It’s no secret I’m single. I’ve tried out Match.com but that seemed like a scam. I never received any responses and I cancelled my membership stating that as the reason. Funny thing happened, I all of the sudden started receiving responses. I convinced some of the women to communicate outside of the site fearing we can’t when my membership expires. When it did expire, they tried to get me to communicate on the site again. Not fooling me again… no more to Match.com
Decided to give Zoosk.com a shot. I signed up, sent a wink and got a response in minutes. Wow… looked promising so I got my credit card out so I can send messages. $100 later and a message later, no more response. Figured she lost interest so I fired out a lot more winks. All I received was a bunch of automated responses, some of which were the same as the first one I received. The site is a scam, DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY! Below are the auto responses I received. If you have any that aren’t on here, please contact me or leave them in the comments.
:) I appreciate the wink but like messages better.
Hey, thanks for the wink. How about sending me a message now?
Hi there. Please send me a more detailed message and tell me about yourself.
Hi. Thanks for for the wink. Why not write me a message as well?
I appreciate the wink. Leave a message and I will get back to you.
No winks please, just leave a message if you’re interested. Thanks :-)
Thanks! I noticed that you noticed me :) Now let’s talk.
Thanks. If you’re interested in contacting me, please drop me a line and tell me more.
Winks are flattering. Now if you’re really interested, friend me and message me.
Спасибо! Я заметил(а), что вы заметили меня :) Может поговорим?
How are you? Care for conversation?
3,574 total views, 2 views today
YES: How about we get in the spa naked and see what happens? Do you have lazers in our eyes, I was stunned when I saw you? How about we both go Dutch on a House or just Dinner? I’m single and ready to mingle. OVER AND OVER I THOUGHT THERE WAS A MENU.
As I have had several several times I had thought there was a menu from the guys side that let them chose.
NOT TO MENTION…fake acounts on there…I have proof.
Also explained the ones from Russia, and why I specified NO MARRIES OR SEERATED WITH KIDS AND its ALL I WAS SENT. Think your meant to give up so they keep the cash. It’s all them emailing you. After I joned I cancelled my Visa card account was frozen by them 2 weeks. When I found a friend on there I emailed him..to tell him about the scam and fake profiles. I also emailed them if they didnt stop sendnig me these guys then I would tell consumer affairs.
THEY CANCELLED MY ACCOUNT THE NEXT DAY.
i also had been sent pics of dicks also…they kept taking down my pics so only my good looking one was up..to hook new members in. I was furiious.
AGAIN..CANCELLED ME WHEN I THREATENED TO JUMP ON A PLANE TO SEE THEM. AM IN AUSATRALIA. THINK MOST of profiles are made up, the REAL ONES ARE JAIL BIRDS.
Thank you for your article.Thanks Again. Awesome.
Yes, there are autoresponses. You know how you tell? It’s in the menu items you can set.
And? It’s just an attempt to get some conversation going. If someone has proof that these profiles are fake than let’s see it. Otherwise, I’ve talked to many people on the site, and it definitely wasn’t a computer I was talking to, because that’s easy to figure out.
Don’t worry, proof is coming in the next post.
Still waiting for that next post Chong. Agreeing with M.
Gathering evidence. If you don’t want to wait, try Google’s image search on a few profiles yourself. You’ll be surprised.
It’s highly helpful for me.
My law office has a putative class action pending against Zoosk for similar shenanigans – sending fake emails with subject lines saying someone wants to meet you. If anyone is interested in discussing these issues, please email me, Morse at morse@mehrban.com. It would help us greatly in our case. Moreover, if you live in California, you may even be a potential class member. Thanks.
The article has actually peaks my interest.
Here’s another Zoosk auto-response:
“Your wink is appreciated. Would you please send a message with more details as well?”
More bullshit from the scammers on there, probably trying to get you to visit their webcam sites or send money to Nigeria for a “family emergency”.
By the way, commenters #3 and #5 (“K” and “M”) are probably spammers who are afraid that the list of Zoosk spammer auto-responses on this webpage is going to warn potential ‘dummies’ about the trap that’s been set.
Our blog author put up a new post that proved that a lot of Zoosk profiles use fake photos stolen from all over the Internet:
http://chingchongpingpong.com/2013/06/03/fake-zoosk-profiles
Notice also that it’s the profiles that use photos of attractive / hot women, stolen from the Internet, that trigger the quick auto-responses. When a man sends a message to one of the *many* unattractive women on Zoosk, responses ironically come much more slowly.
