HI!

I am on about 7 different "matching" sites and Dating.com is one of the worse ( that is why I have never paid to get "full" benefits) .   I have written to them many times to give them advice about how to make their site better, but they have never return my mail.  All a person has to do is look at the latest profile numbers and then search for  profiles by down-counting the latest profile number and searching for the person with that number.  The drop-out rate is astounding!  Where did all those members go?

The majority of profiles that I have received letter from are bogus.  I am in my early 50's and I guess that those with nefarious intentions feel like I would be easy prey for scams.  Those profiles have pictures of cute ladies under 30 that write me.  As soon as I see one, I know that it is a scam, but I verify it first.    The earmarks of a scammer are profiles that have recently become registered, with nice pictures ( probably taken from modeling magazines) and they will include their email address in their first letter to me ( this is supposed to be a forbidden practice!).   I will write them anyway by using one a newly created disposable address ( Yahoo AddressGuard).   Once I get their response I click on the "Full Header" option ( in Yahoo mail) to reveal all of the IP addresses that were used to route the message to my computer.   You must read the header information from the BOTTOM UP.  The first IP address that is encountered ( from the bottom) is likely the location of the senders computer.  There are free "reverse IP address" services on the web ( I use IP2Location.com) that let you paste the IP Address into their search window and then it will display the location.  Typically these "scammers" are in Nigeria or Senegal, or Russia,  despite their profiles and letters that insist that are in the USA. 

I am on another "matching site" VietSingle.com, that is free and they INCLUDE the IP address that the profile was registered from as part of the profile!  It is very easy to immediately see if the lady is in Spokane of Saigon!  I asked Dating.com to do the same thing..... and perhaps even decode the location  and place it automatically in the profile under the heading "registered from".  This will alert a honest member to a scammer when the location information submited by the member does not match the registration information.   There is no security violation in doing this, it does not provide exact addresses, just a city.     

  Since these scammers have to sign up and pay money to send out their bogus letters, this must be a deincentive for dating.com to provide a safer and more truthful dating site.

 Best Regards,

TunaMan

Not worth it. They do not offer any benefits to justify their fee. They were quite popular when they were advertiser-supported, and had active chat rooms. Now, it's a wasteland.