Spam & Scams

Not all sites, even ones that look professional, are above board. Just like all other online businesses, there are some people out there who just want to create a quick buck. There are many sites, too, that are reputable, but have associates or affiliates (webmasters who get a commission for promoting another site) that use fake ads, or fake respones to ads, on other dating services to lure new customers in.

Be sure to read the site's terms of service very carefully before joining. Some clearly state in their TOS that they might send faux responses to ads.

Rule of thumb: If someone answers your ad and asks you to go to a different dating service to contact him/her, particularly one in which you have to pay respond, it's probably a scam of some sort.

If you receive an email or ad response that looks like it's from an individual who's LOVE to meet you, but only if you join another service... you're best bet is to forward that ad response to the webmaster of the site in question.

If it is an affiliate practicing unscrupulous marketing schemes, they might get kicked off the network. And if the site itself is a scam, if the webmaster is the unscrupulous one... well maybe if enough people complain about it, they'll move on to some other get rich quick scheme.