onus is on you to reject them, for it is not your wish to converse with such people. But truly, after seeing the same pattern of scammers for 5 years on the pay sites, I see them using Yahoo Messenger almost exclusively.
I got red flags when he said "I will like you to take the time to download yahoo messenger." And his profile did not seem the type to make that error. I figured out my own little diabolical means of dealing with nigerian-esque scammers.
When I start receiving emails with pictures of russian models, I start sending pictures of the african actors in the movie "the gods must be crazy", and claiming it is stuff.
This means communicating on her terms and meeting at a time and place of her liking.
There's nothing wrong with suggesting a means of communicatioin but always add something like 'if you are comfortable with it'.
When I first started using the internet, I used to get a lot of men pushing me to use certain messengers.
I learned, very quickly, not to accept their chats, or use the messengers they wanted me to use because a lot of them just want to cam flash me their junk. Don't let any man dictate how you communicate with him...comminicate the way that makes you the most comfortable. You preferred POF email and refused to use an online chat program than millions of people use.
It’s so important to use common sense and listen to your instincts.