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[Editor's note: At one point Monday morning, the front page of www.confidentialaccess.com had been replaced by a lengthy ad offering content optimization on RSS feeds.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.)

Class War: MySpace vs. Facebook

By Claire Cain Miller, Forbes.com

A flurry of recent articles have observed that young people are leaving MySpace for Facebook in droves, setting off speculation that MySpace is becoming the latest victim of fickle teens following the hot new thing.

Not so, says University of California, Berkeley, researcher Danah Boyd. Not all teens are leaving MySpace, she wrote in a recent essay--instead, they're splitting up along class lines.

Boyd confirms what teens in any high school across the country already know: Affluent kids from educated, well-to-do families have been fleeing MySpace for Facebook since it opened registration to the general public in September, while working-class kids still flock to MySpace.

That could have big implications for advertisers targeting the coveted teenaged population online, three-quarters of whom have a profile on a social network. Both sites have been powerhouses for advertisers because of their huge, wide-reaching audiences, says Robin Neifield, chief executive of interactive marketing agency NetPlus Marketing. That strategy could change if the sites become more like the niche social networks popping up across the Web for groups of like-minded people from similar backgrounds.

Boyd's essay came amid speculation about the future of the social network giants. Despite the fact that MySpace still gets more than twice as many unique visitors as Facebook, it's littered with postings announcing that users, often teens, are switching to its rival.

The number of Facebook visitors ages 12 to 17 jumped 149% over the past year, while MySpace lost 27% of teens, according to ComScore Media Metrix. Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp.owns MySpace, even lamented in an interview that he was losing readers to Facebook. News Corp. is rumored to be considering swapping MySpace for a 25% stake in Yahoo!.

Estimated ad revenue for 2007 calendar year for Facebook is $125 million, $525 million for MySpace, according to research firm eMarketer. Together, the two account for 72% of all online advertising on social networks.

There's a reason why the "goody-two-shoes, jocks, athletes or other 'good' kids" are going to Facebook, says Boyd, who studies social networks and youth culture and made her observations based on formal interviews with 90 teens, informal interviews with hundreds more, and the perusal of tens of thousands of teens' online profiles.

Facebook launched in 2004 as a site for Harvard students. Gradually, it opened up to other college students, then to high school kids if a college student invited them. "Facebook is what the college kids did. Not surprisingly, college-bound high schoolers desperately wanted in," Boyd writes.

MySpace, meanwhile, is the "cool working-class thing" for high school students getting a job after graduation rather than heading to the Ivy League, Boyd writes. Constant local news stories on predators targeting kids on MySpace further alienated the "good kids," she says. Both companies declined to comment on Boyd's essay.

Her analysis could help marketers figure out which sites to target--help she says they desperately need. "Many of the advertisers that I have met are extremely savvy about offline marketing but complete fools when it comes to online marketing," ignorant of who visits Web sites and why, Boyd wrote in an e-mail interview with Forbes. Paying attention to demographics could help. Hot Topic should target MySpace, for example, while J. Crew should focus on Facebook.

"As an advertiser, in my opinion, Facebook users are more qualified to convert and more apt to buy a shirt, so I would go there before MySpace," says Josh Mohrer, director of retail for BustedTees, an online purveyor of hipster clothes and sometime Facebook advertiser.

Facebook can lure advertisers with its affluence, says Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, an online marketing analysis firm. His data backs up Boyd's conclusions that Facebook users are richer than those on MySpace. Still, MySpace attracts so many more viewers that "there's no way marketers are going to leave," he says.

NetPlus chief Neifield says she's not paying too much attention to Boyd's observations. Advertisers should look beyond demographics when placing ads and instead analyze online behavior like who visited other sites with similar content, who downloaded what or who clicked on which ads, she says. "It's not very often these days that we buy based on demographics alone." (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.)

Missed Connections

While Craigslist offers a variety of public services from apartments to one night flings, the Missed Connection ads offers a tender insight into a world of people who run around the city making eye contact with strangers and falling instantly and madly in love. Some of the posts include:

"You got into a cab Friday on 14th Street and, I think, Second Avenue," said one posting. "We looked at each other. I still remember your pretty smile. Why did I have to be in a rush to get somewhere and not ask you to grab lunch with me? I have more time now and maybe I'll find you here."

"Beautiful stranger, where are you?" another one asked. "We met around 7 p.m. on Monday (July 16). You were very tall and very handsome checking out some three ring binders while I was checking you out. We said hello, but I was too shy to say more. Would love to hear from you."

A recent blog post by NotCarrie at Not Sex and the City got me thinking how addicting could one become to finding a “missed connection.”

Older Men

By Ask the Working Girl from Banker's Ball, Ask the Ex-Working Girl: On Older Men… (July 12, 2006).

