2. Background Information
The objective of this project was to learn about the dangers
of dating sites.
I signed up for a variety of popular dating sites like Plenty
of Fish, OKCupid, Badoo, and many others.
I also signed up to dating sites referred to as hookup sites
with the sole objective of “getting lucky”(You know…)
I gave myself a 3 week period to interact with the users of
these sites.
My profile was a single man of 22-60, in college, looking for
a long term or just meeting up for casual fun (you know..)
3. The Shady Find
While finding sites to sign up to I found one of the
popular dating sites had a page, advertising sites
dedicated to a mission completely opposite of their
own objective
I signed up to these two sites listed on the “get lucky”
personals page
5. The Shady Find
The two sites I signed up to will be referred to as:
adulthookups.com
and
motherlyhookups.com
Based on the fact that the two sites had the same exact
scenario, same exact webpage, same design and same
scheme. I will only be using motherlyhookups.com,
throughout the rest of the presentation
6. The Seedy Side of Hookup Sites
Many are filled to the brim with bots and fake dating
profiles
Many ask for immediate payment before accessing the site’s
features (messaging, enlarging photos, etc.)
Many have a Privacy policy that states should you chose to
participate on the site you agree to let them use photos you
upload, pretty much however they like. (Yes your nude
photos. What if they put your nude photo on the front of
an ad on a very visited site….)
7. Observation of
motherlyhookups.com
The site had next to few or no dating profiles that were
real
The images were fabricated or pulled from random
sites, many of the photos were not from real members,
but of models and actors
As soon I signed up to the sites I was slapped in the
face with a “pay me!” screen
11. What are the Important Terms of
Use?
motherlyhookups.com says that all their profiles
marked with “Online Cupid” indicate they are bots or
paid contractors as said in the Terms of Use and
Conditions
By using the site you agree to the terms
Membership is non-refundable
Your uploaded photos can be used by
motherlyhookups at their discretion
12. What’s the problem?
Many people don’t read fine print so many will think
these are real profiles
To even contact the member you have to shell out
money
This tricks many people to pay for membership to
contact the member, that is 21, and is so interested
with meeting up with a 51 year old man….
When you pay you realize there is nothing of
substance on the website
13. My Interactions with
motherlyhookup.com
Well I interacted with the site like a normal user would
and interacted with the site for less then 3 days when I
get a internal site IM message from a supposed real
member named Anna
She said to add her on Skype, cause she has some
“tricks” she wanted me to see.
16. After the Conversation
Well after the conversations, the investigating began
With the goal being to find out if the two dating sites I
signed up to were fronts for a scam
17. Methods Followed• Not only did I communicate with Anna, but with other “real” profiles on
motherlyhookup.com as well, all to gain more data pointing to potential
sites or users trying to scam
• The first part of my investigation was to track and record IP addresses of
the usernames, the websites and the links sent to me through IM
Messaging, and research the two websites I signed up to
• I tracked IPs down using reverse IP lookup tools, which also gave me an
approximate location of where the IPs come from
• The next part was to figure out how the IPs were related and how they
were linked together, were they associated with motherlyhookups.com
and other sites linked to it?
• Finally to see if maybe these sites were hijacked, or attacked, I checked
the HTML and Javascript, for vulnerabilities with my basic knowledge of
HTML and Java I did not find this to be the case, though an expert in
HTML and Java would be needed to find out for sure.
22. The Outcome
Based on the links sent to me and after going through the payment process, I’ve verified
that I’m being scammed into purchasing membership, or submitting credit card
credentials
Based on looking up complaints and other people who may have used the site, I’ve
verified that the site is known for scamming people
The links sent to me via Skype IM with Anna were found to be linked to
motherlyhookups.com
Jessica was found to be attempting the same scam method and same introduction lines
as Anna, linking to the same websites as Anna, therefore I consider Anna and Jessica to
be the same entity.
The transaction sites used to process transactions from the two dating sites were also
found to be fake
Based all of the above information I’ve strong evidence that shows both adulthookups
and motherlyhookups are websites made to be a front for scams.
Based on using the motherlyhookups.com’s “search for members” feature I found about
two females and 72 males in the entire state of TX that had verified, authentic photos
Both Jessica and Anna attempted to get money sent to the Philippines
The actual dating sites were linked to web servers hosted in different parts of the world,
but the money was always somehow linked back to the Phillipines
23. Even if they don’t get my money…
They can still win by selling personal information.
