The purpose of fakes

Hi Friendlybugger,

1) I cannot quite see what the benefit of a fake profile is - I suppose some odd types might get a vicarious thrill from pretending to be a member of the opposite sex, but really??

Its not just regarding trying to pass yourself off as a member of the opposite sex. By fakes, were referring to people who create a profile with the intent and purpose of scamming people out of money or details to commit fraud, people who charge for their service but fail to declare this on their profile. You wouldn't want to turn up and have sex with a person who then asks you to pay and 6 beefy men bloke your exit and then walk you to a cash machine. There are many other's as well this is just a brief selection of what we include or refer to as a fake profilemember.

2) The advice tells you the signs to look for in spotting a fake profile - thing is, if the site administrators know this can't they just turn the profiles off until the instigator takes some action to prove their reality? I am just over-thinking this? As a friend says

We advise members to look out for basic things when viewing profiles, chatting to members to help them spot people who may not be what they they have listed themselves as. By telling members and making them aware we hope it stops anyone being caught out or mislead and allows members to report any suspicious profiles so we can investigate and take appropriate action. This could be as simple as a member who miss ticked the gender box, so the profile says female but the profiles text and photos are male. By reporting this it allows us to correct the profile, which will also improve the members chances of meeting like minded adults.

We have seen profiles where they are perfectly normal the photos are genuine and next we received reports where the member has been told to join another site and ended up entering card details to confirm their ageidentity when joining a different site, only to find out hundreds of pounds have been withdrawn from their card the next day. The moderators do try to spot fakesstolen photos at review, but this is not always possible.

We just want to make people aware of potential dangers as many often forget its online and you should treat it like you would when meeting a stranger any where from a night club, to a dark alley way. Be alert, if it doesn't feel right or seems to good to be true then it probably is.

Hope this helps explain why the tips appear. We do recommend using the onsite features, such as your mailbox, profile wall and chatrooms to chat and get to known others before arranging meets.

We know some people like instant meets and if some of our tips help them and prevent them getting into a difficult situation, then we are happy and would also then expect that member to report the incident. We do work along side the police if the situation requires this type of action.

Why would they admit to having a female profile!?! Weird AND stupid...

Miss G, you need to watch that hehe! ;)

i had never even considered that people would do such a thing BT!!! I must ensure i am more careful!!!