FTC wants a date with Ashley Madison's fembots

The US Federal Trade Commission has decided to add Ashley Madison's “fembots” to the company's long list of woes. The existence of the fembots – fake profiles used to keep men on the “Life is short, have an affair” forking out funds in case they got lucky – was revealed after the infamous hack of the site. The investigation …

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

"The FTC takes a dim view of the use of fake profiles ..."

So LinkedIn is next on the list?

[%%#root]

Robots need compatible dates too:-)

T1000 looking for some fun.

Fembots preferred.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Robots need compatible dates too:-)

I'll be back. You be front.

[Fungus Bob]

Re: "The FTC takes a dim view of the use of fake profiles ..."

"So LinkedIn is next on the list?"

Nooooo, those are Real Profiles of Real Thinkfluencers, Amazing Brand Champions and Post Privacy Gurus...

[Crisp]

Every dating site is like that.

Dating sites don't make money matching people up. They make money by getting men to fork out for a membership and it's in their financial interest to keep that going as long as possible.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Every dating site is like that.

"They make money by getting men to fork out for a membership"

Dating sites which aren't promoting "Shag me tonight" are heavily used by real women looking for their illusive knight in shining armour. I wouldn't be surprised to find that in this part of the industry gentbots aren't just as much of a scam.

[BinkyTheMagicPaperclip]

Re: Every dating site is like that.

It's not as necessary for women, because many of them are deluged with messages unless they're particularly ugly.. Men who are average or worse will receive minimal to no messages.

[Hero Protagonist]

Re: Every dating site is like that.

"looking for their illusive knight in shining armour"

You probably meant elusive, but now that I think about it, illusive is probably accurate too.

[I am the liquor]

illusive

A portmanteau of elusive and illusory, I like it. Something that's hard to find, and when you do find it, it doesn't exist.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Every dating site is like that.

Less gentbots, and more actual scammers.

There's been some publicity around a NZ case a little while back, where the lady was quite smart, was warned off by friends and family, and went ahead with her NZ -> South America -> Spain trip.

Scam was that she was sold on it as her coming to SA (I'd say Columbia, but not certain) for sexy times with lovely latin man, him picking up the tab. Then, once she's on the hook, he has to go to Spain on business, but will totally pay her ticket over. Once the mark is sold on that, then he'll need her to "bring some paperwork for the deal" that couldn't be trusted to a courier, and will be delivered to her in SA by his lawyer.

As most people can probably guess by now, that briefcase of documents had a kilo and a half of coke in it, and she's doing time for smuggling.

Before we all get too smug, these scams work because the mark really wants to believe. Hence dating sites for finding suckers.

Getting scammed by fake profiles seems a lot milder now.

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: Every dating site is like that.

"the mark really wants to believe"

What, Natasha is lying to me? Must be a first for the internet!

[Ian 55]

Re: Every dating site is like that.

Have a search for the OKCupid article about how non-free dating sites are useless that was written before they were taken over by one and - gosh - disappeared from their site.

[Anonymous Coward]

FTC was investigating the bots

In-vestingating, wussies! I want probing! closely inspecting! cavity searching!

[Anonymous C0ward]

Re: FTC was investigating the bots

If that's what floats your boat, I'm sure there's a website for that sort of thing somewhere.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: FTC was investigating the bots

You can test and improve your probing skills with this.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just fake bots

Ashley Madison a great site to sign people up to cause embarrassment etc. They don't verify emails, don't respond to abuse complaints, don't delete accounts (except supposedly for a $20 totally-not-blackmail fee, but then their payment info won't be deleted), don't really self-police at all, and their notification emails are usually flagged as spam so your victim is unlikely to notice that you're soliciting kinky freaky sex in their name (if you use their real email, which is totally unnecessary) .

Someone did that to me 3 months ago. I changed the profile to be even more blatantly fake. It's still there :)

Hope that helps, FTC... KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

[theOtherJT]

Virtual Cupid...

Yeah, guys, if you feel the need to advertise that fact so you can hold it up in the future against potential litigation, it's pretty fair to say you _expected_ to get sued, and therefore knew damn well what you were doing was sketchy as hell.

[Anonymous Coward]

that's every site that ever had a "dating" or "meetup" component

that's pretty much every site that has a hookup option. And plenty that do not. Been that way since the beginning, whether they charge or not.

..err..at least that's what I was told...:)

[Ian 55]

The Fembots weren't revealled in the hack

They were already in at least one version of the site's terms and conditions, towards the end.

I had a read of them when I thought it was odd that a profile with no photo and the least possible info was getting 'I'm interested' messages... that, oh yes, cost money to reply to.

[Anonymous Coward]

So is their existance news?

Seriously, anyone who's ever been on a dating site knows they're full of fembots. 99% sounds just about right for a couple I've tried since getting divorced, and those are the ones that don't allow married people and kick you off if they learn you're looking for hookups. With the shadiness of a dating service aimed at adulturers I can't even imagine they'd have any significant number of real women.

Even the good ones I've tried have more bots than woman. I guess they figure (probably correctly) that they wouldn't have any customers if the guys on the service can't find dates or if all the women on there are single for a reason, if you catch my meaning (not my view, just the way society tends to think).

Anyway you can always tell the fembots from the real women. The fembots are always beautiful, usually with only one picture which often looks much younger than the purported age of the woman, and and a short profile makes it pretty clear that you can count on the first or second date ending up in the bedroom. The real women on dating sites are rarely much above average in appearance (gorgeous women don't NEED a dating site), usually have several pictures, and a fairly detailed profile because they're there looking for someone compatible with them for the long term.

Note: I'm divorced and all the women I've been meeting the traditional way are either old enough to be my mother, young enough to be my daughter, or married. Yeah I'm on dating sites, but it's because I can't find any women to date in this area the traditional way. Still, anon because who wants to admit to needing a dating site.