Even Online Dating Sites Try To Puff Up Their Image

from the must-come-with-the-territory dept

It's no secret that many people use their online dating profile to make themselves sound better than they really are. Perhaps they learned it from watching how these dating sites market themselves, as we keep hearing about online dating sites who seem to be doing the same thing in trying to pump up their own businesses. We already reported on the accusations against both Match.com and Yahoo dating for questionable activities (including luring people to stick with the site with fake replies and fake profiles). Now comes a report out of South Africa of an upstart dating site that seems to have been accused of a whole laundry list of dirty tricks. First, they apparently copied their entire design straight from another dating site (a legal threat caused them to redesign). They've also been accused of posting profiles on other dating sites, and when people contact them, suggesting they move the conversation over to their own site. Finally, the main part of the story, is that they were accused of sending fake messages to users. This accusation came after one person signed up but input almost no data -- but very quickly received a message from someone saying he was a perfect match. He then had a friend sign up... and that guy received an identical message from the same "woman." The people who run the site blame an overly desperate female subscriber who they say contacted every man on the site. Of course, that doesn't say much for how the site operates if it's so easy to contact every single subscriber of the opposite sex.