The 3G Dating Agency’s Blog

2008 was undoubtedly a breakthrough year for Mobile Community Content with FaceBook and MySpace rising to the top of lists for mobile internet traffic with growth of 182% in the year. 3G Dating had a great year with growth taking place in the best way possible – as a result of organic traffic following our airtime on the BBC’s Dragons Den TV program and promotion with the UK’s leading mobile retailer Phones 4U.

Looking back i think the most successful part of the year was that we got recognized for offering a genuine community and not lowering our very high standards of validation.

Reading others make predictions for the year ahead always makes fun reading for me and in light of some of the whoppers we had last year i thought i’d look forward to 2009 and predict a few of the trends i think will start to impact on mobile communities in the next 12 months:

> Dating will remain a private thing we continue to want to do outside our professional and social networks. Whilst Facebook and LinkedIn will continue to grow the idea of using these social networks to find and hit on dates will continue to be a social no-no as ridiculous as it would be to set out to network for a career change at a wedding reception – you could do it and it might work but it’s not the right social situation.

> Mobile communities that lack sufficient age validation processes will lead to major public outcry as a result of children being able to communicate with adults and adult content. Whilst these incidents have happened before as a result of the relaxed provisions of internet communities (for example in Ireland and in the USA) this tragic development will be different because it will implicate the brand values and expectations communities have of their mobile operators.

> A Notice and Warning of Non-Responsibility will not cover mobile operators in the way it has covered ISP’s or website owners. Making a user tick a box that says: “I am at least 18 years of age” or :”i accept all responsibilities and agree not to hold responsible the providers” will not be sufficient and major mobile brands will realize the need to do more.

> As more of us get involved with social networking the idea of accepting friend requests from people you barely know will become more pointless as they just add to the noise. Instead of being a game to collect the most connections it will become more important to connect with quality people and manage these connections effectively.

> We’re in a recession: so the phrase “try before you buy” is going to become an expectation for mobile consumers. This will also apply to downloading of applications… make sure your mobile web experience delights customers before you expect them to download anything to their mobile.

> Paying a subscription for out and about WiFi subscription will go the way of the dinosaur as the popularity of 3G data access via a laptop dongle or USB connected mobile continues to surge.

> Email and social networking through mobile will get more advertising spend in 2009, however customers will reject advertising taking place in the conversations they are having with their friends UNLESS they can both benefit. Sponsorship of the FREE FRIDAYS at The 3G Dating Agency is a good example of the type of win-win opportunities for an advertiser and members of a community.

> Communities will lose their appetite for social networking with anonymous and fake profiles and the wasting of their time on the plethora of spurious thinly disguised marketing campaigns that are targeting members of unmoderated online communities.

> Phishing and virus attacks will continue to target mobile social networks making it harder for genuine people to make contact with one another through free and unmoderated communities. Customers will become nervous of Trojan worms being hidden in innocuous looking links and will be scared to click… moderation processes (like those used at The 3G Dating Agency) will become more popular as they can prevent the passing of scam URL’s between members.

> Mobile Customers will begin to reject the services of companies that don’t offer mobile optimized versions of their websites or who only offer restrictive and limited versions of the full web site. The challenge is to offer the full functionality, correctly marked up pages, images that are designed to be shown on small screens and access to sites regardless of the mobile network or device the customer is using.

> Twitter will continue to grow rapidly but won’t become a mass market service in the UK. Yes it’s cool, but the business model is getting tight already and the benefits will prove difficult to scale.

> Inappropriate tariffs and poor value data bundles will all but disappear as inclusive data packages become the order of the day for mobile content users regardless of whether they are on a contract or prepay. Be sure to get the best deal, and remember a data plan can be added to existing contracts – get some expert help by asking in store at one of Phones 4U’s 400+ high street stores.

> Mobile Content such as SMS, Voice, email and Web Browsing will be the most important to the consumer as they cut back on premium SMS and subscription services such as expensive mobile music and TV packages. Wallet tightening will act as an incentive to consumers to become more adept at side loading content onto their handsets via bluetooth and the swapping of memory sticks.

