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Blogs > community > AFF Headquarters

Shoo Fakes, part deux  

community 38F   
Ask me for a photo
9252 posts
5/8/2009 5:51 pm
Shoo Fakes, part deux
I was trying to sell the $1 confirm ID idea to the man over here and it turned into a conversation about this:

What if you could have new Cupid Settings? What would they be?
I heard this suggestion from a few people (MyHeartLost4U).

We could maybe incorperate some of the ideas we had into this like:

* Turn off Flirts and Invites from X
* Block people from X location from contacting you

-or things like-

* Block members with no picture
* Block members who haven't ever Blogged
* Block members who have a score of 0

What other things would you want to block if you could? What common profiles keeps popping up that you wish you could just block? Remember these would all be optional things you could turn on or off.
MyHeartLost4U 59M
2487 posts
5/8/2009 8:31 pm

 The "Cupid Settings" could have some unsavory drawbacks for many of active members; especially members of topical groups, webcam users, and open Chat Rooms such as The Lobby, Love Doctors, WebCam Rooms and etc... that are not geographically separated.

Keep in mind that many of us members make "Online Friendships" with other "real members" from around the world. For example: I have personally made many online friendships over the years with other members from the UK, Australia, Belgium and Japan (some of you are commenting right here in this Blog too). I am sure that many other active members have made online friends from other regions as well.

What if the "cupid settings" would allow members to block out contact from other members of specific geographical regions (Countries) instead of by mileage (kilometers) only?

Another suggestion: On the home page of Standard Members they will see members from all over the world that do not match their cupid settings. The premium members see members on their home page that usually match their cupid settings. Why not make this across the board? Majority of BOTS and Fake (Scammer profiles) are standard member profiles; consequently, what they have on their home page are members from around the world that are not geographically set as a cupid setting. This is the main reason that Male members get so many of flirts ("Super Flirts") from Standard member profiles from Ghana, Malaysia, Nigeria and etc...that do not match their cupid settings.

So why not make it where BOTS and Fake Profiles (Scammer) target each other instead??? How can that be done??? Simple...When a member joins the site automatically have their cupid settings set to a 0-100 mile radius from their registered profile location. For Example: Ghana targets Ghana, Nigeria targets Nigeria, Malaysia targets Malaysia and so on. I highly doubt that these BOTS and Fakes will take the time to go through their cupid settings to changing them.


rm_NassyFox 62F
37014 posts
5/8/2009 8:45 pm

 Quoting from Earthywoman3:
The only things I would really want to block that I can't now would be the ability for a specific member from looking at my profile or reading my blog without making it private.

I have to agree with her there.

The main thing about bots is they hit hard on their first day in. I think brand new standard profiles should not be able to interact with any member until a probation period it over. Three days or perhaps a week even.

Let them read groups, blogs, chat, and magazine to their hearts content, but not allow them to comment in any way. Let them have access to all or some profiles so they get a taste of what's here. If they are genuine new members, they will stay past the duration period and then you can let them participate and reduce their profile powers back to the same as a veteran standard member.

With this duration time, the Abuse Dept can have more time to determine which profiles are bogus. The bots will have to bide their time and maybe they won't want to without the quick contact.

Removing the Super Flirt, not the individual flirt, will slow them down too. This in addition to your suggestion of being able to turn off flirts and hotlisting if the member doesn't want them.

Having blocks from members outside of a individual's settings will help some only care about contacting members they wish to meet. As discussed in the previous thread, give the member the options of how to define the area and whether or not to have it on or off.

Returning the IP ban would be great because even though many members know how to change their IP, many do not.

I really don't know that your other suggestions really pertain to bots, but just preferences to keep harassers and unwanted members at bay.

Having the Cupid settings helps, and increasing the Cupid options to filter out what one is looking for is great, but they also need to be fully functional.

Improve/add the ability to report abuse of including outside contact info in tag lines, testimonials, where I travel to and other such non-reviewed areas of a profile.


rm_NassyFox 62F
37014 posts
5/8/2009 8:50 pm
    Quoting MyHeartLost4U:
    The "Cupid Settings" could have some unsavory drawbacks for many of active members; especially members of topical groups, webcam users, and open Chat Rooms such as The Lobby, Love Doctors, WebCam Rooms and etc... that are not geographically separated.

