Web Site Offers to Ruin People's Lives for $20 a Month

A service offering a complete "revenge package" in which people can destroy the financial status and relationships of their enemies at the click of a mouse is being offered over the Internet.

For as little as $20 a month, customers of the confidentialaccess.com Web site can make the credit ratings of people they dislike plummet, and even have them suspected of fraud. Victims' bank accounts can be shut down remotely and all their essential utilities cut off. Fake e-mails and text messages which purport to come from someone else, such as the victim's spouse, can be sent containing false accusations of affairs or sexual liaisons.

[Editor's note: At one point Monday morning, the front page of www.confidentialaccess.com had been replaced by a lengthy ad offering content optimization on RSS feeds. What appeared to have been the original front page later reappeared, with "revenge" services no longer offered, but many other fraudulent documents such as fake driver's licenses and bank statements still available.]

The new "revenge" services are the latest example of the harm the Internet can cause individuals.

A British House of Lords committee report published last week described criminality on the Web as so bad that it was like "the Wild West." The Web site, which also offers to create perfect "novelty" copies of any documentation necessary to enable the customer to gain revenge, promises its services "can create mayhem."

"CA [Confidential Access] can make it so someone couldn't even get an ice cream cone on credit again," the site promises. One way of doing this, it explains, is to apply repeatedly for credit using the victim's name and multiple addresses, leading inevitably to a red flag from Britain's Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System (Cifas) or similar agencies. Credit is then stopped until an investigation by Cifas decides whether the subject has been the perpetrator or victim of fraud.

CA offers further ideas of how to use its services.

1) "Create some false payslips [paychecks] and send them back returned to the victim's employer and watch them lose their job," it advises.
2) "Destroy a person's bank account using our novelty bank statements. Bank accounts are like gold dust now; return[ing] a novelty bank statement with their details back to the bank works for killing someones [sic] credit card account.
3) "Watch your victim cry when all his/her accounts are closed."

The Web site states that even accounts on eBay, the auction Web site, and PayPal, the Internet payment system, can easily be sabotaged. Many of its activities may be illegal. Senior police sources said confidentialaccess.com, which is apparently hosted on a Singapore-based Internet server but run by Britons, is under investigation by more than one force.

The operators, who claim also to have bases in Hong Kong, Dublin and Boston, offer to fabricate a large range of documents, ranging from U.K. driving licenses, car-ownership papers and Ministry of Transport certificates to tax forms, paychecks and bank statements.

Most items are priced at a few hundred dollars but basic membership, which entitles customers to many of the "revenge" options, costs $20 a month. Payments can be made either over the Internet or directly into a British bank account in the name of A.J. Smith. Once the money is received, items are dispatched within a week or two.
The Web site boasts of the ultra-genuine appearance of its fakes, which are also intended to be used by customers to acquire credit from banks.

The Web site operators even offer to register customers on the electoral rolls to a variety of properties with which they have no connection. Verbal and written references for non-existent employment records are also supplied. The Web site's forum pages are full of glowing testimonials from satisfied customers who have apparently used CA products.

The Sunday Times obtained a fake British driving license for $600 using a bogus name and the photograph of one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists — Adam Yahiye Gadahn, aka "Azzam the American," who has been accused of being an Al Qaeda operative. His picture appears on the fake license, complete with a realistic-looking hologram and markings, next to a false name.

Confidential Access claims to be offering legal services, but the identity of its operators, who use the name the Caxess Corporation, is hidden behind untraceable phone numbers and P.O. box numbers that lead to offshore courier companies.
The Web site subscribes to the revenge ethos in other ways too.

On its forum, its site administrator displayed a letter from a fraud investigator for the Royal Bank of Scotland in which he requests that the Singapore server take down the site because it is breaching trademark law. In response, the site's operators have posted the man's home address, together with the name of his partner, and suggested that subscribers post excrement through their letterbox. Other CA members suggest deflating his car's tires, instigating a credit inquiry on him and even "paying him a visit."