> MMS will grow as more and more people realize they can send a multimedia to an email address…. together with the growth in mobile email this will also motivate consumers to start entering the email addresses of friends into their mobile phonebook

> mobile social networking will continue to grow but won’t be useful until they integrate the unique benefits of mobile (SMS, Location, Picture and Video Sending and 2-way Video Calling)

2009 will be another exciting year for The 3G Dating Agency as we continue to take the waiting out of Dating… have a great night and remember we’re always open and it’s free to join!

The Argus reports on a 45 year old Hove man, suffering from Aspergers Syndrome and living in supported accommodation, who after being continually ripped off by a SMS Dating scam sent a threatening message to try and get the service to stop sending him premium rate text messages which he did not want.

Scam Dating services are notorious for targeting the vulnerable with misleading and deceptive services but SMS makes it much easier, and disreputable companies are found to be flaunting the regulations by continuing to charge customers even after receiving the “STOP” command, or indeed selling on the mobile numbers of subscribers so that other companies can scam the same subscriber once they’ve stopped.

In a last ditch attempt to stop the arrival of premium SMS’s the man sent a threatening email which ended up being received by a complete stranger who called the police. The man was subsequently arrested and a court sentenced him to a 3 year community order.

Whilst i have every sympathy for the stranger who became involved in this mans attempt to stop the scammers stealing credit from his mobile bill, I’ve pointed to the ridiculousness of these SMS Dating scams before and this incident gives one more reason why there should be regulations on how misleading advertising campaigns are able to target some of the most vulnerable members of our society.

As a positive note to end this more and more mobile operators are allowing customers to set up blocks for all premium SMS services, if you’d like this just call your customer service number. It may stop you placing votes for things like TV quiz shows or buying ringtones but you will still be able to use all the services of The 3G Dating Agency (BECAUSE WE NEVER SEND PREMIUM SMS OR CHARGE SUBSCRIPTIONS)

3G.co.uk reports that BMI, London Heathrow’s second-largest airline, has become the first British carrier to offer its passengers an inflight access to the internet via their mobile phones.

The service will be offered first on a single Airbus A320 aircraft that operates between Heathrow and Moscow. Although the airline has decided not to allow the use of Voice or Video Calling you can still go 3G Dating, browsing the profiles and sending and receiving messages to other members. Setting up a date for the evening in a foreign city has got to be one of the most fun ways to spend a flight!

Please Note: The BMI press release picture above shows “business travelers working during their journey” and does NOT show 2 young ladies flirting with other validated members of The 3G Dating Agency.

Lesley Richardson in the Independent reports on police warnings to singles using internet dating sites to look out for scammers.

The fraudsters sign up to websites including datingdirect.com and seniordating.com and start emailing their victims, pretending they are looking for love and are interested in a relationship. But all they really want is money, peddling stories of hardship or the need for cash to start a new life in the UK.

“Two women, aged 49 and 61, from Southampton, have been conned out of £18,000 in the last two months. Three other Hampshire women have also lost significant amounts of cash. They include a 58-year-old Winchester woman, who was duped out of £24,000, and a 62-year-old New Forest woman, who was conned out of £4,000. A Farnborough woman also fell victim to the scam”.

Civilian investigator Phil McAleer, from Southampton Central police station, said: “The Southampton women have been conned out of significant amounts of cash, thinking that the person they are emailing is interested in forging a relationship and is in genuine need. “One of the women was told by the man emailing her that he was falsely imprisoned on drugs charges and needs money to be released. “They are then given a name and told to wire the money to Ghana via Western Union or Moneygram. These scammers prey on vulnerable people looking for love. I’d ask anyone using internet dating sites who is asked to part with large sums of money to be very cautious. Remember, you rarely get anything for nothing. These cons are costing people huge amounts of cash and there is no audit trail when money is wired to people in this way, so victims have very little chance of getting their money back.”

