This is a hot-button topic that a lot of people are worried about when they’re thinking about joining an online dating site. Before we go any further, we need to make sure that we’re all on the same page about what we mean when we say a fake member. A fake member of an online dating site is a profile that is not connected to a real person. Typically, this refers to a profile that is made for advertising purposes or for some purpose other than trying to find love.

What we’re not referring to today are people who fib on their online dating profile. If someone says they are 6’ 1” and they’re really 5’ 10”, they’re a liar, but their profile is still considered real because it links back to an actual person. Sadly, it’s really hard for online dating sites to check some fibs, but some are able to force verification on certain things.

The Answer First

We want to start by answering the question first and then work backward by pulling out what you need to take away from that. The answer is that yes, some online dating sites do have fake members. While we wish this were not the case, it is the truth. Now, the first takeaway that you need to pay attention to is that we said “some” dating sites have fake members.

This is EXTREMELY important because it should have a huge effect on which dating sites you choose to join and which you should avoid like the plague. If a site is riddled with fake accounts, you should really stay far away from it. What good is a site if half the people you are sending messages to aren’t real or have some ulterior motive outside of finding love.

Finding the Sites Without Fake Members

The obvious follow-up question here is, how do I find dating sites without fake members? Well, the easiest way to do this is to utilize reviews by experts who know how to spot fake profiles. Our team here spends way too long on online dating sites every day, and we’ve become experts in spotting the sites that have a whole mess of fake profiles. What’s strange is that the people who post fake profiles seem to always follow the same formula and always have the same types of photos etc. For us, spotting these fake profiles is a breeze. For someone like you that may be new to the world of online dating, you may not be able to pick them out as easily.

What we also look for are sites that have processes and procedures in place for dealing with fake profiles. The better online dating sites who actually care about their customer’s success have ways of spotting the fake profiles and will automatically flag and remove them. Some sites even go as far as removing profiles that have been inactive for too long. This leads to a high-quality selection of singles for you to choose from.

When we do reviews, we will create a test account to look through the sites and test out all of the functionality. We’ve actually had our account flagged several times by support because it looked fishy. This is AWESOME to us because it shows sites that are really on top of this whole thing.

The Takeaway

So, the answer to the question here is that some online dating sites do have fake members while others go above and beyond to weed out fake profiles and keep them out of the dating pool. Every now and then a few will get through the cracks, but most quality sites are good about getting them removed quickly and effortlessly. This should be an extremely important criteria for you when selecting which online dating site you’re going to choose.