Sources at the Royal Bank of Scotland confirmed that the man, whose identity is being protected by The Sunday Times, has received threatening phone calls. A bank spokesman said the site had recently been reported to the police.

Richard Clayton, a Cambridge University researcher on Internet security and adviser to the House of Lords science and technology committee, said, "I have never come across a site devoted to offering revenge in this way before. "The only similar thing is one or two of the extreme right-wing Web sites which list addresses and suggest people go and beat up political opponents." (Read original article.)

Photo of Missing Florida Woman Turns Up on Dating Web Sites for Seniors, Lesbians

The photo of a Florida woman who has been missing for a year-and-a-half has turned up on Internet dating sites for lesbians and senior citizens.

A picture of Jennifer Kesse, who disappeared in Orlando when she was 24, has been posted with the profile of lindaneedslove on SeniorPeopleMeet.com and with that of chickcheckinaz on lesbianpersonalsonline.com.

“It’s disturbing,” her father, Drew Kesse, said in a phone interview. “Whoever cut and pasted it obviously had to go on her site to get it. They had to know she was missing. How someone can do that — it’s horrible.” The Web site dedicated to Jennifer's case is www.jenniferkesse.com.

Kesse, 50, said he and his wife, Joyce — who live in Bradenton, Fla. — are in the process of trying to copyright Jennifer’s image so they’ll at least be able to file a lawsuit against anyone who uses it without permission.

Jennifer Kesse was last heard from the night of Jan. 23, 2006. But on Jan. 24, she never made it to work at Westgate Resorts, where she manages the financial department that oversees timeshares.

Family and friends searched the area around her home and a nearby mall. Her car, a 2004 black four-door Chevrolet Malibu, was found abandoned about one mile from her home at Texas & Americana.

Surveillance video taken on the grounds of her Orlando apartment complex shows a person parking her car at about 1 p.m. on Jan. 24.

The investigator in charge of her case said there’s not much action that can be taken against those who have stolen Jennifer’s image to use with their profiles on dating Web sites.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” said Detective Joel Wright of the Orlando Police Department. “We can look into their background to see if it’s some sex offender, look into their history and see if it’s anybody who might have come into contact with her.”

He said it’s unlikely that those who have used Jennifer’s photograph have anything to do with her disappearance, however.

“More than likely, it’s somebody just trying to make themselves look better for someone they might want to meet later on,” Wright said. “I wonder what happens when they do meet that person.”

Lindaneedslove writes under the photo that it depicts “Linda after haircut.” She describes herself as a 25-year-old woman from Knoxville, Tenn., who has 75 percent hearing loss and is looking for “a special older man to love, to be very good friends with.” The “wonderful older man” she’s seeking will want to be with a young woman and “will love me for who I am,” she writes.

Wright said the discovery that Jennifer’s picture is being falsely used has been an annoying distraction in the investigation.

“All it does is slow me down,” he said. “All of a sudden, the calls start coming in. It’s more of a nuisance than anything else.”

Though there haven’t been any new leads in the case, Wright said he and the other investigators are going through old tips and entering them into a new state lead-tracking system to see if they might have missed something.

“We’re making progress,” he said.

Jennifer’s dad worries about the fact that the people who posted his daughter’s image on the dating sites are “very fraudulent, very deceitful. They’re out there looking for sexual contact.”

“Obviously you’ve got to be sick to do that,” Kesse said. “We don’t want Jennifer’s likeness abused. It’s just as simple as that.”

Anyone with any information is encouraged to call the Orlando Police Department at (321) 235-5300 or the Kesse family tip line at (407) 722-2162. (Read original article.)

Are Dating Sites Worth Your Time?

Though it might seem like online dating is the hottest trend on the planet, the real question is whether or not it actually works. You might see commercials about how certain dating sites have helped hundreds of couples get together and thought that their numbers sounded pretty successful to you. However, when you stop to think about how long some of these sites have been in business, it doesn’t seem to come out to a lot of success overall.

