Everyone who has tried online dating has come across fake
profiles, whether they realize it or not.
The majority of these profiles (about 75%) depict women. People create fake profiles for many
reasons.
1.
Some want to communicate with strangers looking
for love so that they can laugh at their e-mails or watch to see if they show
up for dates so they can mock them or see how they react to being stood up.
2.
Others are insecure about their appearances or
life situation and feel that if they have a fake profile or lie about
themselves, the people they talk to online will fall for their personalities
and not care that they’ve been deceived once the two of them actually meet.
3.
Some people are angry that they’ve been ignored
and will make a profile with a more attractive photo or a higher income to see
if they get more attention.
4.
Others want to see how others interact with them
as the opposite sex.
5.
Some people use profiles with fake photos in the
hopes that people will respond to their offer to exchange explicit photos so
that they can add to their collection.
These people are often not of the gender they claim.
6.
Others are trying to harvest e-mail addresses.
7.
Romance scammers try to convince members to send
them money.
8.
Some are created by pay sites with photos of
attractive people to make it appear as if there are a number of available
people in a particular area. These may or may not be weeded out as more actual
members join.
9.
Others exist only to advertise a product or
service, using the photos of an attractive person to prove the benefits of
whatever they’re advertising.
10.
Some exist only to attract viewers to a
particular website whether they will hopefully spend money.
There are a few clues you can watch for that may indicate a
fake profile.
1.
The person in the photos is very attractive.
2.
The photos all appear to be professional or
staged. They are perfectly lighted and
tidy.
3.
There is only one photo.
4.
The photo appears to be old.
5.
The profile has very little information or lots
of vague information.
6.
The user doesn’t seem to know anything about the
city or region in which they claim to be located.
7.
The profile or messages have poor spelling and
grammar.
8.
The person has excuses for why they can’t meet
you, go on webcam, or show you a new photo of themselves.
9.
They get emotional way too early and talk about
being in love with you.
10.
They won’t share their Facebook or phone number
with you (although legitimate users may not be able to or feel comfortable with
doing so, too).
11.
The profile or messages mention specific
products, services, or companies in a positive light.
There are a few tests you can conduct to help determine of a
profile is fake.
1.
Upload the picture on Tineye. It works much like Google Image Search but in
reverse: you provide a photo and you can see where else it’s located
online. It even sometimes detects
heavily modified versions of an image.
2.
Google the text of a profile to see if it was
lifted from somewhere else. Some people have very similar or identical profiles
on different sites, though, so check to see if the location and age match among
the various profiles.
3.
You can check for similar photos through Google
Image Search. Right click the photo. If
you use Firefox, click on “copy image location”. With Explorer select “properties’ and then
copy the address. With Chrome, click
“copy image URL”. Go to Google Images and paste the text in the search
box. Click the link that says “For
matching images, try searching by images”.
See if any of the returned images match yours.
4.
Check information about what the person is
looking for. If their profile’s
acceptable height or weight range is ridiculously large, they’re probably a fake.
5.
Look at their physical information. If the height and weight don’t make sense, it
may be a fake.
6.
Ask them to meet. If they refuse or always cancels with a new
excuse, they are either a fake or not interested in a real life relationship.
7.
If you feel like they’re too good to be true,
they probably are.
8.
If she talks about sex in her profile as if
she’s a man looking for a casual encounter, chances are the profile was written
by a man.
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