I’ve had three women message me with the same line.. “If I could rearrange the alphabet I would put U and I together. Same exact wording and everything. I also continue to get messages even though I don’t have a picture up.(If I knew how to delete the damn thing I would.)
yer had the same was nearly convinced and signed up you saved me a lot of money.most of these sites are scams mates and whats worse is they rob the already sometimes skint and lonely,got robbed of over 170 quid on a milf dating site a while back these people have no morals or principles and there is a very dark place in hell reserved for them!!!
Exactly cheating web and wasting our time and money I lost my money I done a mad thing first I paid for 3 months membership at least I could have pay for one month and could have a look about those people service
Again and again same messages some time only photos no replies some time message alert if we go there no messages
Before we paid lots of messages than nothing and before we lots of chat request than nothing if a women no messages form man if a man no messages from man at least one it’s mean they have programmed well
Sorry for other friends
Cheers
Repeated messages from Zoosk’s “Scientific Matching Service” (what the ?!) got me to finally login to zoosk. Found that virtually any form of initiating contact (via gifts, sending messages, chatting) required credits (aka money). Received quite a few winks, connection requests and responses to winks. Was about to pony up the money (especially the way they market their subscription packages with rates being much lower if you subscribe for a longer duration), when I googled what the partial response I got for my wink and came here. Thanks Ching, keep up the good work.
Surely, there should be a way to have a legit site to help people meetup and possibly allow the site to make some money (if things really clicked) instead of all these greedy grubbers.
Theres a wink reply that says don’t be shy………. whats the rest of it please . james latham
Looks like I just got scammed by an auto response. I winked at an attractive woman and got one of those replies. I thought I finally got something worthwhile so I paid for a month plus the damned hidden starter fee. Looks like I lost my money on that. Will be unsubscribing soon. It should be illegal to scam lonely people like that.
I don’t agree. I joined Zoosk a couple of months ago, I have already dated a couple of women and did receive response from some others. There are also fake accounts but not all accounts are fake.
You need to be diligent and aggressive a little bit, women are careful with who they are dealing with, I don’t blame them.
Shah
Agreed Zoosk is a total scam and I was suckered too.
One thing that happens a lot is someone will send me a message wanting to chat, so when I go to chat with them, soon they are offline. But most simply never answer. I think most of the profiles are fake because I never had this much difficultly meeting people in person.
It is a shame that sites like Zoosk give online dating a bad name…
STAY AWAY FROM THIS SCAM SITE….
I joined yesterday, THANKFULLY ONLY FOR ONE MONTH, and I have already experienced every SINGLE thing the above are saying – including the fake wink responses.
I’ve had 200 views in just the one day, many from people who aren’t even online at exactly the same time the message comes in!!! Remarkable, eh?!!
Out of the 200 “views” (ahem!! …excuse me I’ve got a “throat” where I slit it!) …I’ve had NO genuine messages whatsoever from a fully paid up member who CAN even reply, and I’ve only managed to root out two women who ARE genuine members. They’re telling me they’ve had exactly the same experiences too, are mortified by the “theft”, and they intend to leave Zoosk a.s.a.p. before their next ‘pickpocketing episode’ happens!
ZOOSK IS A F*****G HIDEOUS CRIME THIS UK GOVERNMENT IS ALLOWING TO CONTINUE TO BE COMMITTED – IN FACT WOULDN’T EVEN SURPRISE ME IF ZOOSK WAS ACTUALLY RUN BY POLITICIANS, BECAUSE THEY’RE ALL A LOAD OF THIEVING BASTARDS TOO!!!
Damnit. I wish I had of seen this before I signed up for even the one month. I only did as there was very pretty face that looked to be only1km away. Efff I should just stick with POF
I used the free membership on zoosk for awhile. I’m a pretty shy person and never sent winks. I also never replied to guys who sent winks……if you’re interested in my profile tell me so and tell me a little about yourself! I set my profile to when anytime I received a wink, it would automatically send them a message saying “Thanks for the wink! Please read my profile and tell me a little about yourself!” However, the site only lets free members view the first message in its entirety, and none after that, so sending a wink used up the first message, and I could never read what a guy sent after the wink. So that made it impossible to read any contact info they may have sent. It also only allowed me to send one message, and that was it. I tried to include this dilemma in my profile as a warning to guys, but zoosk kept deleting that part of it :/ I do believe many of the profiles are fake. I can’t figure out how to delete the stupid thing, so I have over 200 emails in my inbox on the site. I was browsing through them the other day and alot of them use the exact same pick up lines…word for word…..so yeah, I’m pretty sure there are fake ones on there. But there are also definitely real ones!! I did end up emailing a few different people with my personal email, and the site is also how I met my current boyfriend of 3 months, so it can work, just don’t give them your money. I guess I just got lucky. But I’m trying to figure out how to delete it and was curious if they provided a list of pickup lines for guys to use or if they had alot of fake sites and came across your site! Thought I’d give some input!