    Keep in mind that many of us members make "Online Friendships" with other "real members" from around the world. For example: I have personally made many online friendships over the years with other members from the UK, Australia, Belgium and Japan (some of you are commenting right here in this Blog too). I am sure that many other active members have made online friends from other regions as well.

    What if the "cupid settings" would allow members to block out contact from other members of specific geographical regions (Countries) instead of by mileage (kilometers) only?

    Another suggestion: On the home page of Standard Members they will see members from all over the world that do not match their cupid settings. The premium members see members on their home page that usually match their cupid settings. Why not make this across the board? Majority of BOTS and Fake (Scammer profiles) are standard member profiles; consequently, what they have on their home page are members from around the world that are not geographically set as a cupid setting. This is the main reason that Male members get so many of flirts ("Super Flirts") from Standard member profiles from Ghana, Malaysia, Nigeria and etc...that do not match their cupid settings.

    So why not make it where BOTS and Fake Profiles (Scammer) target each other instead??? How can that be done??? Simple...When a member joins the site automatically have their cupid settings set to a 0-100 mile radius from their registered profile location. For Example: Ghana targets Ghana, Nigeria targets Nigeria, Malaysia targets Malaysia and so on. I highly doubt that these BOTS and Fakes will take the time to go through their cupid settings to changing them.
I agree and I love Nick's idea of the newbie standard member targeting their own! I don't think it should apply if they become a Silver or Gold member, but you can send them a message in their inbox about adjusting their Cupid settings once they upgrade.


wildspiritcherri 60F

5/8/2009 9:59 pm

 there have been many who lied on the cupid settings of the questions, just like on there profile. Fake pics and and of changing IP Addresses happens all the time yet. I don't really know what is the best ways to handle it.
friendships is like a diamond, always forever


Mystic_Writer 50M  
4241 posts
5/9/2009 5:47 am

 the block IP address that earthywoman3 talked about seemed like a good idea. Maybe you could even have it "linked" to a list of IP addresses. Members could report a fake to the list an once it is confirmed that IP address gets added to the list. Then that fake is automatically blocked from everyone linked to the list.


MyHeartLost4U 59M
2487 posts
5/9/2009 6:52 am

 I think some of you do not realize that when you Block a member it automatically Blocks the member IP address.

Quoting from the Block Member List Page...
Currently Blocked Members

Members below are blocked from interacting with you. You can update the blocks by clicking on the 'Update' link. Note that blocking a member will also block the member's IP address.

Also many do not realize that BOTS are software driven programs that can run without any human intervention. Also there are many softwares on the market that are designed to hiding an IP address and also ISP addresses. For example: I live in the U.S.A. but I can appear to be from China, Canada, UK or anywhere in the world if I chose by using a software. Thus, IP Blocking is no guarantee.

Another idea to eliminating BOTS and Fake profiles that are software driven is for the site to using CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart).

Many major sites on the web uses CAPTCHA to avoiding these spamming\scamming software BOTS from using their services.

On this site I noticed that CAPTCHA is not used when a new member account is created; consequently, this site is highly vulnerable for BOTS creating accounts on it. I would highly suggest that Various Inc. consider using CAPTCHA not only as means to differentiate Human and Computers apart when a profile is created, but to using CAPTCHA any time a member decides on entering Chat Rooms and other Forums of the site as well.


justawoman45 60F
315 posts
5/9/2009 8:22 am

 wow, yall have covered a majority of the things that our room complains about. I also wish that confirm id was mandatory on this site, would we have so many trolls and idiots that threaten to do harm to others if their identity was truly known? I chat in the great lakes room and there are a few that come in, irritate everyone else, get banned, create a new profile and are right back in the room, so I am wholeheartedly for an ip ban. Affairlook has told me there is no way to ban by ip address. I also like the idea of the ban button that bans them from everything at one time. Now if you have to ignore someone you have to go into your ignore feature and click the rest of the boxes, it doesn't automatically do this. Yall have some really good ideas, now if only Affairlook would listen...
GO 48!!!!


justawoman45 60F
315 posts
5/9/2009 8:24 am

 oops, forgot one more thing lol...the cams should only work in the cam room or from the video section, not the geographical rooms....for us that would be a tremendous help...
GO 48!!!!


