Detecting Fake Profiles and Users

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.