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CONSUMER AFFAIRS -- July 28 -- Annette was lonely. eHarmony.com matched her with a building engineer who was working in Nigeria. Everything was fine until the customs agents in Nigeria confiscated his luggage with $45,000 in travelers' checks. His situation worsened and Annette had wiped out her life savings by wiring $36,300 to Nigeria to help him. Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com and a consultant for the industry, said every dating Web site has problems with scammers. "This is organized crime. They are targeting lots of different industries, but idating is one of them," Brooks said. "Many of these scammers work together to create enormous fraud rings and share data on how best to scam people", said Scott Olson, VP marketing for iovation, a company that tracks computers so that Web sites can block devices that have a history of being connected with fraud. eHarmony.com clearly states on its Web site that it does not perform background checks. Some Web sites do offer background checks, but Brooks agreed with Posell (eHarmony.com) that most background checks would be costly with little increase in safety.

Mark Brooks: Good background checks cost $100+. Background checks pulling data from online sources can cost as little as $3. iovation offers a solution which allows dating sites to work together to combat scammers, and works in the background. If you'd like to kick some scammer ass, look to iovation. I've helped them sign up numerous dating sites into their 'anti-scammer dating ring' including a top 3 dating site! Disclosure: iovation is an Online Personals Watch sponsor and a client of Courtland Brooks.

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Mark Brooks
Editor, Online Personals Watch
mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com
USA: 212-444-1636, UK: 020 8133 1835