MyHeartLost4U 59M
2487 posts
5/9/2009 10:18 am
    Quoting justawoman45:
    oops, forgot one more thing lol...the cams should only work in the cam room or from the video section, not the geographical rooms....for us that would be a tremendous help...
I happen to like watching one of the female member webcam in the South Chat Room...so I have to disagree with that since several of other members in that geographical chat room would feel the same as I.


rm_s_e_rath 66F
744 posts
5/9/2009 10:55 am

 What other things would you want to block if you could? What common profiles keeps popping up that you wish you could just block? Remember these would all be optional things you could turn on or off.

If you are talking about a person using the cupid setting s to try and avoid scammers, well those kinds of people will just work around that as it is their job to out fox so you are running a circle. Do you not think people will lie on their cupid settings or their profile to match settings or circumvented situations?

As for just targeting the standard members only, please note that not all standard members are scam artists etc, and as a standard member that is very disheartening to see over and over again, makes a person feel like they are look down upon as a bad element..

If you are talking about the cupid settings to zero in on what you want in a relationship, then that will vary greatly from person to person.

Personally I do not block anyone unless I have met or talked to them and found them to be very undesirable as in a kook and stay away. One though should have control to totally block someone for safety issues since there are many “kook” out there in the cyber world.

But how can I judge a person on a shadow or a set of value based generalized facts without seeing what they are as a person inside, who they truly are. If I had blocked people based on shadow or they were from this area, I would miss out on a lot of nice people that have supplemental my life.

I really do not use the cupid settings as a determining factor, I filled it out but those I took as lovers did not match what I checked off as I look over what boxes I had originally checked .. in the end it is the man himself that was the key …….


[post 2834794]
[post 2827268]
Battle Phantoms.....When the Sun Weeps....Life Revisited a poem
[post 2625633].....Pygmalions Moonlight Sonata....[post 2625650]
[post 2622197].... [post 2344308]


MyHeartLost4U 59M
2487 posts
5/9/2009 11:12 am
    Quoting  :
"It's easy to ignore winks or flirts just don't look at that page.."
Lonely, that is true from a female point of view since the majority of female members will receive anywhere between 20 flirts to a couple hundred flirts and emails in a single day amongst being Hotlisted.

For us majority of males we do not receive that kind of attention from the females on this site; consequently, we do not ignore seeing on our home page that we have received a Flirt or been Hotlisted or have an email waiting for us. The majority of us males will go and immediately check that page to see who it is that flirted with us or hotlisted us. It is that aged old double standards of the genders sweetie. No matter what anyone thinks...the female members have a clear advantage on this site compared to us males because of the ratio of male members outweighing the ration of to the female members on this site by close to 10-15 to 1.
"It's the vile anti social comments and pages that I find intolerable and hurtful, and one cant even report anti social behavior because the abuse button only covers photos as far as I can see..."
If you click on the link "Report Abuse or Sexually Explicit Ads" at the bottom of the page you will be presented with a form to insert a member handle, reason and your comment as to why you are reporting that member. The "Reason" is a drop down list with 9 reasons. The last one in that drop down list is for "Offensive behavior or other violations of terms of service". So in essence you do have a way and option to report the abusive comments (behavior) made to you while on webcam to the Abuse Team department. I would suggest that you do a copy and paste of the comment made by the member that messaged you with the time as well and add that to the comment you would make.


MyHeartLost4U 59M
2487 posts
5/9/2009 11:39 am
    Quoting rm_s_e_rath:
    What other things would you want to block if you could? What common profiles keeps popping up that you wish you could just block? Remember these would all be optional things you could turn on or off.

    If you are talking about a person using the cupid setting s to try and avoid scammers, well those kinds of people will just work around that as it is their job to out fox so you are running a circle. Do you not think people will lie on their cupid settings or their profile to match settings or circumvented situations?