But is that the fault of the user or of the online dating service itself?

The answer to this question is unclear, but it can be debated on both sides. First of all, if you don’t try to meet people through the online dating site, chances are good that you probably won’t. If you’re not writing a strong profile and you’re not attempting to meet people in real life, you’re probably not going to find love. On the other hand, if the online dating site doesn’t help you find new people or it doesn’t have a lot of people using the site, you have to wonder if this site is really hoping that you will meet someone. If they’re not giving you advice or making it easy, you may be starting out at a disadvantage.

Are dating sites worth your time? Absolutely. But just as with any commitment, both sides need to work at it. (Originally posted July 7, 2007 by Julie.)

MySpace deletes 29,000 sex offenders

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Popular Internet social network MySpace said on Tuesday it detected and deleted 29,000 convicted sex offenders on its service, more than four times the figure it had initially reported.

The company, owned by media conglomerate News Corp, said in May it had deleted about 7,000 user profiles that belonged to convicted offenders. MySpace attracts about 60 million unique visitors monthly in the United States.

The new information was first revealed by U.S. state authorities after MySpace turned over information on convicted sex offenders it had removed from the service.

"The exploding epidemic of sex offender profiles on MySpace -- 29,000 and counting -- screams for action," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement.

Blumenthal, who led a coalition of state authorities to lobby MySpace for more stringent safeguards for minors, and other state AGs have demanded the service begin verifying a user's age and require parental permission for minors.

The minimum age to register on MySpace is 14.

"We're pleased that we've successfully identified and removed registered sex offenders from our site and hope that other social networking sites follow our lead," MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a statement.

The service has come under attack over the past year after some of its young members fell prey to adult predators posing as minors. The families of several teenage girls sexually assaulted by MySpace members sued the service in January for failing to safeguard its young members.

Late last year, it struck a partnership with background verification company Sentinel Tech Holdings Corp. to co-develop the first U.S. national database of convicted sex offenders to make it easier to track offenders on the Internet.

Convicted sex offenders are required by law to register their contact information with local authorities. But the information has only been available on regional databases, making nationwide searches difficult.

As of May, there were about 600,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. (Read original article.)

Urbancougar

Cougars have been classified by genus and species by urbancougar.com.

Urbancougar: it's not a stigma, it's a sophisticated species of female who seeks the pleasure of younger males. She avoids the entanglements of a "relationship," in favor of the freedom of the hunt.

She has overcome the taboos related to her sexual identity, embraced her true self, and now lives her life to its fullest. Always one for adventure, she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to get it!

Urbancougar.com is a celebration of the urbancougar lifestyle, the women who embody it, and the prey who love them for it!

Online Dating on the Ranch

When the rooster crows, are you all alone? Do you milk the cow and churn butter by your lonesome self? Are you looking for love in all the wrong places?

If you're a farmer reaping a bitter harvest on the field of love, there's now an online dating service just for you.

"City folks just don't understand," says Jerry Miller, who founded the www.farmersonly.com website in May 2005.

"Sure, the farming community gets smaller every year, but there are still roughly 2 million farms in America, and the people who live out there are committed to a way of life that not everyone wants or understands."

Lovelorn Horse Dentist Seeks Companionship

Geography is often the enemy of a farmer's love life. Not only do farmers work in remote areas, they're spread out all over all 50 states.
George Oscar, a 42-year-old horse dentist who lives just outside Cleveland, says it's the best dating website he's ever joined, and it's already resulted in several friendships.

"I live close enough to a big city that I had options. I tried Yahoo! Personals," Oscar says. "But my job is unique, and I wanted to meet people who shared my interests, only I didn't want to date my clients."

Some 40 million Americans -- nearly half of all unmarried people -- have tried Internet dating in recent years, turning it into a $1 billion business. Match.com alone operates 30 different sites in 18 languages and claims to have 15 million members around the world.

