Online dating scams are more than abundant right now than ever before. We unfortunately are seeing scams in online dating virtually everywhere online currently. It’s starting to become a major problem in the online dating industry as consumers are having a more and more difficult time determining if a site it legitimate or not.
So what do we mean by legitimate? Well that’s pretty simple to fall under the category of legitimate dating sites if you meet some basic criteria.
We have two criteria that we think meet the bare minimum level of service a consumer ought to be able to expect.
Criteria A. Does the site have a large and active database that is AT LEAST sufficient for an average consumer in most major cities to find a match. Is there at least 500 or so REAL members in all major cities? If not then clearly this dating site is not able to fulfill their end of an assumed bargain.
Criteria B. Does the site have for the most part REAL profiles?
If the answer to either of these questions is no then that’s the sort of dating site we call a scam. Online dating scams give the entire dating industry a black eye and we call on other dating review sites to stop publishing reviews for sites that cannot meet some basic quality criteria. At minimum we believe that dating site review sites need to be more direct and honest when it comes to calling out sites such as these rather than just joining their affiliate program and give them a soft pass in hopes they will earn a commission; having been the first to review that site this happens often!
Here are some tips to help you sniff out online dating scams!
1. Check the bottom line of the site and see if it is part of a white label dating network. That’s not always bad but look for a brand name that is well-known tied to the specific network. If there is no widely known name, buyer beware.
2. Browse the members and see how active they are. If the site purports to have 2 million members and 20 people are online now, that’s clearly a site to avoid in nearly every case.
3. Google search the name of the singles site with the word reviews following it. (example AdultFriendFinder.com reviews) (I should add here that actually adultfriendfinder.com is a legitimate and popular site in the adult niche, read the aff reviews here as we just used that as an example.)
Lastly I would just offer up one last opinion. It’s time the FTC stepped in and called fraud, fraud. When dating sites create fake profiles to mislead people it’s called fraud and more action should be taken to combat this. These sites should lose their domain and have to pay hefty fines for their deception. Only then can we start to say we are doing everything we can to protect consumers and the online dating industry as a whole.
If you experience an online dating scam please report it to the FTC – link below. It’s only by taking the time to do this that we can collectively make online dating a better experience for everyone.
Where to report online dating scams: http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/contact.shtm
At dating site reviews we have also started a new category called, ‘Online dating scams’ where we will be reporting rather loudly with press releases on any site that does not meet basic service levels, creates fake profiles, or are is in fact just an empty mocked-up membership site looking for victims. New sites should disclose they are new and not look to deceive. Providing they offer the consumer at least that basic information and work towards the general appearance of full disclosure, they can still become successful providing they do it the old-fashioned way and ACTUALLY EARN IT.