Who's Hot, Who's a Bot?

“Dating sites are safe to use and the admins are honest.” Does this sound like a true statement? There are many activities administrators use daily to run their dating sites. From big sites like eHarmony.com to smaller ones like Geek2Geek.co, they want to run their site successfully. But there are many ways to interpret success, and it depends on where you are looking at that success.

In the past few years, dating sites have been called out more and more for using bots on their sites. These bots are used to pull people into paying for subscriptions to talk to attractive people. They advertise hundreds or thousands of singles in the area just waiting for someone to sign up to meet them.

But the sad truth is these bots are basically Dr. Robotnik’s Badniks robots from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Bots are mindless programs that are designed to suck you into the site and not realize that they are not real. While many dating sites use them, they are easy to figure out when you start talking to other people.

A more concerning trend with dating sites is their effort in security. There are sites starting to use background checks, investigating criminal and credit history to help match their members. Still other sites are starting to insist on pay stubs to prove how much a member makes before they are matched to others. These results are then shared with other members instead of being held as the private information that they are. A member can purchase the results without the consent of another member to see if they are a potential match.

While we agree that security needs to be tightened on these dating sites, this is not the way to do it. A member profile can be verified very easily with a photograph of a legal identification held next to their face. Anything else should be left to the members who connect to decide to share.

So let’s get to tips on how to spot bots and how to avoid fake people and profiles. This will help you determine how much time to invest.

1. Photos.

   1. How are their photos? If they look too perfect, like Brian had spotted with many who ended up stealing models and porn star photos, then it may be a warning.

   2. If they only have one photo, chances are they may be fake. It’s not a sure bet, but it’s almost always close.

   3. TRY THIS: Right click on a photo and click search google for image. This can sometimes tell you if they’re fake or not. If they are, it should show up as to what site or sites they came from. (or in Brian’s case, which celebrity or porn star they are.)

2. Messaging

   1. They send messages first, talking about your profile, asking questions about it even if your profile clearly says it.

      1. One thing this means is that NOT every message reaching out to you is spammy. You have to carefully read each one. You can tell the difference between them almost immediately. Broken english, errors in their messages, and weird responses.

   2. They send you different links.

      1. Asking you to go outside of the site you’re on to chat with them isn’t always a red flag, but it can be when it comes to certain links. Brian always had bots asking him to join them on hangouts or on Kik/Whatsapp. They do this to divert getting in trouble with the websites they’re currently on. Bots, however, won’t always do this but instead may ask you to go to external sites (porn sites).

   3. Excessive flirting.

      1. Isn’t always the case as some “guys” do it in extreme amounts. Guys (and Gals), it isn’t flattering if you’re not giving a conversation, too. Contribute to the conversation.

3. VIdeo Chat

   1. Everyone that’s real has the ability to learn how to or do a video chat. Chances are if its a bot and you’ve been talking to them long enough, they won’t want to video chat or send video to you of themselves talking. Guys, this isn’t the cue to have them undress for you or do anything inappropriate as we’d avoid doing that, too.

      1. Set a date for both of you to video chat first. Let that be your “first” meet before the first date to get a feel for each other. Especially if this is a long distance date, you’ll need that sort of support before you drive or go to the date spot.

These are just a few pointers that will help you to spot the bot, and not get distracted by the “hot”. If you feel this benefitted you and you can always use more dating tips, or if you’re a geek or gamer (both?), then check out the social links below. Drop your email into the box to get notified of our newest content and also get free content EXCLUSIVE to you!

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