There's also a plethora of niche dating sites, catering to singles of various religious faiths, geographic location, educational background and special interests. If politics is your thing, there's DemocraticDating.com and RepublicanDating.com. You can seek a lifelong horseback riding companion on www.EquestrianSingles.com, rev your engine at www.Harley-Match.com, or double-date with your pooch on www.DoggieDating.com.

And if you're married and looking for philandering thrills, www.AshleyMadison.com and several other sites will cater to your cheating heart.

It's a Farmer Thing

Miller was therefore shocked six months ago, when he found that there wasn't an online dating site just for farmers. "Farming is something that you either want as a lifestyle or don't, and that's what makes this site relevant," he says.

"You either know what it's like to work from the crack of down 'til the sun goes down or you don't. You either know the pressure to get your job done at harvest season, or the lifestyle isn't for you."

Miller and his wife of 27 years have raised three children. Though the 52-year-old Cleveland resident might talk like a farmer, he's actually an advertising man with agricultural clients, including the Alpaca Owners & Breeders Association, that take him to plenty of farms.

"I work with more than 4,000 farmers through my business," he says.
Several months before he created the site, a divorced farmer was telling him of her dating woes and how she just couldn't find a guy who could appreciate the lifestyle.
While other online services allow members to search for companions in particular professions, Miller believes that rural folks -- and people who want to return to farm life -- need a special place.

FarmersOnly.com has a substantial non-farming membership -- many work or want to live in rural communities. One lady describes herself as a third-generation farmer, who wants to correct "the mistake" of moving to a big city.

Just like other dating sites, homosexuals are welcome to find companionship, and a handful have already posted profiles.

"We're still small, but we're at the point where I'm pretty sure this thing is going to make it," Miller says. "I hear from members now that they meet up with each other at trade shows, and things like that. We're definitely welcomed as part of a community." (Read full article.)

Texas Nabs MySpace Sex Offenders

Last month, MySpace reported that it identified, removed and blocked “a few thousand” user profiles of convicted sex offenders among its 175 million profiles on its service as part a previously announced program to protect its youth members from adult predators.

MATCHinform is encouraged that MySpace continues to increase consumer awareness and policing its popular social networking web site. As reported by The Daily Texan, MySpace is in the process of releasing the names of all convicted sex offenders in Texas who have set up online member profiles, in compliance with a May 21 order from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

The social networking site has agreed to turn over the first and last names of users who are registered sex offenders, as well as their e-mail addresses, IP addresses and profile information.

MySpace has partnered with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp., an online identity and background verification company, to create a software program to locate sex offenders with networking profiles and delete them. The program, called Sentinel Safe, aggregates information from state and federal sex offender databases into one searchable format. About 7,000 profiles have been removed from the web site so far.

As a result of the order, seven convicted sex offenders with profiles on MySpace.com have been arrested in what Texas officials said was the country's first large-scale crackdown of registered offenders who use the social networking web site.

The men were arrested in Houston, Austin, Round Rock, and Glenn Heights during a two-week operation by the Texas Attorney General's Cyber Crimes and Fugitive units. (Read full article.)

Text Messages Replace Traditional Dating

Singles are becoming more and more cautious. Some singles don't give out their business cards anymore, whereas that seemed like a less intimate and safer way to exchange numbers in the past. Singles are back to writing their non-traceable cell numbers on a napkin or the back of the restaurant's card where the two met.

Even dating has become more reserved. Not too long ago, the first step after meeting someone was to ask them out for a drink. After the initial meet and greet, cocktails could lead to dinner if both parties passed inspection. Now, singles aren’t even meeting for drinks right away. Instead they opt for texting. Texting is intimate and revealing enough, but not too personal nor does it require the same level of commitment as a phone call.

With the popularity and rise in usage of texting came the emergence of a new language tailored to the immediacy and compactness of this new communication media. This new language can make text messages appear to be written in their own foreign language. (Online auction abbreviations can be found here.) Even though texting can be abundant with acronyms and slang, limited character usage obliges that messages be quick, charming, and engaging sound bites, which necessitates intelligent wit.

