Online Dating Scams

Tinder, Badoo, Craigslist, (and there are plenty of others) others have a proliferation of scams, which are intending to get you to sign up for another site.  These online dating scams ask you to “Get Verified” as ruse.

Using some programming skill, technical forensic investigation, and the now old adage, “Follow the Money” we find that the root of the scam really about driving web traffic to what otherwise seems to be legitimate businesses.

It starts with a white label dating service company with a database.  The white label company  recruits entrepreneurial minded people to stand up their own branded dating websites and use a white-label service for operating the website.      It is the ease of standing up a new website, connecting it to a populated dating database, and the highly competitive online-dating business, that feeds  the proliferation of date verification scams. A new website needs  to sign up subscribers, and that can be difficult, unless you take a few short cuts…

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Knock Knock Neo

Starting from the dating consumer viewpoint, (let’s call him Neo for grins) someone who seemed to be a potential date sent a message  that in order to meet, Neo had to verify for their safety.  They send a link to a Get Verified site.

For this investigation, I will use Safe and Single – Freeageverificationpage.com – a  Get Verified Scam, part of the Safe and Single family.     These sites all have the same web design, and underlying programming structure.   They all purport to verify your age and protect against sexual predators, by using your credit card.  When you sign up, you are registered for a 2 day trial to a dating web site or porn site, after which you are charged $40 per month.  You can see how the set up works in one of these earlier articles.

• Justnowhookups.com
• SafetoDatingNow.com

This article will focus on what is really happening behind the scenes and the façade of the web page.   In this twisted, and complicated structure, you will see just how risky these websites really are.

Targeting Tinder, Badoo, and Craigslist Users 

These pages are frequently designed to target the specific users of Tinder, Badoo, etc.,  by referencing a story about a person who met someone on the target site, and was murdered raped or robbed,  so therefore it is important to verify yourself for your date’s safety.  By using this reference, they are creating a false affiliation and a congruent experience for their target audience.

Let’s look closer at one of the Safe and Single scam sites: Freeageverificationpage.com.  This is a Craigslist scam, wanting you to “Get Verfied”.   This site is is owned by Mamun Ali, from Dhaka, Bangladesh.  It was registered in July 2016.   Mamun is a busy guy, he has 35 similar sites registered since 2014.

Buckle  your seat belt Dorothy, Kansas is going bye bye

When using Freeageverificationpage.com, if you type in your credit card, you are actually typing it in to a different website.  A web programming command known as IFrame, is directing you to another site without you knowing it.  This is where it gets complicated and obfuscated.

Underneath this Safe and Single sites are UETRK.com and TRKDC.com.  These are click generators, and act as a traffic controllers.  Both Sites are owned by Shefeng Juang from Cixi, in the Peoples Republic of China.   For this article, I will use UETRK, which instructs the Freeageverificationpage.com site to use a branded dating site in a rotating fashion.

I took the red pill…

…to see how far down this rabbit hole goes.

From UETRK.com, there are two more redirects between the site you think you are on, and the site where you actually type in your information.  UETRK.com routes to TGTRAK.com, which routes to Joincheckout.com, then to the branded dating billing site.   TGTRAK is owned buy Jason Ascher, of Boulder Colorodo.  Joincheckout is registered anonymously.

If you had trouble following, you can see an image of that trace here.

I dug in further to FNDRTSMT.com, one of the sites in the controllers rotation.  This site’s home page is what is actually presented in the iFrame of the Safe and Single site.   Although FNDRTSMT.com is registered anonymously, a Google search reveals that FNDRTSMT is associated with FindYourTrueSoleMate.com.  Both sites are owned by FDS Solutions Limited, Manchester, UK.  Maria Del Mar Sanchez Martinez is the listed Director in the U.K. Companies Directory.

