Honestly Speaking

Scandalous cases of identity fraud on internet dating sites are good business for Honesty Online. Here are a couple of recent cases:

1. A man posed as a 10-year NBA veteran and Seattle Supersonics front-office employee to impress women.
2. A man allegedly posed as a wealthy, Grammy-nominated music mogul, scamming multiple victims out of a combined $102,000.

When I see stories like these, I like to play a game of “Would we have given the cad a credential?” This boils down to two questions: First, did he (usually it’s a “he”) misrepresent his basic real-life identity? The NBA poseur, using somebody else’s name, clearly fails this test and wouldn’t have rated even a Verification credential from Honesty Online.

In the second case, the accused used his ex-wife’s current, and his former, real-life address in his alleged dealings with the scam-ees. No mention is made of his using a fake name or age. So, it’s difficult to say whether he would have scored a Verification (which does not include a check into one’s familiarity with Quincy Jones or Michael Jackson). We haven’t knowingly tested the service on people described as homeless — maybe that would have tripped him up. The second question is the money shot: Does he have a criminal or sex-offender background? Not surprisingly, in this case the schemer has prior convictions for theft and indecent exposure. No Certification for this creep.

As much as we like to make hay out of infamous internet identity scandals, Honesty Online’s core value proposition isn’t defending against the sleaziest of the sleazy (although that’s a useful and sale-able side-benefit). It’s enabling Joe-online-user to reassure others that his online persona matches his real-life identity. It’s promoting a community of trust within our partner sites where people seeking a relationship with others — whether that relationship is personal or professional — can hone in on those with nothing to hide.

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