Googling Your Date

“Googling the one you (might) love is fairly common among the young, professional and Internet-savvy. ’Everyone does it...and if [they say] they're not doing it, they're lying.'” — Nara Schoenberg, "Don't Go Into Date Blind; Singles Googling Before Canoodling," Chicago Tribune, April 2, 2001.

Marriage licenses and divorce records are public records as are professional licenses. Singles regularly use Lexis/Westlaw and the internet to ascertain more about their dates. Some partake in "internet informational gathering" to curb their curiosity. Does my date rent or own? Others want to verify their date’s honesty. Did they really go to Harvard? Is he/she really an attorney?

For better or worse, "Googling" dates is standard practice. The results can be enlightening, surprising, and even disturbing. Read CNN's recent article “Googling Your Date” (April 10, 2007). Also see, “Consider 'Googling' potential dates the new form of flattery” (August 13, 2002).

All Tips and Tricks Denies Link to ReviewMe

Simmone, thanks for your comment to MATCHinform's blog article Beware of ReviewMe.

On your blog All Tips and Tricks you advertise “[i]f you have a blog, and after a while you like what you see, and decide that you want to be reviewed at AllTipsAndTricks, you can either drop a comment here with a link to your blog (and if you catch my attention, you’ll get a free review), or order a review via Review Me. This blog is young, so a review costs only $60. This month, Review Me has a promotion: 50% cut off, if you use the coupon code “trial”. You can take advantage and get your $30 review now, or wait to read my Rolling Blogroll, then decide.”

Besides advocating for your readers and other bloggers to use ReviewMe, you also promote your own advertising schema (similar to ReviewMe) called The Rolling BlogRoll Idea, which you explain as follows:

“Every day, over the next few months, I will publish one review of a blog I like. It is free, and it does not oblige the authors of the reviewed blogs to anything. That’s my pleasure and my way of thanking them for the great content they provide. If you like the review, you can grab the Rolling Blogroll Badge and put it on your site, with a link back to your blog’s review. The badge will be available on this page and on your blog’s review page. Do you want to roll on the Blogroll? You are welcome: after I review your blog, please do the same thing for one of your favourite blogs: review it and explain the Rolling Blogroll idea to the author.”

Dan and Jennifer solicited a review from All Tips and Tricks on March 30th, 2007 at 18:02. "Hey Simonne, Great blog. I just came to All Tips And Tricks from our friend Scott’s blog (Finding Your Marbles) - great review. We’d love a review of our blog as well if you’re so inclined. Our site is a Dating / Relationship advice column...Scott actually did a wonderful review of our site about a week ago - and he really got the essence of what we’re about, which is really cool...Thanks and have an awesome day! Dan"

Finally, listed with your Ask Dan and Jennifer review is a comment from Dan and Jennifer. (April 10th, 2007 13:20) “Hey Simonne, Thanks for the great review, we really appreciate it! Have an awesome day! Dan.” You answered as Simonne. (April 10th, 2007 14:57) “Hi Dan (and Jennifer). It was my pleasure doing it! I really like your blog.”

I will leave it up to our readers to decide if your support of ReviewMe, promotion of your own advertising system The Rolling BlogRoll Idea and correspondence with Dan gives the impression that the arrangement wasn't at the very least mutually beneficial.

Beware of ReviewMe

Making extra cash from your blog is always a plus, but has paid solicitation gone too far?

Most people are aware of Google Ads. “AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis – wikipedia.”

Amazon Associates also offers a paid advertisement service. Amazon Associates uses “[a] computer program [that] reads [your] blog, matches the topics to various books Amazon sells and places ads for those books on [your] site – bloggernews.” By linking to Amazon products and services you can receive up to 10% in referral fees.

