Category: Courtland Brooks Press

Online Dating Industry Deleting Scammers

Posted on October 30, 2006

DeleteCHICAGO TRIBUNE's RED EYE — Oct 24 — The online dating industry has learned to cut off scammers at the pass.  Nelson Rodridguez, CEO LoveAccess, employs a full-time staff to look for suspicious behavior, like a member sending out hundreds of e-mails a day or posting the same photo on multiple profiles. The effort results in the removal of 20 to 30 profiles a day. Match (15 million users) has staffers personally review each profile and photo before posting them to the site. ~15% of profiles are rejected each month.  A security team seeks and weeds out people who compromise the user experience for others. Some dating sites simply block all IP addresses from Nigeria, said Mark Brooks, an online dating industry analyst. But with scammers changing tactics, it's a constant game of cat-and-mouse. 419eater.com encourages people to bait scammers. Romancescam.com, posts the photos, e-mail addresses and usernames that scammers have used. The FBI hopes to tackle the problem by educating people about scams, FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said. The agency helps fund a Web site called http://www.looks toogoodtobetrue.com and encourages people to report scams to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, at ic3.gov. 

Millionaire Web Site Sex Scandal

Posted on October 26, 2006

Bannernancy_1CNN, Nancy Grace — Oct 24 — The women, 22 to 40 years of age, met Garcia, a prominent realtor on Millionairematch.com .  A seven-count felony complaint out of Orange County, California, alleges that Joseph Raymond Garcia committed [sexual offences] against three female victims.  Mark Brooks is with us with Onlinepersonalswatch.com. The phenomena of on-line dating really doesn`t come with any warnings, does it, Mark. "Not really, no." How does the [MillionaireMatch] Web site itself work?  "…It`s a niche dating site that is targeted at men who are edging towards being millionaires and women who are interested in meeting them."  And is there any way under the sun, Mark Brooks, to verify what men are putting in as their personal information?  "In terms of them being millionaires, no, it`s more the honor system. In terms of them being convicted felons, there are sites and services that would allow dating services to do a background check. National background data is available now to check against. But the market generally isn`t willing to bear the cost.  A good background check runs upwards of $100. A very basic background check is on the order of $20."  Is there any way that this Web site bears any liability, Mark Brooks? "In a word, no. You`ll find in the terms and conditions, you know, the sites bring people together but they rely on [people using] their own good judgment if they decide to meet in real life." I understand that that`s what`s in the fine print, I understand that. But just because someone writes that down doesn`t make it so. That`s like you signing away all liability before you do a bungee jump. That doesn`t necessarily make it so, just because they write it in a contract and you pay a $15-a-month fee.

My Recommended Safety Tips were displayed on the 40 minute segment 5 times as follows:

  • Don't share personal information
  • Don't let them pick you up at home
  • Coffe shop or public place for first date
  • Let someone know where you are & have them call you an hour into the date

Mark Brooks: I knew I was in for a grilling. My first live TV interview.  Do you agree with the safety tips?  What's missing?

Web of Lies

Posted on October 25, 2006

CHICAGO TRIBUNE's RED EYE — Oct 24 — Valerie signed up for Yahoo! Personals and found Prince Charming. But the promising online suitor who showered her with tender e-mails and bouquets of flowers turned out to be a scammer trying to bilk Benning out of tens of thousands of dollars.  Barb Sluppick, co-founder of the 5,000-member Yahoo! Romance Scams group, conducted a survey that revealed a total of $2.6 million lost in romance scams among the 331 people who responded—about $7,800 per person.  Most online dating scams originate from Africa, Russia and Eastern Europe, though Nigeria is the biggest offender, according to Mark Brooks who runs onlinepersonalswatch.com. Increasingly, Web administrators are trapping scammers before they strike, but the tricksters are unrelenting, Brooks said. "It's a bad situation because these guys have gotten increasingly sophisticated," said Nelson Rodriguez, head of loveaccess.com, where employees remove 20 to 30 suspicious profiles a day. "It's horrible for business because it's a loss of credibility.