As I stated earlier, the redirect chain creates a rotation of what sites actually are used when entering your information.  These are Branded Dating Billing Sites that  have a landing page that is used for the credit card entry and is presented inside the IFrame of the date verification site.   A list of some of the Branded Dating Sites I found in the rotation are at the end of this article.

All of the Branded Dating Sites have the same underlying programming.  The entrepreneur is changing the pictures and the text, so on the surface it looks different, but if you look at the code (HTML) that the browser is using, it is the same.  (Note this, it is key.)

There are lots of them.   On one day I found  UETRK was directing traffuc  to 12 different sites.  The next day, it was a whole new set of sites.

Then if you look at (search) the Branded Dating Site owning company,  you find other dating sites.   Ms. Maria Del Mar Sanchez Martinez, owner of FDS Solutions has at least 7 sites like this.

The Matrix Revealed 

OK, so here is what is really happening in these scams on Tinder, Badoo, and Craigslist et al…

The date verification scam is are really rooted in getting you to sign up for the branded dating sites, no new news there.  The rabbit hole goes deeper.  The branded sites are individual presentations of a white-label dating site.  The identical program code (HTML) in the branded sites, with different owners, reveals the use of the white label dating service company.

A white-label dating service company provides the software, a combined membership database, computer hosting, and billing support. Essentially, you set up a Brand and a Website, and the white-label company provides everything to run the web site. One of the largest companies is WhiteLabelDating.com.  According to their website, White Label Dating has more than 3,200 customers and 25,000 branded dating websites.  I want to state clearly, that I don’t have any information that ties any of the Branded Dating sites mentioned here to whitelabeldating.com.  This mention is for gaining a perspective on the industry only.

The dating website business is very competitive. The owner of the site needs to drive traffic to their site. This is not an easy task if you do it organically.  That’s where companies like UETRK.com come in.

UETRK is  driving traffic to the branded dating website. UETRK has relationships with the date verification sites – remember Safe and Single, and Mamun Ali and his 35 sites?

So that is the rabbit hole goes from Kansas, to Bangladesh, to China, to England, Cyprus, or who knows where.  In case you got lost along the way, here is how this all fits together.  (Click the image for a larger picture.)

At the end of the bits and bytes, the Dating public gets a credit card statement with mysterious charges, ranging from $40 – $130 per month.

It is a great set up for the white label dating company.  They have a continually growing database, which enhances their value, they don’t have to recruit the masses of the dating public, and they get paid first!

For the entrepreneur it is a  sweet deal because once you have the branded dating site set up (which is not real difficult), there isn’t much to do besides the accounting.   The white label dating company pays you, taking their fee off the top (for example whitelabeldating.com takes 35%), then you pay Shifeng Huang / UETRK.com a commission, and Huang pays the date verification site owner Mamun Ali.    If there is a dispute, the White Label company handles it.

This arrangement also provides the entrepreneur plausible deniability.  For example:  It is unlikely that Maria Del Mar Sanchez Martinez (FindYourTrueSoleMate.com) even knows of Mamun Ali (Freeageverificationpage.com).   And you can be sure that the white label service company won’t know Huang or Mamun either.

Wake up Neo

Do you know where your credit card is?

Following the matrix of the technology, and reading how the white label companies make money, it is clear what is driving the scams.  You can see how risky these situations are.  You do not know who is really taking your credit card.

You might have noticed that I have not mentioned any actual date verification activity.  That is because there is no evidence of actually verifying a person anywhere in this process.

I  am not anywhere close to understanding all of the connections dealings that are happening here.  I feel like I have just scratched the surface.  I did find lots of connections, that go beyond the point of this article, perhaps I will write about them another day.

A note to help you and to help support this site…

I presume you found this page while trying to meet someone online.  I wish you luck, but if you are a man, you should know that the odds are not in your favor.  The ratio of women to men in online dating works against men.  Once you work thru scammers and fakes, the Ratio’s of 6:1, 10:1 and higher means that the women will get swamped with suitors.  It can be very hard to break thru.

