Signs of a subscription rip off on online dating platforms
Unfortunately, the internet does not only bring advantages but also many risks. Especially online dating can be quite risky as it is easy to scam people. The reason is not that users of such websites are not able to recognize a scam but the scammers play with emotions and erotic content. These days you have to expect everything more and more often we have to report about rip offs on dating websites. There are now more than a thousand portals where it is not about love but only all about getting the money from customer’s pockets.
But there is a solution. In the following article we will explain to you how to prevent a scam and recognize a rip off just in time.
1. Check the website on DatingSpot24.co.uk
We test dating websites on a daily basis and until this point we tested for a quite a big number of platforms. So the first and easiest step to check if a dating website is a scam or not you can check our homepage. Use our search function to find a specific dating site. Additionally we have nearly all operators in our database and new reports are added on a regularly basis.
2. Make the double check with a search engine
We are not the only kind. There are many portals on the World Wide Web where users and customers share their experiences with a service or a website. You can use Google, Bing or any other search engine to find details about a dating website and of course its operators. Portals that are described as a black sheep, negative entries and experience reports are well-known so you should find such information easily. Additional there will be reports damaged by customers, plus there should be portals that can help in case of a rip off which is made from fake profiles or to escape a subscription trap.
3. Take a good look at the terms and conditions
There is even a hint for a rip off in the terms and conditions before you read them. If the imprint or the general terms of the website and terms and conditions were shown as a graphic and not as a text data one should become a little skeptical.
Of course this is just a hint and not evidence but until now all website we have checked deposed the terms and conditions as a graphic had something to hide. The graphic makes it impossible to check the content for any keywords with the search function from the browser. That means you have to it read all by yourself which can be quite a challenge as the operators have a few more tricks to conceal something in the terms and conditions. Some websites show the terms and conditions just in a small extra window or write it with a blue colour on a darker background.
So this can already be an indication to the operator of the dating portal. If you check the imprint and the location of the operator there can be another hint. A head office in a foreign country such as Hong Kong or Malta for example is a sign of a scam website. Next hint is the missing of a German contact person and a telephone number so you can contact the company directly. If you are about to register on a website that shows that sign you should act a bit more cautiously.
4. The price
A dating rip-off can also often be identified by the way it charges its customers. A clear sign for a subscription trap is an often offered trial or test subscription. The price for that varies between 99 pence and £1.99 pence. The trap and scam about this is that if you don’t cancel the membership in time they will automatically extended for several more months which costs £70 or more every month. The terms and condition promise that every customer is able to cancel the subscription every three months when it runs out but the cancellation will not be considered at all.
As an example of the company Northern Holdings Inc. which is the operator of many subscription dating websites such as BeNaughty.co.uk.
If one chooses the 14 day test membership there is a small print at the very end of the webpage:
If you do not cancel your 14 day trial membership, it will automatically convert to our monthly subscription at the full price.
For the subscription that will run for three months apply the following rule which is mentioned in small print at the bottom of the page:
To avoid possible interruptions the subscription you have selected will be automatically renewed at the original and not discounted price for the same duration.
Of course the question is about the price as this point which should explain how to spot a subscription rip off by the price. The problem is that such non-reputable dating website do not show any detail about the price until your registered on the page and are about to pay. No exact overview of the pricing will be displayed in the terms and condition or in general information on the landing page.
5. Use the a search engine again but this time for a picture check
If you are already registered with a dating portal and you are not sure if the members are real or fake you can simply copy the profile picture of your chat partner into the image search engine. You can use Google image search, Bing visual search or any other image search of an online search engine.
We also recommend that you check a few more images which you will find in the member’s area and copy them into an image search. If there are corresponding results related to these pictures from the erotic industry, or to some suspicious countries like Russia for example you will have a very strong indication of a rip off. Of course the members should have pictures that are related to search engine results that are from the UK not any another country.
Most of the pictures had been manipulated
Unfortunately this way to check the credibility of a website does not work 100 percent. First of all you have to check more than one member, and most of the images that are found on the profile. First of all there can be some members that might have lived in another country for a while so the results of a search engine are related to another country. Why doesn’t the image check work perfectly? Because most of the pictures had been manipulated and added so the image search cannot clearly identify the image or the person.
These five points are the best known way to scam a rip off dating website. If you have a website where one of these points seem to apply it does not have to be a scam but maybe just a dating website with a bad reputation. Still a bad reputation is also a reason to go for another provider and another dating platform. But if you find a dating website were all of those five apply the case is very clear. Then you have every verification and indication for a rip off.
This is our check list for clear signs for a rip off on online dating sites. We will continue our work and continuously, add new rip off methods of the scammers, tips and tricks on how to spot them and how to prevent the scam to this list.
BeNaughty is awful, and in order to cancel you have to make a phone call to a 1-800 #. Do not spend a $ on this site. I did and I should have known better.