Online Dating Profile Help

Posted on August 15, 2006

Profilehelper_columnBRADENTON HERALD — Aug 12 — ProfileHelper helps online daters enhance their profiles, whether it's the written portion or the photo. "The best way to think of a profile is it's a movie trailer, it's not the movie. The trailer is supposed to give you just enough information that you want to buy a ticket," lead advisor Eric Resnick says. 11% of adults who use the Internet – 16 million of them – have gone to an online personals site, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project published in March of this year. LookBetterOnline charges $129 for 12 pictures. The move toward hiring professionals to improve profiles started a couple of years ago, says Mark Brooks, editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com.  It's worthwhile for internet daters to make a compelling profile and a photograph that brings out the best in them. If they take the time and money to seek out professional services, Brooks says their responses should double. 

Mark Brooks: Internet daters need profile improvement services. Unfortunately internet daters still don't realise this. It behooves internet dating companies to offer, or at least guide them, to reputable profile improvement services. The better daters profiles look, the better the internet dating services looks as a whole.

TrueDater; True or False Profiles

Posted on August 7, 2006

STAR LEDGER — Aug 7 — People can post reviews of their dates on TrueDater.com and also plug in a prospective date to see if anyone else has posted a comment about the person. More than a half million people have used TrueDater since the site launched last year. TreuDater staffers monitor the remarks.  Mark Brooks, onlinepersonalswatch.com, said "I think it answers a definite need in the online dating market."  Brooks said Friendster allows people to write testimonials about a date, but the person being reviewed has to approve it, "so nothing negative gets in." Brooks said TrueDater is the kind of site that makes people think more about their reputation, which is a new issue in online dating. Marcus Frind, founder of plentyoffish.com said both men and women are equally guilty when it comes to fudging profiles. "With women, it's weight; for men, it's height. A third party (giving an assessment) is the simplest way to go."  "You have to be honest," said Moreno, Ph.D. student in social psychology at Rutgers University. "The picture is the hook, it gets you in. You see a cute picture and you click on it. I met one guy for dinner a couple of weeks ago and his picture resembled him, but you would not have been able to pick him out of a crowd based on his picture."  Moreno suggested singles should not upload their best shot. That way dates can be pleasantly surprised on the first meeting. Eric Straus, president of Cupid.com, said "I don't think it adds all that much to the process," he said. "People tend to exaggerate and I think that's the nature of the beast."

The full article was originally published at NJ.com, but is no longer available.

$2m Awarded to Lonely Heart Who Lost $125,000 to Dating Agency

Posted on June 1, 2006

THE GUARDIAN — June 1 — Orly the Matchmaker is a "high-end matchmaking service catering to celebrities, royalties, famous people and all wonderful single men and women out there." Anne Majerik, a 60-year-old widowed social worker saw an ad in an in-flight magazine but the search for romance ended in disillusion and finally court. This week a jury in Los Angeles awarded Ms Majerik $2.1m (£1.1m) in damages. Majerik's lawyer said, "She's developed a niche out there to prey on women who are lonely or divorced." The size of the jury's award is unprecedented. "I hear of high-end matchmaking firms charging tens of thousands of dollars a year," said Mark Brooks, the editor of onlinepersonalswatch.com. "But to pay $100,000-plus, that's just not wise."  Ms Hadida plans to appeal. FULL ARTICLE @ THE GUARDIAN

Mark Brooks: Orly is giving reputable matchmakers a bad name. I can understand $10's of thousands for high-end service, but $100k+. Obscene. Buyer beware. Great Expectations, It's Just Lunch, The Right One/Together Dating, and Table for Six are examples of exemplary, well established, real world services. $2500, ok. $25k, hmm?  $125k, crazy! 

