General News

The dating site Zoosk has applications available on the iPhone and Android based mobile phones. If you do not have one of these smart phones you can also access the service from any phone that has a browser through the Zoosk mobile website. Here is a video which explains more about what you can do with a Zoosk mobile dating application:



To find out more about this online dating site and how it works, you can read our review of Zoosk.com.

Our first review of a social networking site is up. Some of you may know of this site, as it goes by the name Facebook. 😉

In the review you will find out how Facebook fairs when used by someone who wishes to find a date. You will also find out about the tools Facebook offers which you can use to search out that ideal single guy or girl you are looking for. This review is not about Facebook as a social networking site but as a site used by someone interested in finding and meeting new people.

This is the first review in a series we plan to do on social networking sites. The next one we are working on is a review for Twitter.

If you are interested in meeting singles on Facebook, then I would suggest you check out the full Facebook.com Review now.

If you already use Facebook for meeting new people, why don't you post your own review about the site?

Facebook User Review

The man who, according to PlentyOfFish founder and CEO Marcus Frind, hacked the popular dating site has now released his side of the story in an interview with Grumo Media. The audio of the interview can be found here.

Frind claims that Russo hacked the site, downloaded users' email addresses and passwords, and harassed his wife. Russo, on the other hand, says that he was just trying to help PlentyOfFish close a gaping hole in their security.

"I'm a security researcher from Buenos Aires, Argentina," wrote Russo, in a document explaining the event from his point of view. "The Last Friday 21 of Januray, we discovered a vulnerability in www.plentyoffish.com exposing users details, including usernames, addresses, phone numbers, real names, email addresses, passwords in plain text, and in most of cases, paypal accounts, of more than 28,000,000 (twenty eight million users). [sic]" According to Russo, he notified both Frind and his wife, Annie Kanciar, of the vulnerability in order to prevent any damage from being done. He claims that all potential problems were rectified without exposing any confidential user information, and that the PlentyOfFish security team remained in contact with him because they were interested in hiring his team as additional security professionals.

Then things took a negative turn. "While we were creating the legal documents in order to proceed," Russo said, "Markus Frind got progressively more aggressive and unresponsive with us, and told us to speak with their employees, Kate and Jay, because there was a serial killer, murdering people from the website." On the evening of January 30th, Frind sent Russo an email accusing him of hacking the site and stealing members' personal information. The email reads as follows:

"If this data goes public I am going to email every single effected
 user on Plentyoffish your phone number, email address and picture. 
And tell them you hacked into their accounts.

Then i'm going to sue you In Canada, US and UK and argintina. I am
 going to completely destroy your life, no one is ever going to hire 
you for anything again, this isn't piratebay and we definately aren't
 fooling around.

Markus."

Russo also released the text of several emails sent back and forth between him and Kate Bilenki, a PlentyOfFish employee, that seemingly prove that he was working with the site (presumably to help close any gaps in their security).

Frind has yet to respond to Russo's accusations.

Stay tuned for further updates on the developing story.

For a fortnight eHarmony.co.uk is offering free guided communication. This means from February 1st to February 15th, 2011 singles who sign up for eHarmony in the United Kingdom will be able to receive their matches and communicate with them for free (no credit card required). eHarmony's guided communication allows members to get a feel for one another through 3 stages of communication. eHarmony mail is not included with this promotion.

On a related note, eHarmony in the United States is also having a free communication event. It is a month long and ends on February 28th, 2011.

To find out more about this online dating site for UK singles, you should check out our eHarmony.co.uk review.

I was surprised today to find out that Match.com announced that they have acquired the free dating site OKCupid. The purchase price is $50 million plus potential future payments which depends upon performance in the coming year of the dating site. OKCupid makes most of its revenue through displaying online advertising. Their secondary revenue generating tool is a paid upgrade membership option. The CEO and co-founder of OkCupid, Sam Yagan will continue to run the business and oversee all day-to-day operations.

OKCupid membership base has seen a large increased over the last 18 months. Their members tend to be younger adults which is a market Match.com is looking to develop.

This time last year Match.com purchased Singlesnet.com for an undisclosed amount. (see Story) and in the summer, the year before, they had acquired People Media for $80 million (see Story). I wonder who they will buy next year? 😊

For more on the story you can read the press release. To find out more about these two dating sites, please read our Match.com review and our OKCupid.com review.

One of the world's largest free online dating sites, PlentyOfFish.com, has been hacked. The site released the following official statement:

On January 18th, after days of countless and unsuccessful attempts, a hacker gained access to Plentyoffish.com database. We are aware from our logs that 345 accounts were successfully exported. Hackers attempted to negotiate with Plentyoffish to "hire" them as a security team. If Plentyoffish failed to cooperate, hackers threatened to release hacked accounts to the press.

The breach was sealed in minutes and the Plentyoffish team had spent several days testing its systems to ensure no other vulnerabilities were found. Several security measures, including forced password reset, had been imposed. Plentyoffish is bringing on several security companies to perform an external security audit, and will take all measures necessary to make sure our users are safe.

In an extremely strange and rambling blog post, PlentyOfFish CEO Markus Frind tells his side of the story. He describes the event as an "an incredibly well planned and sophisticated attack," and says that the man responsible, a 23 year old hacker named Chris Russo who allegedly also hacked the popular torrent site The Pirate Bay, harassed his wife and blamed the security breach on "the Russians." According to the post, Frind's wife received a call from Russo saying that PlentyOfFish had been hacked, and that "Russians have taken over his computer and are trying to kill him, and his life is in extreme danger and they are currently downloading plentyoffish's database." Frind says that he was listening in the background, closed the security breach, and immediately ordered an investigation.

Frind goes on to say that Russo demanded that he fly to either Argentina or Washington, D.C. in order to stop "the attacks from the Russians," who supposedly had access to their bank accounts and were looking to steal $30 million from a string of dating sites. According to Frind, Russo also claimed that 5 or 6 other dating sites had been breached, and then gave Frind the administrative password for eHarmony.com to prove the validity of his claim.

Reactions to the hack have been strong. Dave Evans, an analyst who follows the online dating industry, told CTV News that Frind is "a self-made millionaire who's a total hardcore geek and has built most of the site himself." He continues to express disappointment, saying that Frind "hasn't spent evidently any time on securing passwords" and calling his actions "a lack of respect for your members."

In the same article, PlentyOfFish forum user fnord is quoted as saying "The site owner didn't think it was important to notify the users...but did find it important enough to go off on a crazed diatribe on his personal blog. Despite claiming to have plugged the security hole, Plenty of Fish is still sending out passwords in plain text, which is just this side of just posting them on the Internet for everyone to see." User QuasarDJ adds "I have grave concerns about the security of my personal information on the Plenty of Fish site and I've yet to see even the most simple updates to guard against these problems."

While the convoluted story has yet to be completely confirmed, it's clear that a hack of PlentyOfFish has occurred and that it's in the best interest of all members to change their username, email, and password combinations, particularly if they are also used on other sites.

For more information on this dating site you can read our review of PlentyofFish.