WK4Text - Are the online dating match platforms in China really safe? -- Chinese online dating and m

On 18th, Sept., the Communist Youth League, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued a joint directive on Monday requiring dating websites to keep a record of their users' real identities.

This announcement stems from an online dating misfortune that an App developer jumped to his death due to one online dating match platform failing to verify the personal profile of his ex-wife, and she was accused of causing his suicide. Since this news has been exposed, the involved Chinese popular matchmaker network, Jiayuan.com, as well as other networks are standing at the center of criticism storm.

Due to the gender imbalance at birth, it becomes more difficult to get married. The marriage issue of huge single population in China turns into a major problem to be solved. Confronted with the fast life pace, high pressure, elevated population mobility and narrowed friends circle, more and more people, especially the youngs, accept the online matchmaking platforms, which possess convenient service, a huge database and modern match style. But with the fast expanding of this industry, user's safety can not be guaranteed as before.

Su is not an occasional case, as the number of marital scam crimes just in Guangzhou has already increased to 64 cases with 104 people involved in, according to Procuratorial Organ of Guangzhou.

Though the related regulations have been published, it seems still many online dating service providers do not begin to implement them. The 23-year-old girl named A Yang (alias, to protect her privacy) disclosed that she always used a third-party software rather than real identity to log in, when she used an online dating App named Lesdo, which is specially designed for lesbians and where she met her current girlfriend.

In fact, it is a common sense that the personal informations, like age, education or marital status, work unit as well as salary, can be edited to whatever you want. Such characteristic would make it easier for swindlers to take advantage and target unsuspecting partner-seekers, because they can do phishing by providing fake profiles.

“Honestly, i didn't feel protected by the App developer”, said Yang, but then she added, “recently it requires a real-name registration, otherwise some function wouldn't work normally.” Talking about the personal informations, she pointed that the subscribers of homosexual online dating websites will usually use an alias and edit other additional informations freely. “Because everyone has a different identity and is careful in protecting personal privacy”, Yang said.

Besides, the ineffective scrutiny and inaction of online matchmaking networks also make scammers be able to defraud other users without worrying to be unmasked, as no one would warn the victims and identify who they really are because of the lack of authentication and verification.

Yang exposed that she has heard about some bad experiences of other girls on Lesdo, like a straight girl breaking up and marrying a man after cheating a lesbian for money and emotions.

For this current situation, one chioce left for people is to keep vigilant on the attempts of building an online relationship. Yang shared her personal experiences: “I tend to only chat online and would be extremely cautious about getting in touch offline with the friend i made on Lesdo. Before I decide to meet someone offline, I would collect more details of their information in reality, like what job they do, then I would make some tries selectively based on my judgement.”

When it comes to the time of making a final decision, Yang showed a more cautious attitude: “After I chat with her for a time, usually 1 to 2 months, I will continue to contact her with a third-party software like QQ or Wechat. If I like her, I will collect her informations on a more comprehensive way through a video or phone call, meanwhile I want to know further about her character and temper. Her attitude on a love relationship, speech and behavior, the similarities and differences between our tempers and status, my personal feelings and our life plans for next 3 to 5 years, after all of these aspects are considered carefully, I would talk to her to start dating.”

An article of China Daily in February has reported, “It's estimated that in the next three decades up to 30 million men of marriage age will have trouble finding wives.” Indeed, the emergence of various online dating service websites have helped a number of subscribers find a life partner successfully at the very beginning. However, since increasing scam criminals started to use them as a crime tool, these websites and Apps can not be trusted as before. For people who seek to start a love relationship online, they need to be very cautious and independent from the informations on the websites and make a critical judgement, even though they are claimed as verified informations.