-- Oct 14 -- Markus Frind, of Plentyoffish,
estimates that scammers operating on Internet dating sites steal at
least $100 million a year. Those performing a ruse could be women in
Russia asking for money to leave their country; or a Nigerian sending
"business proposition" emails. Crooks often use stolen credit cards to
join a site, send out messages to other members, wait for responses
then sometimes chat for four or five months before asking for money.
"It's bad for someone like Yahoobecause it reduces the value of their service, it tarnishes their
service," says Dave Evans, a consultant to the online dating and social
networking industry who also writes a blog. Nelson Rodriguez, CEO of LoveAccess.com,
explained that two and a half years ago Nigerian scammers used stolen
credit cards to join the site causing so many charge backs (about 1% of
all transactions) that it threatened his merchant account with his
bank. But he's since blocked Russian and Nigerian IP addresses and cut
that rate down by three-quarters. LoveAccess.com, with 3.5 million
members, also reviews profiles manually, like its bigger competitors. TRUEcreated a stir in the industry last summer when it announced a
nationwide campaign for legislation to require dating sites to conduct
criminal checks of their members. Not everyone agrees with Evans, who
estimates that on the majority of dating sites, nearly 10% of all
profiles are fake. Mark Brooks, a former executive with Cupid.com, FriendFinder and Friendster,
disputes that figure and says the actual dating sites, not their
members, are even bigger targets. Fraudsters will set up an affiliate
Web site to send traffic and fake members, which earn them a commission
that can exceed the price of the monthly membership, says Brooks, who also writes a blog, Online Personals Watch. FULL ARTICLE @ INTERNET WEEK

Mark Brooks:
Of 120 employees onsite at Friendfinder in Palo Alto, CA, over half are
dedicated to customer service and the 'abuse team'...which grooms for
scammers amongst other things. Smaller sites rely on automated
methods for spotting scammers. Larger sites usually apply people
resources for checking profiles and dealing with scammers more
proactively.