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2013/01/20 10:22pm

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AlwaysHope

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I've often wondered how can anyone prove beyond reasonable doubt (at least as far as the internet goes), that a dating profile is of an actual person and not created from some trick of software engineering?

Online dating industry is BIG these days and commercial pressures are serious about these dating sites impressing potential members to sign up and part with $ by showing them impressive statistics.

From what I understand of software development, it is not all that hard to fabricate a profile with biography generators and put up some random pictures of the supposed person. Even to the point of responding to "probes of interest" such as "virtual kisses"or any other means that the online dating website has as an option for expressing an interest in a potential date.

I'm keen to hear what others think about this?

2013/01/21 09:22am

Jennifer

Anonymous

Linking the dating profile to the member's Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin account helps a bit but the problem is those can be faked as well. A lot more users of Facebook also have their privacy settings set higher which prevents some curious member of a dating site to see much additional information on the members Facebook account. This means the member doesn't get much in additional proof that the member is "real".

2013/01/21 11:43am

Snowman

Anonymous

That is why dating sites where you pay like Match.com are better. If a user is paying for a service to meet someone you know pretty well that for the most part they are who they say they are. Except for the odd white lie about weight or an outdated photo.

Free dating sites have no barrier so anyone can go in and create any sort of fake profile and start messaging people right away.

2013/01/21 05:58pm

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AlwaysHope

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Quote by: Anonymous

Thats true, but some members have different user names on facebook and don't use the same pics, so doing a google image search for example can be useless in that regard.
I think one day soon, this will only hapen once international legal agreement is in place and enforced by member nations, one unique digital ID for every internet user no matter where you are in the world..

2013/01/22 02:06am

Derek Collinson

Anonymous

The best way to avoid spammers and scammers is to join a dating site that has measures in place designed to identify and eliminate scammers and spammers and also has video chat to enable you to ensure that what you see is what you get.

2013/01/22 05:37pm

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AlwaysHope

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Quote by: Anonymous

Sometimes that could be the case, but if say your an owner of a dating website and you wanted to up the numbers of members so you could brag about it in your adverts, it would be very easy to "fabricate" profiles and you would'nt have to pay to create them because your the owner.
I agree about free dating sites though, yeah too easy to BS them..

2013/01/22 08:17pm

Roady

Anonymous

Quote by: AlwaysHope

From what I understand of software development, it is not all that hard to fabricate a profile with biography generators and put up some random pictures of the supposed person. |

This sounds like what a Japan dating site recently did!

2013/01/23 01:32am

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AlwaysHope

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Yeah, thats sad about that Jap dating site, but its an example of how this industry can easily exploit us all. What to do? go back to the traditional ways of finding a partner? eg. in real life!