Online dating firms split over screening / Some ask if criminal background checks help clients' safety

sfgate_get_fprefs();

(02-17) 04:00 Pacific Time New House Of York --

All is not lovey-dovey in the high-stakes online dating industry.

The disputatious issue of the minute - pitting one of the three greatest companies, True.com, against its major challengers - is whether online dating services can heighten their clients' safety by conducting criminal background showings of would-be daters.

Last month, New Jersey became the first state to ordain a law requiring the land sites to let on whether they execute background checks.

True.com - the lone big online dating service that already makes such as showings - was elated by its successful lobbying and hopes other states will follow suit.

"The online dating industry be givens to acquire a existent bad blame because of criminal activity," said True.com's laminitis and main executive, Herb Vest. "If we were to make clean up, there's hordes of offline singles who'd come up online to happen their psyche mate."

The pitch entreaties to women like Jayne Alfred Hitchcock of York, Maine, who was victimized by three old age of online torment and cyberstalking in late '90s after person assumed her personal identity and sent sexually expressed messages.

When Alfred Hitchcock later decided to seek online dating, she turned to True.com.

"There are people out there looking for a land site where they'd experience a small spot safer," said Hitchcock, who recently met her groom-to-be on True.com.

However, Vest's many critics in the industry state he is acting mostly out of self-interest. They postulate that True.com's showing method - running name calling through state databases of criminal records - is uncomplete and too easily thwarted, potentially creating a false sense of security for customers.

"It's so superficial that it's worthless," said Braden Cox, policy advocate with NetChoice, a alliance of e-commerce companies that includes Yahoo, AOL and other major participants in online dating.

Match.com, 1 of biggest dating services, said it had been assessing online background bank checks for six old age and concluded they offered no other protection.

"Match.com is disappointed New Jersey have enacted a flawed and unconstitutional law, and we will research chances to dispute it," a company statement said.

Even patronizes of the New Jersey measure conceded it was imperfect, but suggested it would at least do online daters more aware of security concerns.

There are no important national statistics on serious law-breakings arising from online dating, but such as lawsuits periodically do headlines.

A City Of Brotherly Love man, Jeffrey Marsalis, was accused of raping respective women he met through Match.com, and was sentenced in October to at least 10 old age in prison.

A Cleveland firefighter, Saint George Greer, was indicted in June for raping a adult female he met through an Internet dating site.

An online dater in New House Of York City, actor/musician Franca Vercelloni, said background showings "couldn't ache matters" but should not be a ground for dropping one's guard.

"You're not going to trust on what you larn from the online profile anyway," said Vercelloni, who's in her late 20s. "Dating in New House Of York City is just as difficult as trying to acquire a occupation or an apartment. You have got got to take a risk."

The New Jersey law, similar to 1s considered in other states, will necessitate online dating services to advise their clients in the state whether criminal background showings have been conducted.

If a dating service doesn't execute such as screenings, it must admit that in big working capital letters in every electronic communicating with members from New Jersey, who would be identified by nothing codifications they supply when registering.

Details of the presentment regulations are still being worked out.

Services that make behavior showings must let on that fact and state whether they let people with criminal strong beliefs to utilize the site. Those services also must observe that background bank checks are not foolproof, but that disclaimer doesn't have got to be displayed as prominently as the revelation by companies that don't make screenings.

Critics state the type of showing envisioned by the law - checking for a peculiar name in databases of criminal strong beliefs - have built-in flaws: users could give bogus names, and many unsafe people may not be in the databases. Methods used in more than probing background bank checks - such as as fingerprint scans and research into employment records and Sociable Security Numbers - are not required by the law.

More broadly, some concern that New Jersey's action volition military unit other states to modulate the online dating industry, creating a odds and ends of laws that will thrust up operating costs and force some companies out of business. Some in the industry state they would prefer federal statute law addressing background checks, rather than a hodgepodge of state laws.

Huge sums of money are at stake. Projections by Jupiter Research, an Internet consultancy, propose the online dating marketplace now numbers $700 million or more, and Online Dating Magazine estimations that more than than than 20 million people visit online dating services each month.

A relative newcomer - founded in 2003 - Dallas-based True.com have drawn attending with lively advertisements as well as background screenings.

Avowedly for singles lone - not straying partners - it claims to be the only dating service that bank checks on matrimonial position as well as criminal convictions.

"We can't vouch that felons can't acquire on our site, but we can vouch that they'll be bad they did," the land land site declares. "We describe lawbreakers to appropriate federal, state and local authorities, including word boards."