Yet another paid for advertisement service is ReviewMe. ReviewMe works more or less like this: you signup your blog, ReviewMe analyzes your blog and gives it a "value" (e.g., $60 per a review), you wait for an advertiser to pick your blog, you write a review based on the advertiser's specs, and you get paid.

According to ReviewMe, “People ignore ads. In much the same way that banner blindness set in, many publishers [notice] their contextual ad click through rates and earnings drop over time.” ReviewMe’s solution is to trick site visitors by making their ads appear as legitimate blog articles. “Because [ReviewMe’s] reviews are not formatted to look like ads, publishers are able to deliver more attention and value than through advertising via any other marketing channel.”

Last month MATCHinform wrote an unsolicited, unpaid review on MillionaireMatch. MillionaireMatch uses the ReviewMe service to pay other blogs to review, and thus advertise, their site. Compare our review of MillionaireMatch with Cupids ReviewMe review.

While I cannot fault someone for trying to increase traffic to their site, the audience should be aware that these blog reviews are solicited and the content is influenced by the purchaser and cash.

Ask Dan and Jennifer is a popular dating advice site that also uses ReviewMe. There are numerous positive reviews by bloggers for their site. For example, see the Ask Dan and Jennifer review by All Tips and Tricks, Finding your Marbles, Balanced Life Center, and Seeds for Wealth (just to name a few). Also, for $150.00 Dan and Jennifer will write a glowing review for your site on their popular blog.

Dating advice blogs, like the Great Mate Debate and Ask Dan and Jennifer, have insightful content. However, when reading and deciding whether to execute their advice, realize the corporate and/or monetary influences that are in place.

It is important to distinguish between corporate/ReviewMe sites and those who aren’t constrained by the internet dating lobbyists. Again, it is not that the corporate/ReviewMe sites don’t offer meaningful advice, after all they have the money and backing to ensure their content is top notch. However, their corporate and promotional interests will always be a factor, and you should be aware of these motivations.

Chemistry.com and The Great Mate Debate

Evan Marc Katz of Advice From A Single Dating Expert discusses a new dating advice blog by Chemistry.com, the Great Mate Debate in his article "Apparently, ANYONE can give advice...".

MATCHinform would like to add that Chemistry.com’s parent company is InterActiveCorp, IAC, who owns and operates more than 60 specialized and global brands including Ask.com, Match.com, and Ticketmaster.

The Great Mate Debate was “[d]eveloped by the experts at Match.com” as a promotional and solicitation device for Chemistry.com (a new internet dating site).

Bear in mind that these five experts are on IAC's payroll or receiving fringe benefits from their involvement, so their “advice” is motivated by the Match.com franchise.

Single Tease

SingleTease launched on March 1 with a party at Helix Lounge [in Washington, DC]. The first round of T-shirts includes boy scouting (are you prepared?) and support your local library (check me out).

So far the t-shirts are just for females, but [the creators of SingleTease] hope that both men and women on the prowl will benefit from wearable conversation starters. (Read full article.)

All of the women I have talked to think the "ice breaker" t-shirts are cool or interesting, but none would wear one out (at least in their city).

CNN's Paula Zahn Discusses Ryan Fitzgerald and Give Me a Call

Paula Zahn Now - Aired April 25, 2007 - Americans spend more time alone in the car, alone at their desk, alone in their lives. But they still want to connect, which might explain the incredible popularity of [w]eb sites like MySpace and Facebook. It's a way to reach out and communicate, sometimes anonymously.

On the [w]eb site postsecret.com, people send in anonymous post cards revealing their innermost secrets and confessions. Some incredibly personal. There are want ads for friends on Craigslist. Clearly America is lonely. So lonely that [they will] reach out to anyone who's willing to listen.

Earlier this week [Paula Zahn] talked with Ryan Fitzgerald, the young man who put his cell phone number on YouTube (see clip) for anyone who needed to talk. He says he has gotten nearly 10,000 calls just in the past few days…What kind of a vulnerable position is Ryan putting himself in and potentially some of the people he is giving advice to? (Read full article.)

