General News

While not really related to online dating I thought I would post about this as a warning to others. Last month I got an interesting envelope in the mail. It was from Spain, with a Spanish stamp and postmark. There was an official looking letter telling me I had won 800,000 pounds from a Spanish government lottery. All I had to do to collect the money was fill out the included form with my personal and bank information and send it back to some (apparently) lawyers address in Spain. Yeah Right!!!

I live in Canada and I don't know anyone in Spain or have ever got a piece of mail from Spain. The envelope was hand written so when I opened it I wasn't sure what it was all about. After reading the included pages, the first thing I did was Google about it. The US Department of State has some good information about this type of scam.

Some warning signals I had when I first read the mail:

• Winning a lottery, I never win anything! Seriously though, winning anything that you have not purchased a ticket for, etc.. is highly unlikely.
• While the document looked official the printing job was poor and it was on cheap paper.
• Someone asking for my Bank Account Number, I don't think so.

You see these type of scams everyday in the spam folder of your email program but it is the first time it has happened to me through the mail. To send an email is extremely cheap but to use the post office is not. You have the printing costs, the paper cost, someone has to stuff the envelop and write out the addresses. The stamp alone was worth 0,78 pounds. I’m surprise this type of scam is worth it to the fraudsters.

This just goes to show you, you have to be on the lookout and use common sense every day. Whether it is someone you don't know asking for your personal information or money through the internet or the mail, to the local gas bar attendant double swiping your credit card (that's another story).

Florida's ''Internet predator awareness and online safety act'' has officially died earlier this week. The bill would have required online dating sites to perform background checks on their Florida members or disclose to these same members that background checks were not performed. The bill started first seeing trouble mid April when it was voted down. After a few tweaks, Rep. Kevin Ambler's bill was then reconsidered but still didn't get enough votes due in part to industry groups lobbying against it.

More information about the bills demise can be found at Online Dating Industry Journal and at the The Buzz.

Related Story: Floridas State Panel OK's Internet Dating Service Bill

I was reading an article at the Noblesville Daily Times about recommended online dating sites and I came upon a statistic regarding eHarmony's goal of reducing the U.S. divorce rate by 1 percent per year. I was surprised at this and I didn't remember hearing about it before. After a little more digging I came up with this eHarmony feature article called Religion, Marriage and eHarmony by the founder of eHarmony Dr. Neil Clark Warren which talks a bit about eHarmony's mission to lower the divorce rate by 1 percent (but not in a year as the other article suggests). I have a feeling the article is a few years old but there is no date so I can't be sure. They do have a success story listed with the article that is dated August, 2004.

Currently the divorce rate in America is around 50% and if eHarmony could effectively reduce this by 1% this would mean 500,000 couples would not have divorced because of eHarmony's matching them. When will they be successful? Let's see, currently according to eHarmony's "Why eHarmony" web page, 90 members get married every day. Lets assume these members met each other because of eHarmony, so in reality it is 45 couples who got married. If this rate was static, it would take over 30 years for eHarmony to reach this goal and this is if every single couple did not divorce and was still alive (to meet the 1% of divorce reduction). eHarmony got its start in 2000 so they are in their 8th year or over a quarter of the way to 30 years. I wonder what the current statistic is for eHarmony on how many people who met on eHarmony, got married, and still are?

I doubt eHarmony would ever release this type of information since I am sure some of their couples have gotten divorced and the news would be spinned to eHarmony's disadvantage. I do think eHarmony matching system does work better than most matching systems, so this statistic would probably be much less than the current 50% divorce rate for all of the United States. In the end eHarmony should of really come up with a more realistic achievable goal. Maybe it should of been based on the number of eHarmony married couples every day. I just would have made one that would have been accomplished within a few years.

For more information about eHarmony, try reading our review.

Date.com, Amor.com and Matchmaker.com (all owned by Avalanche, LLC) will soon be available in multiple languages. Enlaso will be doing the translation services for Avalanche. They offer enterprise language solutions to companies who not only need translation services but business and cultural perspectives as well. In the press release they mention "localizing" the dating sites, I wonder if this means a redefining of the profile depending on the country and the culture? Match.com International does this with great success, they ask dating profile questions that are more relevant to where you live (see The Issues with International Online Dating).

By the end of 2008 all 3 dating services will be translated and localized into Spanish, Portuguese and German and by 2010 there will be another 15 languages added. With online dating growth leveling off in North America, Avalanche is looking to international markets to help grow its subscriber base. Since 1997, Avalanches largest dating site, Date.com, has had more than 20 million members worldwide.

Courant.com takes a look at eHarmony and their online marriage therapy service. It is different than traditional therapy since there is no talking, couples must fill out a detailed questionnaire instead. This paragraph from the article sums up how the 2 year old service works:

Based on that information, the service prescribes a series of self-directed exercises and interactive videos that target their trouble areas — communication, intimacy and conflict resolution, for example. Offered in 20-minute weekly sessions over three months, the site touts among its benefits at-home convenience and a $149 price tag that would otherwise buy them one, maybe two sessions with a traditional therapist.

eHarmony states that they receive between 300 to 500 new registrations to the service every day. They also state that 19% of the couples who are at risk of divorce are no longer after completing the 3 month session.

eHarmony does agree that it does not replace real talk therapy but it is designed more as a practical tool to get couples communicating in their relationship again. There are critics of services that offer online therapy sessions. The biggest complaint is they are not regulated by a governing body.

To find out more about this dating service, read our eHarmony review.

Related Story: eHarmony and being Divorced

It appears that AshleyMadison.com has been doing very well this last year. According to Fox Business they have doubled their membership from 1 million to over 2 million. This online service is geared toward people looking for one night stands and they specialize in married men and woman looking for affairs.

This Canadian based dating service has seem huge growth numbers in the United States with the state of California seeing the highest at over 200%. New Jersey and New York also saw great numbers with membership jumps of 172% and 155%. Pennsylvania and Florida saw high numbers as well. This is in part do to the increased exposure of this site on TV talk shows like Montel, Ellen and Dr. Phil where marriage, infidelity and divorces are hot topics.

One rather unique concept that Ashley Madison does (now days) is their dating service is based on a credit system instead of a monthly payment system (like Lavalifes use to be). Basically this means signing up as a member is free but if you wish to contact someone (not including winks) you need to purchase credits to perform the task. You pay for what you use. The other unique thing Ashley Madison allows which I think all dating services should is, it is free for guest members to reply to any mail message from a full member. This is a perfect way to increase communication between members of a paid dating service.