    As for just targeting the standard members only, please note that not all standard members are scam artists etc, and as a standard member that is very disheartening to see over and over again, makes a person feel like they are look down upon as a bad element..

    If you are talking about the cupid settings to zero in on what you want in a relationship, then that will vary greatly from person to person.

    Personally I do not block anyone unless I have met or talked to them and found them to be very undesirable as in a kook and stay away. One though should have control to totally block someone for safety issues since there are many “kook” out there in the cyber world.

    But how can I judge a person on a shadow or a set of value based generalized facts without seeing what they are as a person inside, who they truly are. If I had blocked people based on shadow or they were from this area, I would miss out on a lot of nice people that have supplemental my life.

    I really do not use the cupid settings as a determining factor, I filled it out but those I took as lovers did not match what I checked off as I look over what boxes I had originally checked .. in the end it is the man himself that was the key …….
In no way were the real "Standard Members" being cut down. The fact is that the majority of BOTS and Fake profiles that try and scam members out of their money (90 percent +) use and create free standard member profiles and not premium membership accounts.

Secondly, the cupid settings being set to a default of 0-100 miles could also be an advantage to the real Standard Members that join the site. For example: You are from Arizona, U.S.A. and I am from Georgia, U.S.A. Instead of seeing my photo on your home page you will see members that are within a 100 mile radius of your location instead. Of course you would still have the option of Humanly going into your account settings and change your cupid settings to a distance that you would prefer. BOTS and Fake profiles as what is being mentioned are usually software programs that run continuously and faster than a human being until they are caught and removed (banned); therefore, the owner of the software that generates BOT or Fake profiles is less out to taking time to search out all the settings of a site to changing them manually (humanly) in order to targeting legit members (Standard and Premium) with.

The main thing with trying to combat the BOTS and Fake profiles is that you are not fighting against another human individual as much as you are fighting a software program design.


MyHeartLost4U 59M
2487 posts
5/9/2009 10:42 pm

 Here is another idea of using the "IP Blocking" to combating BOTS and Fake Profiles; in addition, can help in reducing some of the real member abusive behavior and the infractions of the TOU.

If any member has been blocked by 15 or more other individual members by use of the Blocking or with the "Report this member for Abuse link" (with different IP addresses to avoid the multi-profile users) within a 72 hour time frame the Blocked member account would then be "Flagged" by the site and investigated by the Abuse Team. Every 72 hours a reset of the number of reports would occur. Note: 72 hours is a hypothetical time frame.

Also can consider disabling (temporary banning) the offending (reported)member account and automatically sending out a generated notification email from the Abuse Team that complaints have been filed against the member for violations of the TOU agreement that requires the member to immediately reply back too.

When the member replies back to the notification a second email would be sent by the Abuse Team that contains a copy of the TOU of Various Inc. that the reported member must reply back to and acknowledge and will agree to abide by the TOU.

The notification could be sent to the account holder (member) Inbox on site or to the registered email account used for creating their membership. If the reported member does not reply back within 72 hours time to both emails....the account would then be permanently suspended (deleted).

This could be done by using the members db (database) with adding a field of abuse reported to it that only Various Inc. would have access of and visible too; in addition, it could be a completely automated system that would help free up the Abuse Team time to handling\resolving individual member complaints.

Keep in mind that BOTS and Fake profile that spam\scam uses a throwaway email accounts to register their memberships with. Many times those email accounts are caught by the provider of them for spamming and are deleted by the provider of the email service.


papyrina 58F
21123 posts
5/10/2009 1:03 pm

 Ryan help please Ionlyshow

has been banned for some reason

I'm a

and
i'm here to stay


rm_Katt44dd 65F
Ask me for a photo
1015 posts
5/10/2009 1:43 pm

 How can someone disagree with papyrina's post???

I am outraged that Ionlyhow has been banned and I am sending you and email Ryan and to CS


MyHeartLost4U 59M
2487 posts
5/10/2009 3:36 pm

 Ryan, I too have to agree about needing to check into about why Ionlyshow was banned. I have known of this member for years and never seen her be abusive. Even earlier today she emailed me thanking me personally for pointing her to the "Report Abuse or Sexually Explicit Ads" when I quoted her posting in this Blog topic.

