And so I did a Google Reverse Image search on his picture. And I found him, the handsome venture capitalist … in Getty Stock Images. Yes, the person I was chatting to was a liar. (If indeed it was a person. It could have been a savant chipmunk for all I know.)
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Well, Google Image Search is your friend. This is a tool that allows you to feed an image into your search engine, and be shown where on the internet that image is found. If it is only found on your dating site, chances are you are pretty safe. If the image turns up on a model or celebrity website, or on any other website unrelated to the person’s field, be suspicious.
Catfishing on local dating sites is not an effective way to find love. After all, what happens if a face-to-face date is actually made? I turn up, looking for my handsome venture capitalist and a pimply 20-year-old turns up in his Maccas uniform saying, “Hi, babe, it’s me.” Where do we go from there?
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MTV’s new reality TV show Catfish — which depicts the first meeting of couples who have dated online but have never met face to face — has people talking about the creepy side of online dating (many of the Catfish stars turn out to be imposters in one way or another).
And please, if any of you know the whereabouts of that dude in the photo, let me know. Real Getty Man, if you’re single and available, call me, please. I’m interested!
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Google Base is amassing a database of “people profiles.” I discuss a future Google.com classifieds strategy based on Google Base classifieds listings surfacing in Google.com in my "Google.com 'refinement boxes': future classifieds 'complete solution'? " The same analysis applies to Google Base people profile listings; Google is using the free “people profiles” it obtains from users at Google Base to fuel “refinement box” search queries for online networking and online dating (see also my Google Base obtains the world's content for free, Google.com capitalizes on it .)
Creepy or not, the fact is that one in five couples meet online and a form of dating that used to carry a heavy stigma — has been normalized. Need proof? Google Zeitgeist — the search engine’s annual online presentation of the year’s top “trending” and “most searched” terms — includes a list of the top 10 most searched dating sites, which a Google spokesperson provided to The Huffington Post in an email. Check out the list below, and let us know in the comments if any of the rankings surprised you.
And if the person’s words do not match their profile, be alert. Getty Man’s grammar was very poor, and while not every 46-year-old venture capitalist has good grammar, something was definitely off.
Presumably, in many cases, it is about money. Catfishers use fake profiles to lure vulnerable women into falling in love and transferring cash to them, ostensibly to facilitate a meeting.
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Now, this is not my first time chatting online to a stock image. I have caught people (chipmunks?) out using them before. And the phenomenon, catfishing, fascinates me. Why do people use fake photos to chat to others on the internet?
At the very least, check out the pictures of people who are improbably good looking, or whose photos look perfectly staged. And be realistic. A middle-aged woman is unlikely to be approached by a stunning 30-year-old brain surgeon; a 60-year-old man is unlikely to be approached by a busty 18-year-old.
Below is a screen shot of a Google Base people profiles listings page with a refinement box at top asking for “gender,” “age” and “location”.
But Getty Man didn’t want money from me, and neither did the other guys who used fake photos, nor did those who contacted several other women I spoke to. It seems that these men are online purely for the thrill of interacting with people using a disguise.
