Dating Signs: Use Caution

By Bridget Scrimenti, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

Jun. 7–Single?

The little white signs may have caught your eye.

They advertise dating services and are posted all over Greater Lowell.

With names like WestfordSingles.com and BillericaSingles.com, the Web sites seek to play matchmaker for local residents.

But the sites are anything but local. The marketing companies that registered them have addresses in the Virgin Islands and India.

And the public would be well served if the signs carried, well, warning signs, officials and experts say.

The Web sites, known as “landing pages,” ask for personal information, including home telephone number, e-mail address, income level, occupation and the best time to call your home.

The marketers, in turn, sell the “leads” containing personal information to dating companies.

The process is legal, but the personal information could end up in anyone’s hands.

Chelmsford attorney Christian Zouzas, who specializes in cyber-property and Internet domain names, said companies should always have an “about us” or

“contact us” option on their Web sites.

“You want to know who you’re dealing with,” Zouzas said. “It’s like going into a store on the street without any name.”

Marwan Bokhari, whose name is on WestfordSingles. com’s domain registration, declined to comment this week.

The site is registered to Bokhari in the Virgin Islands. He lives in Maryland.

Marketers typically set up Web sites in other countries to dodge U.S. regulations, said Gary Mucica, a visiting assistant professor of management at UMass Lowell, and director of management graduate programs.

“A lot of companies set up off-shore for obvious reasons,” Mucica said. “It’s easy to shut down and reopen business in different locations.”

The Right One, based in Norwell, is among the dating companies being sold information collected by the Web sites.

Paul Falzone, CEO of The Right One, said his company makes a point of protecting the information it receives.

“Every now and then, you get a vendor that’s not an ethical individual,” he said.

Falzone said he recently fired one of his marketing vendors for selling information to another dating company.

“It’s not ethical to sell the same lead to two different people,” he said.

Falzone said his company does not resell private information.

However, anyone who went to Web sites advertised on the signs would see nothing on the site about The Right One or any other dating company.

Although the dating sites do not ask for financial information or Social Security numbers, would-be daters need to be careful.

MassPIRG consumer advocate Eric Bourassa says names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses are easy to find.

“That’s not enough information to commit identity theft — that’s information you could find in a phone book,” Bourassa said.

But giving out your Social Security number is never a good idea, he said.

The Attorney General’s Office advises that the public not give out any personal information over the phone, through the mail or online, unless you know who you’re dealing with.

The Right One has offices where clients meet with a relationship consultant to talk about dating preferences, compared to Internet dating sites that allow people to post profiles and search for other singles.

Falzone said his company conducts criminal background checks and offers more security than Web dating sites.

“On the Internet you don’t truly know what people’s intentions are,” Falzone said.

“It’s the wild, wild West out there.”

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