Member for 5 days now and I have seen all the things in this thread.
I bought in for 6 months because I really don’t have other outlets for dating in my current situation.
And it’s the #1 rated site right!?
Yeah, from putting money into that from all kinds of desperate lonely people it seems.
So I put out about 50 winks.
40 came back with auto-response.
11 of those were identical.
Sent a nice little message to all 50, not a single reply yet.
I am 45YO / 6’3″ athletic and handsome from what I’ve been told, I’m not vain or conceited.
My take on it right now…
90% absolute classic internet scam BS.
10% what seems to be real women there but zero evidence as of yet.
And lots of work to find whoever might be real, from what is probably scams to make money for the site on those stupid coins, gifts, and carousel crap.
Scams for money to Africa.
Escort services.
And who knows what else.
Also a huge amount of viewing and messaging action from women I can only (nicely) classify as “SEVERELY incompatible”.
But they are probably there, along with fakes of every age and distance, to cover every possible aspect of the men there. $$$ from all.
If I have any positive experience before the 6 months runs out, including whatever happens when I try to cancel, I will update here.
Not much of anything real left in this world.
If there is, we are not looking at it anymore.
Let me tell you my experience. I’ve dated one girl from zoosk for about 2 years, and it actually worked. I was bored recently so I went on to have look at the profiles of the girls again, to my surprise, my girlfriend who I got from zoosk 2 years ago was still there, or at least her photo but with a completely different profile. Not only that, I saw the same profile repeated with another 2 girls. When I showed my girlfriend this she was shocked. Pretty much they had some algorithm that recycled photos and profiles, by randomly matching them.
well I have just become a member was planning to subscribe for a month to find my match
luckily I come across your discussion in this page about zoosk and opened my eyes what is going on.when I was winking some one same auto response coming from that person even she is not online. Thanks for your kind discussion really helpful for me
just want give one suggestion never give your genuine date while becoming a member on online dating stuff as it is not secure , make disposable email id , never use your real name , date of birth.
I used to be able to receive and send 1 free message on zoosks, then started these corny replies from guys which seemed to be a list of them to choose from, now for sum reason I cannot receive or send my 1 free message. I have met a few guys from this site, seemed nice enough, just wasn’t a match. I don’t think I have come across fake profiles on this site…however, not on it hardly at all. Now.. Date Hookup, there are fake profiles, but easily can spot them immediately, I have met quite a few off this site and it is probably one of the better “free” sites as well. I believe it may be a sister company of pof. I have never paid for a dating site. I’m sure every dating sites has their fakes, whacks, losers and whatever else comes your way…just listen to your instinct. If something doesn’t sit right with you. Stop. Listen. =^..^=
You guys have alot of conspiracy theories! LOL Yes of course there are fakes, this is the internet. Goofy people will mess!
I’ve been a member for about 2 months. I’ve chatted with LOTS of ladies. I’ve met 4, and am dating 2 of them currently. All are very pretty women, and I can assure you, QUITE real! :)
Met another pretty one at yoga class that I recognized from zoost. She recognized me too. I’ve seen a couple of other women that i recognize from the site out and about in our town (Ft.Wayne). 2 of my personal friends (ladies) have profiles on the site, they are also pretty. ;)
#2 – You do NOT have to pay extra to do things. You can earn the “coins” you spend simply by clicking on pics in the “carousal” and you can earn up to 40pts per day.
PS – The auto responses are chosen BY THE POSTER! The have a list of pat resonses to get you to actually respond and not just wink wink! You can also write your own, as I did. And you can choose to have them sent when you get winked at, OR NOT!
Nothing sinister there guys. ;)
I have been trying to cancel my account. Even googled how to do it. But the sample screen is not the screen that I see. And the tab doesn’t exist. I wrote to them with no response.
It’s defiantly a rip off site. I got interested after friends on FB keep sharing post. They now say they never even visited the site.
Can anyone help me cancel. I’d love to sign up for a Class action.
Yes, the same happened to me. at first I was getting my credit card. then I thought. wait. that’s way to fast and she’s not your average girl to respond like that. thanks for posting. I hope people can read this before giving zoosk money.
I just searched within 5 miles of me on Zoosk and saw 4 people I actually know.
Came across this site trying to figure out if those fast responses to my winks were legit and if I should sign up. Seems like it’s just a tactic to get people to subscribe when they wink at people. In reading through this I’ve come up with some answers to questions people here have had.