I suggest that you spend some time and invest in yourself.  Find out what is attractive to women, avoid common mistakes, and gain the confidence to meet any woman, anywhere, anytime.  Click on the banner below to learn more.

If that is not for you, then a like, or a tweet using the social buttons would be very much appreciated.

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Background Information that helped me write this article

Here are some of the underlying facts and data, that enabled me to publish this post. Usually, the sites are registered anonymously, but an internet search using the domain name will reveal the associations.

Sources for this include

• The internet registry. I use cqcounter.com/whois
• domainbigdata.com/   provides a great reverse whois look up
• Companies House (UK corporate filings) https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/
• WhereGoes.com  made it super easy to see the trace from the get verified scam site, to the billing site.

Branded Dating Sites

• sslocllv.com – associated with sexylocallove.com, Tikbox Limited Bristol England, – Franck Bastien
• nngvem.com – Owned by Way Internet Marketing Limited, Barry Becker, Exeter UK
• skyrcmp.com – Foxy Media BV, Patrick Holliday, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• afedak.com – associated with afterdarkromance.com, Casca Creations Limited, Watford, UK
• sueram.com – associated with summeramour.com, Seneca Designs Limited, London, England – Francesca Lolly Milbour
• lchtcnct.com – associated with Tikbox Limited Bristol England, – Franck Bastien
• dsctdtydt.com – associated with discretedirtydating.com, Fuson Ltd, Larnaka, Cyprus, Avraam Maragkos
• skrllve.com – associated with seekreallove.com, Terranueva Development Ltd., Leeds, UK – David Charles Brent.  Frank Bastien was previously a Director with this company.

The dating sites companies

As I dig around in the corners of the internet, you start to find the relationships.  This is just a way to document a sample of what I found.

FDS Solutions

• shamelesshookup.com
• Lvicams.com
• FindYourTrueSoleMate.com
• cleverpeopleseeklove.com
• inspiredtofindlove.com
• findtherightoneforyou.com
• perpetuallyinlove.com

Scam Site Owners

Select data points from the internet registry records.

Get Verified Scam – Freeageverificationpage.com 

Safe and Single domain: Freeageverificationpage.com  
Registrant Name: Mamun Ali
Registrant Organization: mamun
Registrant Street: Shukrabad , Dhanmondi -32  
Registrant City: Dhaka
Registrant State/Province: Dhaka
Registrant Postal Code: 1207
Registrant Country: BD
Registrant Phone: +880.1920188561
Registrant Email: jonypk64@gmail.com

UETRK.com and TRKDC.com – The Controller Sites

Registrant Name: shifeng huang
Registrant Organization: 
Registrant Street: tong jia xin cun 2#207
Registrant City: cixi
Registrant State/Province: zhejiang
Registrant Postal Code: 315300
Registrant Country: CN
Registrant Phone: +86.57463024231
Registrant Email: maggie11_6@hotmail.com

TGTRAK.com Owner

Creation Date: 2014-06-20T18:13:37Z
Registrant Name: Jason Ascher
Registrant Organization: Liquid Ventures, LLC
Registrant Street: 930 Sunshine Canyon
Registrant City: Boulder
Registrant State/Province: Colorado
Registrant Postal Code: 80302
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.3038178519
Registrant Phone Ext: 
Registrant Fax: 
Registrant Fax Ext: 
Registrant Email: jason.hookup@gmail.com

A note on the names that are used in this article. 

In this and other posts, I list the names and information that are publicly available from reputable sites.  I have seen from other investigations, that the names in the internet registry, and in other places can be fabricated.   U.K. Companies House is a great resource for company filings.   In some cases, the information seems reasonable, but not certain.  There are lots of clues that could be used to chase down individuals, but that is not something I am interested in doing.  Bottom line, although there is high confidence, we do not know who is really behind these sites.

Additional Information

For additional information, you can visit the FBI, which has additional behaviors of the typical scammer.  FBI Warns of Dating Scams