WSJ - May 4 - Many of the profiles on dating sites are scams, fake profiles people put up as a tool to trick people into giving them money. eHarmony spokesman Paul Breton says the company tries to educate members about safety, and a full-time team reviews profiles using technology and their instincts. The online dating industry says scammers represent a small fraction of all profiles. "But scammers are aggressive," says Mark Brooks, an industry consultant who has worked with Cupid and PlentyofFish. At the FBI, one Cyber Division section chief, Tim Gallagher, says most scammers operate from abroad, especially West Africa and the former Soviet republics. Brooks said: "Online-dating sites use three lines of defense against scammers. There's technology: An automated system will track how many messages a profile sends per hour, or searches for words like "wire." A security team may scan suspicious profiles. Most reputable sites encourage users to flag inappropriate behavior, including money requests." Global Personals, the British owner of U.S. sites including Texasdating.com and Theseniordatingagency.com, says it has a person—not a computer—check every photo, profile and message. Global Personals estimates it identifies about a dozen scammers a day and pulls their profiles down immediately.
by Elizabeth Bernstein
See full article at WSJ
"The issue of scammers is a pressing problem and has been a major source of concern for most of our clients. Without an effective screening mechanism, it would spell big trouble for expanding dating sites" says Siamak Ayani, CEO of OculusAI, a company that provides Image Moderation services to Dating Sites. He adds that his company has been developing an intelligent system to flag scammers based on their images by comparing them with known scammer images.
(Full Disclosure: Global Personals and OculusAI are clients of Courtland Brooks)
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Dating sites fight daily battles with waves of pesky scammers. It's a constant onslaught and a battle to stay ahead of their technology and techniques.
Posted by: Mark Brooks | May 05, 2011 at 09:01 AM
Luckily I find most of the scammers have very similar patterns when creating profiles and sending messages. At our site http://www.alternative-hookups.com I use an automated script to check profiles and messages against common spam patterns and then automatically put the account on hold preventing them from contacting other members until it has been checked by a real person. Users are alerted to this and that they will be reactivated within a few hours and are still free to browse the site so that it does not disrupt their browsing experience completely which may put them off using the site.
Posted by: Alternative Hookups | May 05, 2011 at 12:08 PM
What's funny and not...is right now...I believe I am talking to a scammer and he's using your name. Crazy!
Posted by: Christie | May 16, 2011 at 12:44 PM