Did Shrek help 30,000 ugly people invade online dating site?

happygeek 0 Tallied Votes 440 Views Share

It's one of the more bizarre questions I have been asked during my twenty year involvement in the computer security business. Yet here I am, pondering whether something being called the Shrek virus could have enabled tens of thousands of butt ugly lonely people to bypass the attractiveness filtering of an online dating agency which only allows people voted 'beautiful enough' by the existing membership to join.

OK, so I'll readily admit I'm not 'beautiful' at least on the outside, but I'd rather slash my wrists than join a dating agency which proclaims "Browse beautiful profiles of men and women without sifting through all the riff raff" and "Meet REAL beautiful people who actually look in real life as they do online" to be honest. Shallow folk don't turn me on much, and this whole concept stinks of being shallow to me. Looks are not something a lasting relationship can be built upon.

I have to admit that the press release from BeautifulPeople.com regarding the 'Shrek Virus' also has something of a fishy smell about it. As a rather cynical chap by nature, I cannot help but notice the release comes at the same time as serious security breaches making the headlines. Talking to my contacts at various security companies, none of them have been informed about the existence of a Shrek virus, and none of them have seen any evidence to suggest it does actually exist. Indeed, Graham Cluley who is the Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos reckons it "all seems a little too convenient that this 'malware' has generated a huge amount of publicity for the site, without causing any trouble for current or future members".

Certainly as malware goes it would appear to be a rather unusual exploit, in that the press release makes it clear that member privacy and security was never in any danger, and goes on to focus on ugly people being duped into believing they were actually beautiful for a while. "We got suspicious when tens of thousands of new members were accepted over a six-week period, many of whom were no oil painting" Greg Hodge, the Managing Director of the dating agency said in the release.

However, when asked directly if the Shrek virus was a hoax, a BeautifulPeople.com spokesperson told me that "a virus was placed on BeautifulPeople.com internally and time activated, that propagated through the site's rating system. It started in a few countries only, then moved on to the entire system until it completely took over the rating module. The rating module is the gateway to the site - to become a member, applicants must be 'rated' over 48 hours by existing members of the opposite sex. The Shrek virus made the rating module become ineffective. Over 35,000 people signed up when the rating system was down. 5,000 made it back in and 30,000 of them were rejected. Full refunds were made to former members who had paid for premium services only to be rejected".

sergent 52 Posting Pro

lol

Jumpdates 0 Newbie Poster

This is a complete hoax being a dating site owner myself. They used it to garnish publicity and come to think of it, who would want to join a site like that anyway? You need to be a vain person to join a dating site that encourages segregation amongst people based on looks.
The owners understand the difficulty in achieving publicity so they invent a story to attract news media attention. These kind of tactics along with what they have to offer on the site leaves you with little credibility regarding the site. When trust issues such as that happens, you can bet your bottom dollar that your profile will be used in whatever manner the owners sees fit and without any scruples.

From a firm believer that online dating should be serious business for serious people who do not want to get messed around with their feelings in the matter of love and heart.
SNIP

manxe 0 Newbie Poster

I ran into a descendant of Shrek recently. I was in Brenham, Texas at Blinn College. I met and had lunch with an Instructor. He told me he was teaching welding for Workforce Education at the local prison. Very nice, polite guy. The reason I know he was a descendant of Shrek:
Tall = 6 foot 6
about 300 pounds, and not an ounce of fat
short bowed legs
and when I shook his hand, my hand disappeared into his, literally disappeared.

I could see him picking up 20 foot I-beams during his lectures, just to make a point.

I forget the man's name. I hope he doesn't mind.

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