Gonorrhoea, online dating and credit card phising scams – examining Cupid PLC

I have been sitting on this post for a while – but there is a rumor about the Ukrainian press (see the description below) which is causing the stock to tank today – and means I should put up the post before the idea is totally stale.

A warning: this post uses more graphic language than is typical on an investment blog. Some people may find the whole thing offensive. If you are sensitive to language about sex do not read this post.

John

The BBC recently alleged that Cupid PLC – a listed UK online dating company – has a deeply unethical business model. They allege that the core business model is essentially a credit-card phising scam: men (mostly men anyway) post a profile for free. Quite rapidly the men are inundated with women who want to talk and potentially meet. To communicate the man has to enter their credit card details whereupon the fake women simply disappear.

Bluntly they allege Cupid offers a honey-pot-trap for men lured by hot but fictional women to hand over their credit card to a computer operation run out of the Ukraine. The BBC never allege that six months later the dopey male victim has their identity stolen – but given the seedy nature of the ploy and Ukrainian computer operations that seems a possibility.

This is a remarkable allegation to make against a listed company.

Bill Dobbie – the CEO of Cupid PLC – unsurprisingly denied the claims and insisted that the company operated in a “legal and appropriate manner”.

I decided to do an experiment – to see who was telling the truth.

I set up a fake male profile – as extreme as I could make it – to see whether I was scammed with fictional women. Here is my profile on girlsdateforfree.com – a Cupid PLC owned site.

Fat, lazy, poor sick guy wants support 

Hi 

I am a 46 year old computer programmer who is regally proportioned. I weigh 280kg (617 pounds). I used to have a decent job but I found it hard to walk around the office and I now have a much less good job and I work from home. 

My mum looks after me and she feeds me my favorite food – pizza. Alas mum is also obese and in her 70s and she will not be with us much longer. I am looking someone to support me when she is gone. As my career is now uncertain (its hard to employ someone who can’t walk) I also need someone to financially support me. 

You will also need to have a high resistance to strong smells. The odour around my home is unusually florid and some say it is my most unusual and defining feature. 

They are wrong of course. My defining feature is my strangely coloured pink eyes. They are – if I say so – quite beautiful and very striking. 

They are a symptom of my untreated and difficult to treat gonorrhoea which infects both my urinary and rectal passages. 

The gonorrhoea is difficult to treat only because it would require huge doses of intramuscular antibiotics and I am scared of needles. It is one of my many psychological problems. 

Finally I should note that the rectal gonorrhoea is the reason for my odour. I have a non-competent anal valve and I leak a viscous mixture of pus and faecal matter. It gets around everything – staining my beds and my clothes. 

Still I am interesting to chat to. And if you want someone to love I would like you to consider me.  

Strangely and almost immediately a fair few age appropriate and good looking women want to talk to my false profile. Girls I could not get normally I think. They look a little unrealistic to me but then Bill Dobbie – the CEO of Cupid PLC denies the BBC’s claims.

After a couple of weeks (and having allowed my profile on other Cupid sites such as BeNaughty.com) I have about fifty women who want to talk to me and about 190 emails in my specially set up account.

I am left with a choice. Either there are a bunch of hot women who want to date a morbidly obese, poor, venereal disease infected and grotesquely smelly guy with psychological problems who needs someone to replace their mum. Or Bill Dobbie is a misleading the investing public.

Maybe there are a lot of needy women in Sydney Australia.

John

PS. The timing of this post is being caused by a collapse in the stock price. The rumor – which I have not confirmed – is that a reporter for Kyivpost – a Ukrainian newspaper – found a job as a “motivation manager” for Cupid PLC – a job whose function was to lead prospects on and get them to pay more money for the service. I never paid any money for the service (just sought women who wanted to talk to my disease infected alter-ego) so I know nothing about the role of “motivation managers”.

J

PPS. Researching this stock required that I join some adult dating sites. Asking my wife’s permission (which she freely granted) was an unusual task.

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