Sites offer way to track phonies He sounded like a prince.
”He said he was smart, witty, tall and handsome,” recalls the woman known as j29blonde on match.com. She asked that her real name not be used to protect the ego of the ”prince” she met. She thought she clicked with the gentleman when they chatted online. ”It was one of my most memorable dates.”
She doesn’t mean that in a good way.
When she finally met the so-called Prince Charming, all she saw was a hobbit.
”Upon three double takes it turns out he was 5-feet-6-inches [tall] and far from handsome,” she recounted in an interview. ”He also had a twitch. At the end of each sentence he would make a snorting sound with his nose. I think the only thing that was true was that he was in grad school.”
Bostonians who click their mouses in hopes of clicking with someone know firsthand the mismatches of online dating. Like the women on ABC’s ”Hooking Up” summer series or Diane Lane in the new movie ”Must Love Dogs,” they learn that sometimes reality bytes when you log on for love.
But there is help a few keystrokes away. In the past year, several websites have sprung up to help cyber daters discern what is fact from fantasy on someone’s profile. The sites allow users to post feedback about the person they met online, including whether the profile the person posted is true. Users can also rate their dates here. Call it Cupid’s cyber consumer protection.
Officials from these websites tout their service as a best friend looking out for another friend on a date.
”We are waving the truth flag. The intent and the creation of the site was to provide a truthful and positive attitude for online dating,” says Jamie Diamond, a spokesman for the Los Angeles-based truedater.com which launched last January. Visitors can browse reviews from five dating services the company works work with — American Singles, Match.com, Yahoo Personals, Nerve.com, and Jdate, the Jewish singles site.
The site’s basic premise is to help determine whether the person reviewed is a ”true dater,” meaning he or she was honest in their description. Among the reasons for failed first cyber encounters is the person on the other side of the computer used a Kodak moment that was 10 years old and the physical descriptions were way off.
”In a perfect world, their profile is completely accurate,” says Diamond. ”You know how old they are or whether they have kids. But on occasion, you go to Starbucks and their cellphone might be ringing off the hook or they have a significant other or they may be married.”
The truedater.com postings take browsers on a journey through the good dates and bad. Some postings appear bitter. Other reviewers seem smitten by the date after meeting him or her.
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