“I have personal prejudices against older guys because only in New York is it ok to find men of your dad’s age hanging out in clubs. One thing that I would like to say to young women – ‘do not go for older guys only because they have achieved a lot and have lots of money for the simple reason that in NYC, you will find younger guys who have achieved a lot and have lots of money. They are just harder to catch, but well worth the fishing. That’s the beauty of NY — lots of young, cute men with huge bank accounts. So there’s no need to date an older man unless you are being lazy about it.”

Which reminds me of another great quote from another great woman. Coco Chanel once said — “There are no ugly women in this world, just lazy ones.” My interpretation of these quotes is that both women are saying the same thing. As women, if we put our minds to it, we can get anything we want, we just have to put some thought and work into it. Okay, that is enough Oprah-esque advice for the week.

Late Night Shots (LNS)

Late Night Shots caters to Washington's hard-partying preppy crowd. Think of a new generation of young Republicans getting trashed at St. Elmo's, hooking up, then writing about it at 3 in the morning. The bar-scene-themed Web site launched in late spring 2006 and has since branched out to four other cities. But it's nowhere near as popular anywhere else as it is here in D.C. Founder Reed Landry, a prep-school boy from McLean, Va., claims he has 14,500 members and that a third of them visit the site every day. He and partner Neel Patel say they make enough money from Google ads and banner ads to abandon outside employment.

LNS operates like MySpace and Facebook, but with a heavy emphasis on booze. To get an invite to the site, you need a connection among the clientele of a few select Georgetown night spots. Users have "drinking buddies" instead of "friends" and must list their favorite bars and restaurants. There are fill-in-the-blanks for your sorority or fraternity, your golf handicap, and your country club. The online profiles show a population dominated by good- looking blondes and smirking guys with athlete's shoulders. They attended the University of Virginia, as did Landry, UNC, and a smattering of pretty-good-but-not-Ivy schools in the South and Mid-Atlantic. Under the space for employer, they list investment and lobby firms and jobs on the Hill.

Forum posters have made light of date rape, bashed brunettes, and compared notes on handouts from Mummy and Daddy. A classic thread:

change of pace
Posted By: H on 10-20-2006 1:01 pm
Any suggestions for a little change of pace this evening? I was a bit turned off last night at SP [the Georgetown bar Smith Point] when a girl screamed at me for referring to my boat shoes as loafers—goodness gracious i'm bush league.

RE: change of pace
Posted By: Anti on 10-20-2006 2:38 pm
If I have said it once I have said it 1000 times. DO NOT EVER, EVER even go near Adams Morgan. That place is Ghetto.

RE: change of pace
Posted By: correction on 10-20-2006 2:41 pm
Adams Morgan is only do-able if you limit yourself to a few bars that are close together.

Every minute you spend outside of an actual bar your life is in danger. And do not, DO NOT attempt to get a late-night slice of pizza unless you are a pro.

Any by pro I mean ready to fight people.

RE: change of pace
Posted By: Boat Shoes on 10-20-2006 2:49 pm
Everytime I'm in Adams Morgan, I take on at least 3-4 Ethiopans. Skinny little bastards are feisty.

People like "H" and "correction" have been exchanging their thoughts on boat shoes and skinny foreigners for ages. LNS has simply made an industry of channeling these like-minded folks to places where they feel comfortable. And that would be Georgetown.

Read the full article at the Washington City Paper: Members Only - Late Night Shots is herding the next generation of assholes through Georgetown bars. And you're not invited. by Angela Valdez (posted: July 12, 2007).

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!

Cougars on the Prowl

Age of Love, which premiered June 8 at 10:00 p.m. on NBC, centers on Melbourne tennis champion Mark Philippoussis (age 31) as he's wooed by a group of thirteen special ladies. What Philippoussis doesn't know is that these women range in age from 21 to 48. Will he go for one of the younger gals, or will he become smitten by someone more mature?

To add a touch of misogyny to the whole shebang, the young women will be referred to as "Kittens" and the older women will be referred to as "Cougars." Do you hear that loud rushing sound? That's the sound of decades of feminine progress being flushed down the toilet.

Of course, these women chose to be on this show, but why not just take it that one extra step and have them all wrestle naked in a gigantic bowl of Jello and see who comes out the victor? I guess "Age of Love" just sounds better than "Primetime Catfight," though I would argue the latter is a more fitting title. (Read full article.)

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.)

Confessions of a Matchmaker

Get ready for some tough love as A&E presents the original real-life comedic series, Confessions of a Matchmacker. Confessions of a Matchmaker is part reality show, part dating game, and part "train wreck" voyeurism. Due to its setting in Buffalo, NY, the show lacks some appeal to urban trendsetters, but overall I was pleasantly surprised.

This is no ordinary dating show and she is no ordinary matchmaker. For the past six years, matchmaker Patti Novak has been warming up the lonely hearts of Buffalo – a city with one of the highest populations of singles per capita – with her no-nonsense style of tough love. Now, she is letting cameras into her sessions and on dates with her clients….sharing the secrets of her success with the world.