So please check into this for us.

Nick


MyHeartLost4U 59M
2487 posts
5/10/2009 4:34 pm
    Quoting  :
"There are several sites that have it programed where you can't right click and copy anything."
Disabling the "right click" is only a deterant for some that do not know that they can just click on the "edit" at the top of the browser and then choose "select all" and have a copy of everything on a page regardless of the right click being disabled. All someone would have to do is then paste the text in a word program such as NotePad.

Secondly: There are softwares that can grab anything from a webpage (text,images, video clips, etc...) from any webpage from any website and save it to the user computer. One of the most common and well known ones is called "Snagit".

Also, If someone just wants an image they can simply press Ctrl+Printscreen from their keyboard and paste it in any photo imaging software they want and edit out what they want.

Believe me disabling the right click is useless and also annoying to majority of users as well; furthermore, there is no way as of yet to preventing the copy of anything from a webpage from any site.

"Why is it my space and face book can give people the option that ONLY your friends can see anything in your profile??? Surely this billion dollar operation can do that.


Your "profile" is public. Your Blog can be set to be public or only viewable by members in your "network of friends" by using your Blog settings. If you wish you can put all your photos in a Album under your Network "Friends" settings and have it only viewable by those in your network of friends. Your "Testimonials" can be done the same way and also if you have Videos.

You say that you been a member since 2006, then all of these settings you should already know do exist.

"I think it's time some of the good folk on here pull their panties out of their crack and GROW UP. I think that multi-profiling is a hugh problem. (at least 2 who've commented so far, at one time have or had several profiles). If your intent is to have fun, meet others etc...then why would you need more than one profile? IF you don't like a blog or person, then stay away from them! For CHRIST sake, how hard is that?"
Members having multiple profiles has always been supported on this site for a logical reason. It allows a member more freedom and privacy to seek out what they are looking for from this site with another individual. What that means is it gives a member the option to communicating privately to individuals without another individual they are in contact with knowing it. In one aspect it also cuts down on a drama factor from occuring that sometimes is caused by jealousy.

In my honest opinion here...and I hate to say it...but honestly... I do believe it is you that need pull your panties out from your crack and not the members here that are trying to make things better for the majority.


rdy2try4 59F  
3330 posts
5/10/2009 4:49 pm

 I am going to just reiterate the idea for the "cupid settings" as you started out here.

A - Allow all invites
B - Allow those that match your cupid settings to invite
C - Don't allow any invites

A - Allow all flirts
B - Allow those that match your cupid settings to flirt
C - Don't allow any flirts

I KNOW it won't solve everything. I KNOW that not everyone cares about this but SOME do. If I don't want emails from someone that doesn't match my cupid settings, and yes I can already adjust who gives testimonials, then why would I want flirts/invites from someone that doesn't match my cupid settings?? The idea of 'no one from more than 100 miles' and adjust it accordingly is kinda the same thing... it matches the Cupid Settings!! Whatever you wish them to be, they would be, whether it is miles away, country, age, etc... it should be something WE can control a bit better.

As for blocking someone from flirting/inviting, YES, you can do it now. But only AFTER they have sent them, and some do send them over and over and over like the person that said someone has followed them for 5 years. Having the option to just plain turn them off or opt out would definitely for some people remove the problem of if it did NOT get caught by the cupid setttings.

MY idea was to cut down on 'SCAMMERS/SPAMMERS/FAKES LURING MEN TO THEM TO GET THEM TO ANOTHER SITE' by the means of using the FLIRTS and/or INVITES as so many do seriously think that because a flirt was sent they 'must' be interested and off they go to see the profiles including and not limited to Ghana/Russian/Hungarian/whateverian countries they come from. Those 'scammers/spammers/fakes etc... ARE luring men to view them, then click on other things to go to other sites with the promise of 'more'.

