MIAMI
HERALD -- Dec 18 -- Beth, a leggy brunette and successful lawyer who
lives in Dallas, says she enjoys clubbing and rollerblading. But
some of these women don't even exist according to a Coral Springs
businessman who alleges that Yahoo Personalsposts fictitious profiles, date bait. Lawmakers in Texas,
Virginia, Michigan, California and Florida are weighing legislation
that could make it a crime to misrepresent oneself on a dating site, or
fail to inform consumers that they offer background screening for their
customers. Analysts say matchmaking sites believe that they can
patrol themselves. Most of them use 'report this profile' options to
report problem subscribers to a team of 'abuse' monitors who look for
risqu� photographs, insincere profiles, and users looking for a place
to advertise their own business. Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personal Watch,
concedes that there is endless potential for abusing the rules. But, he
said, that doesn't mean the site owners should be subject to government
monitoring. He calls the suits against Match and Yahoo
'ridiculous.' 'If you were sitting in a product development
meeting [at Match or Yahoo] and said, 'Hey, let's just have someone do
that,' (send bogus emails), that person would be fired,' Brooks said. FULL ARTICLE @ MIAMI HERALD