FAQ answers here:
1. Are there fakes on Zoosk?
Yes. Every online deals with fake accounts. Some are better at removing them than others. OKCupid has fakes, eharmony has fakes, Match does too. They’re not ALWAYS plants by the company– they’re usually just scammers trying to advertise or solicit sex. Do yourself and the site a favor and report these profiles. Without anyone reporting, the scammers will take over.
There is no evidence to suggest that Zoosk is planting profiles. I’ve seen this on other sites before, and it’s fairly obvious. That said, I’m not ruling it out either– there’s just no evidence either way.
2. Are there real people on Zoosk?
Yes, there are lots of legitimate profiles. I’m not someone claiming to be “dating 2 or 3 of them” like other posters here, I’ve just done a little standard background check research (same research I do to identify fakes on other dating sites like OKC and match). In other words, I Google Image search and search unique screen names. I did a search in my area (Seattle) and out of 50 or so profiles I was able to actually identify 4-5 users by their Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook pages.
3. What’s the deal with the responses to my winks?
Short answer seems to be that it’s just a marketing tactic Zoosk uses to sell subscriptions. It’s not a “scam”, it’s just a misleading (but commonly used) tactic. You wink at someone, Zoosk sets up this “feature” where users can auto-respond, you get back a message that you can only read if you subscribe– so you subscribe to find out it’s just that auto-response “feature”.
Illegal? No. Scam? No. Misleading? Yes.
Here’s an easy way to know when you’re getting an auto-response:
1. You winked at someone and got a response within 2 minutes? It’s an auto-response. Women don’t typically respond to winks (or equivalent) on any dating site in my experience, at least not with a message. At the very least the response would take the form of another wink.
2. You winked at someone and got a response but they didn’t show up in your visitors list? Probably an auto-response. People don’t just respond back to random winks without at least checking the person out.
Sidenote, but helpful for you folks: winking is typically a bad way to get someone’s attention on a dating site because (a) it shows you’re too poor/cheap to subscribe to the service and therefore not exactly all that desirable, and (b) there’s no way for a girl to respond. What are you expecting to happen– you wink at a girl and she messages you back saying, “thanks for the wink sexy, want to have my babies?”? It doesn’t happen. If you want to engage a woman and get a response, you need to give her something to respond to.
That said, yes I wink at people on those sites because I’m just testing the waters to see how active people are. More telling than a message is seeing if the user visited you after winking at them.
Hope that helps.
Followup on the 4-5 legitimate users of ~50: that does not mean that 90% of profiles on Zoosk are fake. It just means that I was able to track down 10% of those profiles to their real-world owners. Not all profiles can be tracked down, even legitimate ones. In fairness, tracking down 10% of users is actually pretty standard for the other sites I’ve used, which at least tells me that Zoosk is pretty normal when it comes to catfish-to-real-person ratios.
I guess I should add that I was also able to positively identify at least as many fakes (another 4-5 of the 50). Does that mean only 10% are fake? Again, no, it just means that 10% are obviously fake. This is also a pretty typical number among dating sites. OKCupid, for example, has about 1 obvious fake for every 10 profiles that come up in QuickMatch for me. Sometimes more, depending on the day. I report each obvious fake so they can remove those profiles.
It cost $29.95 to join this site, but when one is purchasing the membership, this site hits you with an activation fee of $24.95. If you go through paypal, then you don’t have to pay for the activation fee. The search feature has been crippled lately and the grid view is no longer available. That means that one has to click next on every member from the search results. The carousel feature is a joke. When a member wants to meet you and you agree, then to be able to contact this person, you have to purchase coins and they are rather expensive. Some profiles on this site are fake, when contacting them via the wink, an email is sent back to you from the fake profile stating”thanks for the wink, why not send me a real email telling me more about you”. I have complained to customer service about the limited search feature and they have done nothing about it.
yeah after I set up my profile they said I wasn’t popular on zoosk… lol really? ok well not that it really matters if I’m popular… but I said I liked to have fun I was kind to people.. that I loved animals.. children and so on.. that I liked to hike and horseback ride.. so I don’t know what your definition of popular is? like I care that’s why I don’t get on these dating sites.. I’m not in high school you know.. and I’m not paying to talk to anyone.m how can you say it’s free if you gotta pay? plus my picture was clear I wasn’t nude.. and they rejected me? honestly I haven’t read very many good reviews on you zoosk. what’s up with that?
I just got scammed by Zoosk too… this is not legal. If they are sending messages which most may consider to be real, but they are not, they must include that is this Auto Reply and this member may, or may not have seen your message.
Yikes, I smell “Class Action Suit”.