Set in Buffalo, New York, Confessions of a Matchmaker follows singles desperate for Patti's help, from their initial interview, through the date, and finally, to the often painfully honest follow-up where Patti assesses their performance and reveals whether or not a match has been made. The series goes inside the real world of dating, where people are flawed and sometimes just need a good swift kick. And Patti is not afraid to give it to them. The Simon Cowell of dating, Patti’s brutal honesty and gut instincts are like nothing you’ve ever seen. They may not end up in a hot-tub at the end of every episode… in fact, more than likely, they’ll end up in hot water with Patti for not following her advice! (Read full article.)

While I wouldn’t program the TIVO just yet, Confessions of a Matchmaker is worth a peek if you are channel surfing and happen to catch it on A&E.

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.)

Chemistry.com Members are the Rejects from Other Dating Sites

“Chemistry.com has been putting out...ads about their dating site which rely on the crux, of what would appear to be, the broad-spectrum rejection of certain members from other dating sites, more specifically eHarmony. Chemistry.com...[claims to offer] many if not all of the amenities as its competitors. The attitude of the ads, however are very much set apart from its rivals.” (Read full article.)

Chemistry.com’s ad campaign uses ‘rejected’ eHarmony clients with lines like ‘We don't know why eHarmony has rejected over a million people looking for love’. They also use a rubber stamp-like graphic featuring the words ‘Rejected by eHarmony’.

View an example of one of Chemisty.com’s recent ads on YouTube, ‘Nope, Still Gay’.

Who uses Chemisty.com?

Chemistry.com appeals to individuals who are less likely to want marriage. Online Personals Watch published an article from MY FOX (May 17) - Is marriage dead? The study was commissioned by Chemistry.com and conducted by Harris Interactive. According to the Chemistry.com survey,

- 50% of U.S. adults have a different opinion of marriage than their parents.
- 58% of U.S. adults think couples who live together in a committed relationship don't need to marry as long as they are happy.
- 78% of U.S. adults say the divorce rate in the U.S. is increasing because people get married for the wrong reasons.
- 76% of single adults disagree that marriage is a top priority for them right now.
- 66% of U.S. adults say a long-term, committed relationship is as important as marriage for a happy and fulfilling life.
- 85% agree that a person can be happy without getting married.

Chemistry.com’s ad campaign does not emphasize their 1) fundamentally different approach, 2) their patent-pending Chemistry Profile™, or their trademarked 1-2-3 Meet™. (Read more.) Instead, Chemistry.com is actively soliciting individuals with a past of non-compliance on other web sites and whose personal goals are not geared toward marriage and family.

If Chemistry.com is trying to appeal to eHarmony or other marriage oriented members, they have missed the mark. It seems that Chemistry.com is more likely to appeal to a clientele of casual daters.

MySpace deletes convicted sex offender profiles

RALEIGH, N.C. (May 15, 2007) - Popular online social network MySpace says it has 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.

The action comes a day after eight U.S. attorneys general demanded the News Corp.-owned company hand over the offenders’ names and addresses and to delete their profiles. (Read full story.)

I am glad that MySpace decided to finally take action, even if it was forced by a court order. Now, they need to start addressing the devious sex offenders who use aliases.

One Third of Online Daters MARRIED

Who uses online dating sites? According to MSNBC, research shows that one third of people who use online dating services are married. “And it doesn’t help when some dating sites out there, like Udate, do not differentiate between divorced and separated, making it even more convenient for a man to lie about his marital status – Online Dating Magazine.”

South Coast Today’s article, “Husband claims he uses dating service just to find 'free porn' online” (April 23, 2007 6:00), discuss why married men are attracted to these online venues.

I discovered that last year, my husband created a free personal profile on an online dating site that is designed to meet women in our vicinity. Of course, I was crushed. Before I approached my husband, I checked our computer history to see what sites had been visited, what kind of e-mails he has been getting, and any other surprises. Fortunately, I found nothing except the fact that he did not answer any of the responses to his profile.

I told my husband how hurt and disappointed I am. He claims that because the dating sites are free (unlike the porn sites), it's a convenient way to receive online sexy pictures of women. So for him, it's just free porn. (Read full article.)

Online Dating Magazine’s article, “Online Dating: How to Stay Clear of Married Men”, provides 11 tips on how to spot a married man online.

Tip #1: He chooses not to post a picture of himself online, or he posts a picture that may be very dark and difficult to pick him out of a crowd.
Tip #2: He will likely be the one to initiate the first contact.
Tip #3: He may be very irregular or erratic about his responses back to you.
Tip #4: He requests your phone number, but will not give you his number.
Tip #5: His calls to you are very irregular, or are at set times.
Tip #6: He will only share his cell number with you.
Tip #7: You have his cellular number, but constantly are forced to leave a message.
Tip #8: He won’t share his last name with you.
Tip #9: He is very secretive about where he lives.
Tip #10: He does not divulge much info about himself or his family and upbringing.
Tip #11: You never get the chance to meet his friends or family.

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.

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.