iovation is attending the Internet Dating & Social Networking Conference in London this week and evidence of this industry’s continued growth is easy to find. Just this weekend, the Detroit News reported on the success of the online dating industry, despite, or perhaps because of the tough economic times. In fact, based on statistics from Forrester Research Inc., the article states:

Online dating is the third largest producer of revenue out of all paid content sites, generating $957 million in 2008, a figure that the firm predicts will grow 10% by 2013.

Unfortunately, the increased popularity of online dating is also good news for scammers who are always happy to take advantage of new, unsuspecting users. This month PRWeb reported that, according to trends revealed by Google, search terms like “online dating” and “free dating” are getting the most hits from fraudsters in African countries, looking for sites where they can con those looking for love online.

Once these online scammers set up accounts at a legitimate site, they begin targeting other users, with consequences that can be anywhere from mildly annoying to completely devastating. For a look at the variety of different scams in play, and the techniques used to lure people into a scam, check out the site Romance Scams. This site not only details the warning signs but also provides links to some of the actual profile photos used by the scammers.

Romance scams aren’t new, of course—taking advantage of an individual’s emotions is a technique that has been used by con artists for centuries. What is new, however, is the level of anonymity and safety that the Internet gives to scammers. The relative ease with which anybody can set up an account using a stolen identity, a fake photo and made-up personal information makes these scams highly attractive to online criminals. Instead of having to focus on a single face-to-face con, the scammer can be running multiple cons at once without a problem.

With this in mind, it is very important for individuals to protect themselves and for online dating companies to take every step to ensure that their sites are safe for their users. One of the important ways we help companies in the dating industry is by raising the bar for re-identifying scammers, by focusing on the computer they use, rather than the personal information (often fake) that they provide. With device reputation, it is much easier to identify scammers trying to return to a site and repeat their scam or con. Because of the impact our fraud prevention service has had, we were mentioned in a ComputerWorld article discussing how iovation helped eHarmony fight online scams and we were also featured in a separate article in the same publication on how we are helping the online dating industry in general.

If you happen to be at iDate London this week, let us know. We would love to meet with you.

1. Provide visitors with instant feedback (or matches)
2. Convert visitors from “Just Looking” to “Paid Customers”
3. Deliver high quality connections or matches
4. Keep the quality of the prospect pool high, by weeding out scammers, spammers and fraudsters.

Number four is where iovation comes in.  When we compiled all incidents in our worldwide database from online dating sites that use our services, we found that the top 5 types of abuse on online dating sites are:

1. Identity mining/phishing &/or credit card fraud – 61%
2. Spammers – 14%
3. Profile Misrepresentation – 7.6%
4. General Misconduct – 5.9%
5. Solicitation – 2.9%

Computerworld launched a separate article on February 13th featuring iovation’s technology, titled, “Online Dating: Blocking the Bad Guys”.  Read this article to find out how iovation’s ReputationManager service aims to help online dating sites keep the scammers and spammers at bay.

- Scott Olson, VP of Marketing, iovation