Ryan’s experiment raises several questions with respect to personal safety. Ryan has supplied his name, likeness, and cell phone number to millions of people. In his interview with Ms. Zahn, Ryan discusses a conversation he had with a caller who wanted to hurt himself over a failed relationship. If perchance the distraught individual did injure himself, would someone blame Ryan and seek revenge?

Ryan’s “advice” is not anonymous. With web sites like zabasearch and zoominfo, private and personal information is easily accessible. Even if someone takes precautions to use pseudonyms, public and non-traceable email addresses, etc., it is not guaranteed that the individual’s friends and family have taken the same precautions.

Someone’s “private” MySpace Account is no longer “private” if their best friend has a non-private account and blogs freely. Although one can take care not to broadcast their personal identifying information, it is available, and if someone really wants to know who you are, there are ways to find out.

MATCHinform welcomes its 1000 MySpace friend!

Less than two months after joining the MySpace community, MATCHinform welcomes its 1000 friend. Thanks to everyone for your comments and suggestions. We appreciate your input and assistance making MATCHinform a useful tool for the online social networking community.

Oprah Exposes Scams in Internet Dating

Today’s Oprah included a segment on online romance scams. Apparently internet scammers have discovered that using the allure of potential romance is an effective means of getting their feet in doors that previously have remained closed.

Often the scammer creates a fraudulent profile that is highly attractive to most internet daters, especially women, portraying himself as a successful, well-traveled, international who has achieved everything he desired except finding his female counterpart.

MATCHinform is warning all users of social networks to be aware of this rapidly growing problem and recommends that users continue to check matchinform.com when dating online; moreover, we ask that users who discover scammers and fraudulent reports immediately report the profiles to MATCHinform.

PlanJam removes MATCHinform's comment

Yesterday, in an attempt to present another perspective on the issue, MATCHinform left a post on PlanJam's weblog in response to their article "How To Handle Your Ex." PlanJam seems to have removed the comment.

It is our hope that our submission did not offend PlanJam's people in any way or violate any of its policies with regard to posting a comment.

The missing posting can be viewed on Matchinform’s Blog, so that readers can decide for themselves if it should have been removed.

We hope PlanJam is not limiting postings to only those that are in 100% agreement with the blog, as we feel an open discussion, with as many perspectives as possible offers more value to readers.

Libelous Posts in Craigslist Personals

The popular classifieds site Craigslist has gained attention once again for scandalous posts in its personals section. This is not a new issue and has been reported by the media for over two years. MATCHinform has previously posted a warning in the form of a press release for users regarding the Craigslist personals section. While we strongly discourage anyone from using Craiglsist to find an honest and meaningful relationship, the salacious posts are fun to read and popular.

While it appears that since Matchinform issued its press release, the number of postings offering illegal services have decreased drastically, according to recent reports from major news organizations, Craigslist is still the subject of investigations for operating a venue that allows such advertisements.

Beyond solicitation and other illegal activities, Craiglsist has also had an issue with its users posting libelous content about third parties. In the last six months Craigslist has added some new features in addition to its self-policing to cut down on these activities.

When one posts a message, there is now a delay of five to twenty minutes for that post to be published on the website. Craigslist appears to have improved their filters to catch proper names and other personal information. Also, one can no longer respond directly to a post. For example, if someone posts "My Boyfriend Loves Apple Pie," there is no longer a link that allows you to respond directly, which would automatically give your post the subject line "Re: My Boyfriend Loves Apple Pie."

By adding / deleting these features, Craigslist has made it more difficult for users to link posts together and thus, search for posts containing libelous content. Without ease and immediate gratification, we feel users are less likely to participate in such activity. While libelous content still gets through these blocks, over the course of the last eight months, we solute the management of Craigslist for making an effort to curtail improper activity on the site, and truly hope this is a continuing effort to make the forum safe, legal, and useful.

Millionaires on MillionaireMatch.com? Not Exactly.

