Dating sites offer easy pickings for scammers

REPORTEDLY, it only costs 30 yuan ($4.71) to buy everything you need to register with someone else's identity for use on matchmaking websites. People's Daily commented on Wednesday:

People can purchase all they need to register on matchmaking websites, a new name, ID card number and home address, which are all real but belong to someone else. To make the fake identity appear even more realistic for his or her targets, one only needs to spend another 108 yuan to purchase dozens of photos and video clips to perfect the subterfuge. What enables this illegal practice is the dating websites ignoring their legal obligation to verify their users' identities, as well as the weak supervision of such websites.

The websites' profits mainly come from the users' registration fees, and some of them pass the buck to the users to double check each other's identity, shirking their own responsibilities as service platforms and information providers.

Some fraud cases exposed by the public have shown the dangers of such "masked" dating, which has provided the fraudsters with tremendous opportunities to scam people.

But the dating websites and even the dealers of the identity information wash their hands of any responsibility for the crimes, and only those fraudsters that are caught are brought to justice for the wrongdoing.

The authorities urged the dating websites to strictly implement the real-name registration system and strengthen the protecting of their customers last September. But that has not yet been translated into concrete actions.

The dating websites must verify that people are who they say they are. It is necessary that the authorities take immediate measures to address the issue as the scams have caused increasingly broader negative social influences, particularly among young people.