A company called Scamalytics is offering online dating sites a free scan to check for scammers and fake profiles.
The service checks through all publicly available data on online dating profiles, such as a user’s profile text and photographs.
It then scans, analyses and compares these results to Scamalytics’ blacklists, and generates a health report which they provide to the company.
The service usually requires no technical implementation from the site itself, so executives can get an overview without involving the web development team.
Scamalytics’ co-founder Nick Tsinonis said: “Whilst we get the best results by including data such as IP addresses and behavioral information, our shared industry blacklists are now of such a size that we can pick up a proportion of scammers just by the information in their profiles.
“This allows us to scan the majority of dating sites just by getting the go ahead from the relevant person within the business, who can then sit back and wait for our report.”
Scamalytics is a London-based company that is using the latest machine learning techniques to tackle the prevalent issue of scammers and fake profiles in the online dating industry.
Its clients include Cupid.com, Freedating.co.uk. DatingFactory.co.uk and Lovestruck.com.
High-profile allegations were made against one of their clients, Cupid, this year about the creation of fake profiles – allegations which were proved to be incorrect.
The spotlight on the dating industry in regards to fake profiles is one of the reasons for the creation the Online Dating Association, a recently launched industry standards body.
Read more about the ODA here and find out about Scamalytics here.