3 ms·

I'm confused here. Why would match _want_ fake profiles on the site? Wouldn't that drive people away pretty quickly once they catch on that the hot chicks they'

by yuliyp 13y ago

I'm confused here. Why would match _want_ fake profiles on the site? Wouldn't that drive people away pretty quickly once they catch on that the hot chicks they're trying to talk to aren't what they seem?

kristiandupont 13y ago
Well for one, it's a solution to the chicken-and-egg problem that dating sites face when starting out. And I guess even with traction, you want people to feel like they are in "a crowded room", even if a bunch of the profiles don't respond back or flake.
- draugadrotten 13y ago
  All dating sites do this. If you know of a single dating site that did not "seed" with model photos when it was started, I would be interested to know about it. badoo is another scam site with 80% fake model photos - it's obvious the online dating scene is big money and very poor ethics I'd like to see google dating - with a "don't be evil" motto
  - twister 13y ago
    PlentyofFish didn't and it's still the second largest after Match.com. A lot of the smaller niche dating sites you'll find started from a related website or network. Facebook, although not a dating website, afaik never created fake profiles.
  - jasonlotito 13y ago
    > All dating sites do this. That's not true at all. I know this for a fact. I > badoo is another scam site with 80% fake model photos - it's obvious I don't know the badoo guys personally, but I'm pretty sure they are working just as hard combatting fake model photos. It's not an easy solution, as you can't just say "Oh, look, let's ban everyone with this photo" because they will change photos constantly.
thu 13y ago
That attracts people to the site (fake profiles have nicer pictures), so they pay to be part of it. Not a lot of people see it is a fake profile at first. I have tried to use dating websites. Even on non-free ones, you can still register for free and see profiles. Whenever the picture is really nice, I use a small Firefox plugin called "who stoled my pictures" and find the picture is from someone else (models for instance). I don't know if those sites create the fake profile themselves, but they certainly do little to detect them. Usage of something similar to the "who stoled my picture" plugin would be quite effective (even used manually by their staff who goes through new profile to approve pictures anyway).
Theodores 13y ago
I have two problems with this statement: "Not a day goes by when someone doesn't tell me that they saw my pictures posted on Match.com or another website" 1) The numbers: Given how many friends real people have, given that 50% or so of the population are male, given that not all of one's friends are single, given that not everyone who is single is searching the internet looking for love, given that not all the fake profiles that use her photo are geographically likely to be where her single friends that use dating websites live, given that not everyone that uses a dating website is willing to admit to it, what is the realistic likelihood that this 'mom and model' really does have people telling her almost every day that they have just seen her likeness online? 2) 'or another website': It is well known that many dating websites use fake profiles bought of the internet. The complaint is about match.com, not mystery random other websites. As for why the fake profiles... The business model of a dating website (OKCupid excepted, which is also owned by match.com) relies on people paying a monthly fee to be on the site. Therefore it is not in the best interest of the dating website for customers to ever find a partner and leave. To get people to join there has to be at least an illusion of sensible dates in the subscriber's area. Once paid up then you can message them, without paying then there is no way to do that. I believe match.com have sufficient subscribers so that most people in most large cities do have a reasonable amount of genuine potential dates, however, there is no way of knowing if those other dates are non-paying profiles that will not answer back to any messages sent. Therefore, there is no way of knowing if those profiles are genuine. Clearly reputation rests on these profiles being genuine, they cannot be outright fakes or else subscribers will cancel their membership and try their luck elsewhere. As the situation stands the subscriber, not getting any replies back can assume that a) they are far too ugly for the 'hot chick' to want to write back, b) they have not done well writing a message they would want to reply to, c) the 'hot chick' gets so much interest that some 'hotter dude' has beaten them to it or d) the 'hot chick' has joined the site but not paid up. Only the paranoid would assume option e) that the 'hot chick' is some fake profile. The BBC's Panorama recently did an investigation into dating websites and it found that quite a few were pieced together with fake profiles. These profiles can also be bought online, so, if you want a few hundred thousand profiles for a dating website then you can just buy them. There are also places in obscure parts of the world where people spend all day 'being' these fake/ghost profiles. I would not be the least bit surprised if there were also 'Eliza' programs automating this. I don't think match.com are that unscrupulous, but then again, they are, the business demands it.