New Comment posted on MATCHinform - Jessica said...I saw the ranking list you mentioned. I also admire that young man who started such a popular site. But I am told an attractive girl like me should be well married. Maybe millionairematch.com is more suitable for me (April 6, 2007 12:58 AM).

Thank you Jessica for your solicitation. Markus Find is the CEO of plentyoffish.com, which is considered by some as the premier “free” internet dating website. Interestingly, both Markus and Successful Match, which is the parent company of MillionareMatch.com, are based in Canada.

Successful Match owns at least 40 niche market internet dating websites. Some of the websites appear to be decent ideas (SingleParentMatch.com); others will likely fall flat as a dating forum (PetsFriends.com).

Out of plain curiosity, I checked out MilionaireMatch.com. The site will not let you browse its members unless you are a member, which I always feel is a huge mistake. But in this case, I was intrigued enough to sign-up.

Before I even had the chance to peruse the site, I was bombarded with instant messages. The site allows paying members to contact non-paying members, and for the non-paying members to respond. I wrote about this in a post not too long ago. Great idea! This is how lavalife and match.com use to operate circa 2002.

MillionaireMatch.com is attempting to appeal to a niche market (the financial successful). However, it categorizes anyone who earns $150,000 and above annually [as a millionaire]. You do not need to have assets that total a million dollars or more per year.” I understand not restricting your potential user base, but seriously, MATCHinform's headquarters are in Washington, DC, and $150,000 per annum only buys you a one bedroom condo and a metro pass, not a “millionaire” lifestyle. In their defense, MillionaireMatch.com does define its $150,000 marker as demonstrating potential for future earnings and offers “certified millionaire” status. However, I just don’t see a “real” millionaire submitting his W-2 to an internet dating site.

Another issue is that the database is small, in part because the site is either new or hasn't been effectively advertised and also because it appeals to a niche market. When people decide to use online dating as a true and honest method of meeting people, geographical proximity is a key factor. First and foremost is the question of safety. If you travel an extended distance to meet someone, you have isolated yourself from a support structure that could help you if anything ever went wrong. Secondly, most people are not going to get on a plane every time they want to go out to dinner. Finally, a large percentage of people who communicate online with members of the opposite sex who are geographically distanced, do so because they have a relationship at home.

I like the site because it is pseudo-free and when I went onto the site several people immediately contacted me. The price and instant attention were strong selling points, but I don’t think the site is successful as it is currently marketed. Right now, the site is for bored, upper class people who may or may not be looking for a long-term relationship. Overall, the site seems best suited to aim for a piece of the adult/casual encounters market.

Hot Enough - another online dating website

Hot Enough is a dating website that has recently been splashed all over the news. Mostly, the “news” has just been a frenzy of press releases, but when hotenough.org garnered a segment on the O’Reilly Factor last night, I took notice. Like it or not, the site has gotten enough attention to pull it from the AP Newswire to primetime TV.

I only see the site as a passing fad, and more in the tune with Hammer pants than retro chic. The site is supposed to be a niche market for attractive people to online date. Prospective members submit three pictures and must be rated an 8 or higher by people already in the “club.” Once they pass, they are permitted to email other "hotties" for $9.95 a month.

“A few months after [the site’s] launch, membership is just under 1,000…In the beginning, only 8 percent of those who applied made the grade, but now about 25 percent of applicants do.” A Fox News article goes further to compare the site to an online Studio 54. Is anyone else seeing red flags?

Attractive people especially those who have “great” pictures, and thus are aware of their physical appeal, go out to meet people. Women and men who rate in that 8+ range are use to attention and have little or no issues getting a date. The beautiful people that are legitimately too busy to find their soul-mate at the local singles bar do not have time to spend on frivolous dating sites that rate users as “Hot Enough.” Those individuals use more “legitimate” sites such as eHarmony, JDate, Match, etc.

Just remember that the individuals who have enough time to play on the Internet also have enough time to photoshop pictures or find other outlets to join the Hot Enough “club.”