Note: Unlike many most other dating services The 3G Dating Agency has a membership of validated members where every profile has been checked to assure that the member is real. We also moderate every message sent between members through the service and this enables us to intercept any suspicious activity such as scamming attempts. Not only are scammers detected immediately but there is also a comprehensive audit trail that we will provide to the police.

Apple’ 3G iPhone Application Store is doing brisk trade with iDateMe – a Trojan horse application.

Odd though it may seem the application is being designed to work as a trap for thieves, who supposedly are so keen to go Mobile Dating that when they steal your phone it’s the first thing they are going to want to do.

The application is supposed to work like this:

1. You pay $0.99c and download this application from the iPhone App Store
2. You enter your email notification settings
3. A thief steals your iPhone
4. The Thief is intrigued by your dating life AND when he sees the iDateMe logo he cannot help but press it
5. An image of a couple having sex appears alongside the words “One moment please… connecting to dating database”
6. The GPS coordinates of your iPhone are sent to your email account
7. After a short while, iDateMe displays an error message, suggesting that a connection to the online database could not be established. (Code 0×100 = Email sent, 0×10F = Localization not possible).

Now i can immediately see some gaping problems with this:

1. I thought Apple weren’t allowing adult content. What if a child inadvertently picks up your phone and presses the brightly lit button?
2. Shouldn’t a victim of mobile theft just deactivate their phone by calling their network operator (as this would also prevent them running up your phone bill).
3. Wouldn’t it be better to have a PIN Code lock on your mobile (as this would also prevent access to all the personal information/pictures/contacts/emails you may have stored on your device.
4. Is it a bit too much of a presumption to think a thief wants to go Mobile Dating with their victims identity/profile?
5. Will it work if the user swaps out your SIM card? I guess you have to hope the theif will have their connection settings set up correctly.
6. Wouldn’t email be quite pointless – particularly if (like lots of people do) you have it set up on your mobile. The chances are your thief will know have been sent an email notifying you of their address long before you will!
7. By publishing the error code 0×10F that means “Localization not possible”, obviously the application makers are being upfront about the fact that it doesn’t always work. I wonder if the thief would try again.
8. The GPS location is not often that accurate and is reliant on the thief using the application from their home or somewhere that you can find them. If they are out and about (eg. stealing more things), moving (eg. on the subway, in a car) or live in high rise apartments (within meters of hundreds of other people) you can forget about any hope of tracking them down.
9. Do you really want to have to meet with the person who stole your mobile? They may live in a rough area, they may have sold it on, they may know about the iDateMe application and be lying in wait for you.

It’s definitely an attention grabbing icon, an interesting innovation and I’m sure these small problems can be fixed, but i think it also exposes the multitude of privacy issues that go hand in hand with applications that need to be installed on your mobile. Applications often come with lots of small print and this can mean you permit the service provider to access parts of your phone that you would prefer to keep private for example in this case it’s your location but it could just as well be your contact list or emails & texts.

Please note: Because The 3G Dating Agency only works in your web browser you can be sure that you have the maximum level of privacy when using the service – your contact details and any personal information on your phone remains completely protected.

Elizabeth Woyke, a technology writer at Forbes, has 2 articles (here and here) asking the questions “will “video-chat gadgets’ catch on?” “are we finally nearing the age of the videophone?” “Devices that let you talk and see who you’re conversing with as you walk are on the horizon”

“Like the personal jet pack and Amphibicar, the concept of a consumer videoconferencing device has had an enduring grip on people’s imaginations. Now, aided by the advent of more robust wireless networks and cheaper data plans, portable videoconferencing gadgets are moving closer to reality.”

No you guessed wrong – this wasn’t in 1968. These articles were published yesterday. Can someone in the Nokia Press Department PLEASE send this staff writer a new N-Series Nokia Phone…. second thoughts go over there so you can hold her hand and offer some smelling salts while you welcome her to the future that’s already arrived!