by yuliyp 13y ago

kristiandupont 13y ago

Well for one, it's a solution to the chicken-and-egg problem that dating sites face when starting out. And I guess even with traction, you want people to feel like they are in "a crowded room", even if a bunch of the profiles don't respond back or flake.

draugadrotten 13y ago
All dating sites do this. If you know of a single dating site that did not "seed" with model photos when it was started, I would be interested to know about it. badoo is another scam site with 80% fake model photos - it's obvious the online dating scene is big money and very poor ethics I'd like to see google dating - with a "don't be evil" motto
- twister 13y ago
  PlentyofFish didn't and it's still the second largest after Match.com. A lot of the smaller niche dating sites you'll find started from a related website or network. Facebook, although not a dating website, afaik never created fake profiles.
- jasonlotito 13y ago
  > All dating sites do this. That's not true at all. I know this for a fact. I > badoo is another scam site with 80% fake model photos - it's obvious I don't know the badoo guys personally, but I'm pretty sure they are working just as hard combatting fake model photos. It's not an easy solution, as you can't just say "Oh, look, let's ban everyone with this photo" because they will change photos constantly.

thu 13y ago

That attracts people to the site (fake profiles have nicer pictures), so they pay to be part of it. Not a lot of people see it is a fake profile at first. I have tried to use dating websites. Even on non-free ones, you can still register for free and see profiles. Whenever the picture is really nice, I use a small Firefox plugin called "who stoled my pictures" and find the picture is from someone else (models for instance). I don't know if those sites create the fake profile themselves, but they certainly do little to detect them. Usage of something similar to the "who stoled my picture" plugin would be quite effective (even used manually by their staff who goes through new profile to approve pictures anyway).

Theodores 13y ago

I have two problems with this statement: "Not a day goes by when someone doesn't tell me that they saw my pictures posted on Match.com or another website" 1) The numbers: Given how many friends real people have, given that 50% or so of the population are male, given that not all of one's friends are single, given that not everyone who is single is searching the internet looking for love, given that not all the fake profiles that use her photo are geographically likely to be where her single friends that use dating websites live, given that not everyone that uses a dating website is willing to admit to it, what is the realistic likelihood that this 'mom and model' really does have people telling her almost every day that they have just seen her likeness online? 2) 'or another website': It is well known that many dating websites use fake profiles bought of the internet. The complaint is about match.com, not mystery random other websites. As for why the fake profiles... The business model of a dating website (OKCupid excepted, which is also owned by match.com) relies on people paying a monthly fee to be on the site. Therefore it is not in the best interest of the dating website for customers to ever find a partner and leave. To get people to join there has to be at least an illusion of sensible dates in the subscriber's area. Once paid up then you can message them, without paying then there is no way to do that. I believe match.com have sufficient subscribers so that most people in most large cities do have a reasonable amount of genuine potential dates, however, there is no way of knowing if those other dates are non-paying profiles that will not answer back to any messages sent. Therefore, there is no way of knowing if those profiles are genuine. Clearly reputation rests on these profiles being genuine, they cannot be outright fakes or else subscribers will cancel their membership and try their luck elsewhere. As the situation stands the subscriber, not getting any replies back can assume that a) they are far too ugly for the 'hot chick' to want to write back, b) they have not done well writing a message they would want to reply to, c) the 'hot chick' gets so much interest that some 'hotter dude' has beaten them to it or d) the 'hot chick' has joined the site but not paid up. Only the paranoid would assume option e) that the 'hot chick' is some fake profile. The BBC's Panorama recently did an investigation into dating websites and it found that quite a few were pieced together with fake profiles. These profiles can also be bought online, so, if you want a few hundred thousand profiles for a dating website then you can just buy them. There are also places in obscure parts of the world where people spend all day 'being' these fake/ghost profiles. I would not be the least bit surprised if there were also 'Eliza' programs automating this. I don't think match.com are that unscrupulous, but then again, they are, the business demands it.