It seems that most of you calling this a “scam” just dont understand, or dont like how the auto-responce feature works. Is it a pre-written message that you are recieving? Yes. Does that make it a scam? No. If you want a real response, send a real message. If he likes cars, ask what he drives. If she likes horses, ask her does she ride. I mean a genuine message, not “whats up” or “wink wink”. You should not be surprised if you get an auto-response or no reply if sending something like that.
I have complaints about Zoosk, the way they edit your profile and how limited you are in being able to describe yourself, your situation, your job, your hobbies, etc. 500 characters is way too small. A 7 year old boy probably could use more than 500 characters describing himself, so why is that all I get? Im a complicated person and I cant bottle myself up in 500 characters. Carosuel is a joke. Im gay so all the ones they show me are guys. But, there is no way to widdle it down by age, race, etc. So, out of 50 guys, 40 are more than ten years older than me, and of the ten that are closer to my age, lots are from a race Im not attracted to or whatever. So maybe there are 6 out of 50 people that Id be remotely interested in, yet I have to go through the 44 others over and over again to try to find those six.
Another thing I dont get is using the search feature, many of the guys who show up put their “perfect match” as either “female” or “women” (yes, plural, for some unknown reason). Why are they in the male-seeking-male section if their match isnt male? And, they have to see that only a bunch of gay guys are viewing them or winking at them, yet they remain. Stupid. Using the search is annoying anyway because you must go through all the ones youve already seen to find a new member. Same with carousel. Ive said “NO!” to this 56 year old 350lb trucker from 485 miles away 20 times already, why does he keep showing up over and over? Twice I can understand, as maybe you hit “no” by accident, but over and over ahain is stupid. Same with the ones who want to meet you. Once you say no, that should be it! There shouldnt be that same one there tomorow. And the next day. And the next day. And… you get the idea. Also, what is the difference between “maybe” and “yes”? None, evidently. Both are exactly the same, no matter which you choose, so why is “maybe” even an option? “Maybe” should mark that one but not say “yes”, so you can decide later if its really yes or no.
I signed up to this zoosk shit aswell, 1 month 2nd day in, I have noticed a simple message gets no response, not a hello not a hi nothing, yet send a wink 1 minute late bam auto response. Message back nothing, then all sudden you get viewed then a message this person wants to chat, send message no reply even though stating online, this site is fake and a corruption, surly there must be a law against this and is there a way to file a case against them in Australia
Thanks for this post. Was about to sign up to Zoosk when I realised all the ‘hot’ looking women had ‘Zooskmember followed by a number’ as their username.
To be honest, I have little faith in any social networking site’s ability to connect people but these sites are actually preying in people that feel they need to connect in this way. Meeting women and dating is always going to have financial implications but if we’re being convinced to spend money before we’ve even met anyone, we need to question the motives of these dating sites.
Put simply, someone is getting rich off someone else’s loneliness. That has to make your brain (and your heart) hurt just a little bit – right?
Let’s just get ourselves out to the pub and spend our time (and hard earned cash!) trying to meet someone the old fashioned way. Face to face, with a conversation and a smile like human beings.
Take it easy and look after yourselves people x
here is prof
https://i.imgsafe.org/9c45300.png
So let me get this straight. Although I could not read all the comments as I made my way through what I could (painful enough)… I’ve noticed, on more than one blog, individuals complaining that the site is a scam and all the profiles must be fake. When I say I’ve seen numerous blogs, I can account for well over a hundred different responses from numerous individuals all sharing similar stories. Well aren’t you all real people? And all on this dating site? Which goes to show you that in fact not all profiles are fake as I’m assuming your profiles are not. Which means there are real people utilizing this service. With that being said, wouldn’t you think maybe the issue lies with you.. The individual. I’m not saying (for most) you are not interesting, but there may be a good chance others are not interested in talking with you. I’ve used this service and have been winked at, and messaged by people I have no interest in talking to. I think to ignore them is better than responding and leaving even a glimmer of hope of establishing something. I know tat may seem off putting, but if someone is to message you and you don’t respond, that should be a clear indicator to move on. If you want more attention on the site try sprucing up you profile and sell yourself as being someone of interest. Other than that, happy hunting. It’s a dating app, get out there in the real world for some real connection.
Post the fake profiles on my FB group, and join: Zoosk Fake Profiles that Zoosk Does Nothing About
And anything else about these scamming assholes.
I was on zoosk a few years ago an have tried to cancel I still receive emails from zoosk! Last night I received a email from zoosk saying we noticed you have had trouble signing in when I didn’t try to sign in my girlfriend saw it an is it talking to me! Has anyone had this happen to them I’m trying to prove to her I didn’t do anything!