Hiding Behind Borders. Your match finds every excuse not to meet face to face. There’s a good reason this. Many scammers run their operations out of a foreign country, such as Nigeria, Ghana, Russia, or the Philippines, even though their profiles may indicate that they’re geographically nearby. A common ruse is for the scammer to claim to be from the U.S. but is currently unavailable because he or she is temporarily outside of the country.