Government Asks Dating Sites Operators to Help Stop Online Dating Scams
Online dating scammers might have a harder time ripping people off in the land Down Under.
It seems the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the government consumer watchdog in Australia, is asking online dating site owners to check the addresses of people who are signing up for the site.
With over $17 million stolen from honest online daters in the first 10 months of 2011, it looks like changes are coming.
Among the new rules the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission wants operators to implement is to check profile pictures and internet protocol addresses when members try to register.
It has also suggested dating websites should scrutinize large volumes of messages sent or responded to by members.
Between January and October, more than 1600 complaints and more than $17 million in losses involving internet scammers were reported to the ACCC.
The ACCC is recommending that operators investigate profiles immediately after receiving a complaint.
“These scams typically involve a genuine user of a dating website being contacted by a potential admirer, who is a scammer in disguise,” the ACCC said yesterday.
“After forming a relationship with the victim, the scammer plays on emotional triggers to get the victim to provide money, gifts or personal details.”
Glenis Carroll, the general manager Australia’s oldest online romance service, welcomed the guidelines.
She said while the new rules would be costly for free online dating sites, paid-up sites such as RSVP would not feel the same burden.
Here in the United States we don’t have regulators coming down on the online dating sites to help safeguard users. So really, it’s every man (or woman) for himself. Source
For more on online dating scams, you can read about how I almost got ripped off when a friend’s email account got hacked.
And if there is enough interest here on the blog, I’ll get another article written for you. Maybe Marlee can chime in again. You guys liked the stuff she wrote while I was at the Cowboys game.
Talk to you later—JT