As was noted, men do NOT get as many hits/views/flirts/invites as women do. Men definitely are at the disadvantage here. The fakes/scammers KNOW this and truly by sending out flirts/invites there is a certain number of men that DO BELIEVE that these women truly want them and rush to the profiles only to be redirected to another site. For women there are men that truly do NOT read profiles and they just slam out flirts/invites to anyone and everyone hoping for a bite. Then they are disappointed they didn't get any when the women they sent them to are not looking for what they are for whatever reason.

It is just something you may want to consider that overall may help quite a few.


magnaotter F
4037 posts
5/11/2009 5:10 pm

 This isn't directly related to getting rid of fakes, but is something 'd love to see. I want to be able to block pages from abusive members when I'm on cam.

Ideally, this would be something very quick and easy for the person on cam to use, whenever they received a page that they found offensive or abusive. Searching through a list of over a hundred viewers in order to boot the offender off the cam is timeconsuming and ineffective - the offender can simply reload the cam and continue their abuse the majority of the time. Or click off the cam while the person on cam is searching, and then reload.

I don't really care if the abusive person continues watching, I just don't want to read their abusive comments - and, believe me, they can be extremely nasty.

If people on cam could simply block other members from paging at their discretion, there'd probably be a lot more people, specifically women, camming, and wouldn't that be a Good Thing for the site?

Sure it would. No one should have to put up with abusive pages - and some people can be quite abusive, threatening, violent, or simply disgusting. Since there's no way for the site to stop these people in advance, those on cam should have the ability to determine who they *don't* want pages from. A simple 'one strike and you're out' reality, to be exercised at the cammer's discretion - it wouldn't stop all the abusive pages, but it would stop repeated abusive pages by the same member.

And for those of us on cam, that would be a HUGE step in the right direction. After all, no one is forcing them to watch us on cam, why should we have to put up with abusive behavior?

thanks for allowing me to vent.


wildcatr27 52F  
241 posts
5/12/2009 7:05 am

 As I have said before I think the full site block should be brought in because if we have blocked someone there is a reason so they shouldn't be allowed to continuely view our profiles or even contact us on IM chat

if the site can block from other chat then why not the IM chat


wd40w 71M
6966 posts
5/13/2009 2:49 am

 Ryan, when was the last time you looked at the Blocked Members list there already is? We can already block Magazine/Blog Comments, Sending Emails/Winks, Appearing in Chat, Sending Invites and Writing Testimonials. Cupid settings can already send profiles with no pictures to the filtered email inbox. The feature that used to be on the Blocked Members list and is now gone is the ability to block an IP address. Care to explain that one?

What do you mean by "members who have a score of 0?" Are you talking about scores on their profile pics? What about those members who have the rating feature turned off? It's turned off on mine and I've no intention of turning it on.

If you block members who have never blogged, then you're going to catch new members who haven't had an opportunity to blog or don't even know about it. I was here for awhile before I discovered the blogs.

The only things I would really want to block that I can't now would be the ability for a specific member from looking at my profile or reading my blog without making it private.

I think you and "the man" wasted an afternoon.

I so heartily agree with this post...especially what I have highlighted in red...you need a IP block tied to the handle that we sign up with...so that we can block "cyber-bullies"...for the past 72 hours the site has been severely screwed up...I've been getting admin screens for ALL windows...filters that disappear from the IMC...ban from viewing my web cam that does not work even after five tries...take those suggestions to "the man"
"Illigitimi Non Carborundum Est" W.F. "Bull" Halsey wd40w


rm_trainmepls1 53F
717 posts
5/14/2009 10:23 am

 I've never had a problem with blocking members, but I was thinking that there could be an option available for people who are being stalked and who are only here to socialize with people who are already friends. There could be an option that allows your profile/blog/group/cam, etc. to be accessed ONLY by people who are on your friends list. The only drawback would be that new people couldn't contact you. You would have to be proactive about seeking out new contacts.


rm_denizk2 73M/69F
1046 posts
5/14/2009 1:54 pm

 Actually we are moderator of one of the most active group which is mainly based on cams.I and our co mods have seen that some guys are complaining about they are watched by some other guys.The best advice to them was to use ignore button.And for this we did a sticky post in the group.I again in this post agree with train.I or our co mods never get mails from complaints with blocking members.
So I think there musnt be any much problem.

Mr.D


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