Device reputation firm iovation did some research and found that the online dating fraud rate originating from Europe grew 357% between Q1 2011 and Q1 2012.
The exact breakdown was:
Q1 2011 = .22
Q2 2011 = .50
Q3 2011 = .66
Q4 2011 = .73
Q1 2012 = 1.02
This is great news for iovation’s business model, while at the same time bad news for the online dating industry. The last thing it needs is more fraud, there’s plenty of it to go around already. I don’t know what the actual number of fraudulent activities was, but thats a pretty big jump.
While some larger, more savvy dating sites roll their own anti-fraud systems, the majority don’t have any anti-fraud protection in place at all. Active in the online community space for several years, iovation has a number of customers in the online dating space. I like their concept because it relies in part on a shared database of fraudulent devices, meaning that if a device has been tagged with a red flag, you’ll know that on your site the second they hit it and be able to head off the offender from the get-go. They have launched a new European data center as well, which means better, faster services for dating sites with a footprint in Europe. Plus then you can expense a trip to Amsterdam for business. More info.