European Online Dating: An ‘Ideal’ Web Business

Posted on April 24, 2006

Meetic_2INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE / NY TIMES — Apr 24 — Mark Simoncini, Meetic CEO, built a company in four years with 17 million profiles in 13 countries speaking nine languages.  The idea behind Meetic emerged in 2000, after Simoncini sold iFrance, iEspana and iDeutschland to Vivendi for 182 million Euros ($224 million).  Meetic raised 100 million Euros from its October IPO.  Annual results released in March showed a doubling of revenue to 43 million Euros in 2005 (net profit 5.7m Euros).  Both Meetic and Match claim to have the largest online dating community; each has roughly 275,000 users on the Continent.  Simoncini argues that the American approach to relationships gets lost in translation overseas.  Match.com has local sites for 31 countries in 18 languages.  Europe's acceptance of such dating services has been accelerated by the proliferation of social networking, according to Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals Watch.  "The Europe online dating scene is still in the growth phase, which is why I am basing myself out of Prague right now," said Brooks.  "American sites have had some trouble moving into other cultures,  which has opened opportunities for Meetic as well as single-country players in Europe."  Meetic last year started Ulteem.  A high-end service costing 99 Euros for a three- month subscription.  Meetic recently bought Lexa (100,000 users), a dating service in the Netherlands and Yeeyoo (4 million users), a youth-oriented Chinese site.  Competition among youth-oriented sites like Superlol is fierce.  FULL ARTICLE @ INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Mark Brooks: Meetic started Ulteem to compete with Parship.de, in similar fashion to Match starting Chemistry.com to compete with eHarmony.

Myspace Online Scene

Posted on April 24, 2006

Myspace_18LA TIMES CALENDAR LIVE — Apr 9 — It's become a thriving meat market, just without the jello shots and beer-soaked floors.  "Everyone's hooking up with each other [on MySpace] and they really don't know each other," says Mark Brooks, online dating industry analyst and editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. Brooks cautions newbie daters to be on guard for fakers and to never give out too much personal information online. 

Hooking Up in the Information Age – Mobile dating

Posted on April 24, 2006

WebdatemobileWIRELESS WEEK — Apr 15 — In 2004 Webdate Mobile launched with U.S. Cellular. Several months later Match.com Mobile got on deck with Cingular Wireless and Sprint. Lavalife signed Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.  Webdate has since launched with Boost Mobile and Sprint Nextel and Webdate CEO Abe Smilowitz says he's pleased with the amount of revenue being generated.  Mark Brooks, editor of onlinepersonalswatch.com, estimates there are currently fewer than 1 million mobile daters, compared with 5 million users of mobile flirt applications. He draws a distinction between mobile dating applications – which typically feature photos, profiles and the ability to send messages back and forth – with simple social networking applications that let users flirt via texting. "Mobile dating applications are focused more on getting people together," Brooks says. "There's far higher adoption of chat, because it doesn't require much of an application. That's a very different animal than mobile dating." Most are available for a flat monthly rate of $4.99. Match.com spokeswoman Kristin Kelly says 42% of MatchMobile customers are 18 to 25 years old, 81% are between 18 and 35.  Webdate Mobile gives customers access to Webdate's database of 6 million profiles. "It's seamless. Mobile and online are virtually the same. That's been our approach and continues to be our approach," abe says. Osmak doesn't see much future for Bluetooth-enabled matchmaking, mainly because no billing systemis in place for such transactions.  And if having Bluetooth-enabled phones is the only thing the individuals have in common, what's the point? "The real value is in finding suitable people, not just people," says Brooks. 

Handsome but Clueless? Online Profile Writers can Help

Posted on April 19, 2006

ProfilehelpercomCOLUMBIA NEWS SERVICE — Mar 14– Chase found online dating consultant Evan Marc Katz, who urged him to be honest about his athletic obsession, but to package it differently. For $1,000, Katz revamped the profile and counseled his client for several hours on how to market the Chase machismo. His E-Cyrano service offers a basic profile rewrite for $49. Profilehelper.com offers an "extreme profile makeover" for $49.95.  With prices nearing the cost of a monthly dating Web site membership, profile consultants are not for the intermittent dater. "Most people don't want to cough up the extra 100 bucks," said Mark Brooks, an online personals industry analyst and editor of onlinepersonalswatch.com. The trick is simple: be honest and be specific. LookBetterOnline.com is the most successful of all profile helper sites and charges $129 per shoot.  FULL ARTICLE @ COLUMBIA NEWS SERVICE

Mark Brooks: Profilehelper.com, E-cyrano.com and Lookbetteronline.com are all great services.