Dutch company behind 1,623 fake dating sites in 32 countries

The Dutch company Four Fingers Management is behind 1,623 fake dating sites active in 32 different countries. Customers chatting with fake profiles are led to believe that they can arrange a physical meeting and are even lied to if asked whether they’re talking to a fake profile, Pointer discovered.

To make its fake profiles look real, the company uses photos of real people, often taken without permission from pornography actresses, social media, and even revenge porn sites, Pointer wrote.

Four Fingers Management manages one of the largest networks of fake dating sites, with sites active in almost every European country and parts of Asia, Oceania, and Central and North America. On these types of fake dating sites, customers don’t chat with a real person, but an employee of the company posing as someone else. They are trained to keep customers online as long as possible, because they pay per message sent.

In 2018, the Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) raided several fake dating companies and imposed fines. The regulator also established rules of conduct. Among other things, these websites are not allowed to imply that a physical meeting with a fake profile is possible; they must honestly disclose that profiles are fake if a customer asks, and for vulnerable customers, the websites must proactively report that the person they are talking to is not real.

According to Pointer, Four Fingers Management and its various underlying subsidiaries violate all these ACM rules. Fake profiles tell customers that meeting physically is an option, and they don’t inform customers that they are chatting with fake profiles, even when specifically asked. Pointer investigators also posed as vulnerable customers in three profiles. Here, too, the fake profiles were evasive when confronted with the fact that they are not real.

The two owners of Four Fingers Management told the program, through their lawyer, that the company strives to “comply as well as possible to prevent undesirable deception of customers.” The lawyer said that Pointer’s “assertion that abuses nevertheless exist is currently being investigated further.”

The lawyer also said that “agreements are concluded with the relevant rights holders regarding the photos used.” Rights holders told Pointer the opposite.

The ACM told Pointer that its findings are a “very concerning signal,” but it cannot disclose whether it will launch an investigation into Four Fingers Management.