COURIER NEWS -- Dec 7 -- Of the five sites surveyed -- AmericanSingles, eHarmony, Match.com, True and Yahoo Personals -- only True checks backgrounds of applicants. Three sites -- eHarmony, True and Yahoo Personals -- offer a compatibility test, which they use to try to pair members based on far more than likes and dislikes. At eHarmony, you can be deemed unmatchable, and rejected. You can peek into each of the five sites before opening your wallet. All of them offer advice. One-month subscriptions range from $25 (Yahoo Personals) to $60 (eHarmony). Our staffer had a few complaints. She asked for a man within five years of her age, but got a reply from a Match.com member 20 years her senior. (His profile described his favorite oily massage.) She looked for matches at AmericanSingles and found two with different ages, user names and profiles -- but the same photo.
Privacy peeves. Policies varied. Match.com may share personal information with other companies whose names are displayed on the site. True has been certified for privacy and security protection by more than one independent group. Profile may remain active and viewable on these sites until you notify customer service to remove it permanently.
If Internet dating gives you pause, try True, whose screening of members and customer-friendly privacy policy make it especially reassuring. If you favor matches close to handpicked, eHarmony is a good bet. If you just want the basics, try Match.com or Yahoo Personals, which have a simple, well-organized setup.
The full article was originally published at Courier News, but is no longer available.
Does True include current martial status in their background checks? I Googled "dating married women" and saw this sponsored ad:
Married women dating
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Posted by: Edward | Dec 08, 2006 at 12:30 AM
as someone who has met "the one" eHarm wins hands down. if you use your judgement i guess any of the sites can work for you.
Posted by: April | Dec 08, 2006 at 10:57 AM
It is probably showing based on the keyword dating. Funny thought though. :)
Posted by: Michael | Dec 08, 2006 at 12:39 PM
I actually say a PPC ad for True.com last night with a title of "horny nipples". How can True possibly be viable in certifying their membership if they're actively selling sex? I bet they have a very high % of horny married men signing up because of PPC ads like that and those very provocative ad banners they run.
It amazes me how True how pulled of their great success - from a branding perspective they're a disaster - a utter contradiction.
Posted by: bob | Dec 08, 2006 at 06:48 PM
TRUE.COM is a SCAM...anyone with a valid credit card can become a paid member.The claims are FALSE...there is no "background check" and they have their employees flirt with phoney e-mails until the SUCKER becomes a "paid" member. "Endorsed by PSYCHOLOGY TODAY is not true either as I have already contacted a rep at that site.Psychology Today merely endorses one of the questionaires that True.Com uses and God only knows who they are selling your information to. True claims 10 million members....9 million are probably SPOOFED PROFILES...no photo,no information except the made-up screen name and a made-up location. The owner donated $25,000 to the Texas Attorney General in 2000. I wonder what he was trying to buy with the "donation." Recently he has been trying to squash his competition with new state laws requiring background checks for other dating site's members. The owner of True.com should be jailed for FRAUD. Turns out that NONE of the women who supposedly sent "winks" to me actually did.All the winks were generated automatically by True.Com's computer system...more FRAUD.True.com claims I requested that crap when I entered my profile. Ha!So what does the multimillionaire owner need to SCAM thousands of people for??? GREED !!!
Posted by: Richard Williams | Dec 09, 2006 at 03:30 AM
Some of these dating sites leave the profiles on there about forever,that way they can claim the tens of thousands of members. Look at the calculated age and compare it to the claimed age....some are 6-7 or more years different. That means the profile has been on the site for that difference in years.
Posted by: Richard Williams | Jan 05, 2007 at 12:19 AM
True.com should be report to the same site they claim to turn people in to You know the people that are Married or are Convicted Felons this Site can be googled by typing IC3 go to the home page and report them for Internet Freud. That's what I have done after they charged my card when I was signing up with the free 3 day trial they charged it immediently they refused me access to the site because I failed the background check for what reason I do not know. Then I e-mail them and they refuse to return my e-mail.
Posted by: Stephen Muckler | Nov 06, 2007 at 05:14 PM