There is not a single person out there that does not know or has never heard of the online dating platform OkCupid.com. It’s known for the way it finds your compatible matches and the number of quizzes you can answer to narrow down to your preferences. Well, we set out to find out whether all workings of OkCupid.com are legitimate and did our investigation on the site. In this review we present to you our findings.
What is fishy about OkCupid.com
After you sign up your profile needs to be populated with 4 photographs of yourself, a longer description, and answer about 50 initial questions. But, in the legal document of terms and conditions of use we caught a few points that raise red flags.
1) Legal And Free Reuse Of All Profile Data
OkCupid.com gains all rights over any personal information you upload on your dating profile. That includes your own photographs, information about your age, personal description, info about your age, race, interests or hobbies, or anything you write about yourself on the profile. After any info has been posted, OkCupid.com has the exclusive right to take, reuse, change, and distribute these information to other dating sites within the same network, or give license to other dating sites and companies to use these info.
FROM THE TERMS OF USE: “We may use information that we collect about you to register you with and display your profile on other online dating and other social websites owned by IAC, such as match.com and websites operated by People Media.”
2) Electronic Emails and Notifications
OkCupid.com sends you computerized messages in order to engage you in the site’s services and deceive you into paying for subscription. The trick is that when you sign up, chat and email messages start flying in and you are compelled to open and read them. These messages seem genuine and will make you believe people on this site are interested in you and reaching out to flirt, maybe continue the communication. Problem is – you won’t be able to open, read, reply or initiate communication with anyone unless you upgrade to a paid membership first. Also, you won’t be able to reach out to any of the suggested matches if you don’t upgrade to a paid membership first.
FROM THE TERMS OF USE: “You agree and consent to receive email messages from us. These emails may be transactional or relationship communications relating to the Website from us or third party partners. We may use information that we collect about you to communicate with you by email, postal mail, telephone and/or mobile devices about products or services that may be of interest to you either from us, other IAC companies or other third parties.”
3) Cost Of Subscription
OkCupid.com is called a free dating service only for marketing reasons, but in fact, it has a membership fee that users are requested to pay in order to be able to use all services and features of the site.
- $19.95 for 1 month of subscription to the site
- $44.95 for 3 months of subscription to the site
- $60 for 6 months of subscription to the site
4) Created Test Profiles
If OkCupid.com is taking the personal information and copying, reproducing, displaying, modifying and distributing into other websites, then who stands behind these taken information? We doubt that the company is only storing these data, since they wouldn’t go through so much trouble for no gain. In fact, we believe the information taken from real people is used to create “test profiles” – which the site admits to be creating.
Another important point is that if OkCupid.com is dispersing you profile info to other sites, than who can guarantee that the profiles of OkCupid.com members are real? There is simply no way to know this, thus you can never trust anyone you meet on the site.
FROM THE TERMS OF USE: “From time to time, we may create test profiles in order to monitor the operation of our services. As part of our online service, your profile may be registered on and/or appear in search results or other areas of other online dating websites owned by IAC.”
The verdict on OkCupid.com
We kindly advise you to be cautious when using OkCupid.com to find your true match. Read the terms and conditions of use carefully and see whether you truly agree with them before you sing in. Also, keep in mind that the paid membership on OkCupid.com is an automatically recurring one, and you will be charged indefinitely or until you cancel your paid membership.
OkCupid.com Scam Questions
If you have any further questions that you’d like to ask, feel free to post in the comments section below. You can also share a personal experience about using OkCupid.com or any of the affiliated sites to warn and help other readers.
OkCupid.com Contact Info
Address: 8300 Douglas Avenue, Suite 800, Dallas, Texas 75225
Email Contact: privacy@okcupid.com
Report and File a Complaint
Contact the Better Business Bureau to file a complaint and report the site if you feel you have been deceived, conned or overcharged.
