Scam comes in various shapes and forms - from luring victims to voluntarily part with the money to outright credit card fraud. We all heard stories about scammers infiltrating security, defrauding customers and hurting business reputation. Here is one high tech solution for reducing online abuse.

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Iovation is geared to fight online fraud in many industries, including Dating. It performs more than three million daily fraud checks for its customers. Greg Pierson, founder and CEO of Iovation, explains the technology and shares his vision in this exclusive interview for readers of the Dating Ad Network blog:

Q: How your technology helps fighting scam and fraud in the dating business?

A: iovation pioneered the use of device reputation for managing online fraud and abuse for Internet dating sites and social communities. Our patented fraud management technology focuses on the reputations of physical Internet devices to help online dating sites gain a deeper understanding of the computers used by their members to create new identities and accounts. iovation’s real-time ReputationManager device reputation service identifies computers and accounts that have a history of fraudulent and abusive behavior, and exposes hidden associations between devices and accounts within a given network.

The service is built on iovation’s Device Reputation Authority database, which is the world’s only shared device reputation network that manages the reputations of over 80 million unique computers and mobile devices worldwide. Our online dating customers share this information to recognize or re-recognize devices connecting to their network and allows them to immediately act on a device if it has been associated with any type of fraud or abuse that is important to them such as email spam, predatory behavior, financial fraud and chat abuse. In helping online communities expose fraudulent devices trying to gain access into their online dating environments, we bring additional value that goes beyond an insurance solution and encompasses a real return on investment that is not only about stopping fraud and abuse, but also about reducing operational costs and increasing revenue through more precise online risk management.

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Niche dating sites along with white label solutions are still hot topics in the online dating industry. We continue interviewing leading companies, which can help webmasters to build their own dating website.

Today we talked with Greg Kett from World Dating Partners. The company is headquartered in United Kingdom and provides not only white label solutions, but also branded and template dating websites. They can be seen at such events as Ad:Tech London and the upcoming Internet Dating Conference 2009 in Miami.

Q: What are the unique advantages of your platform?

A: World Dating Partners offers:

• Unparalleled levels of niching within the industry, allowing highly targeted specific interest sites to be created. Sites of this type tend to generate higher conversion rates than mainstream dating sites due to their targeted traffic.
• Truly global coverage – We have the ability to create sites in any language & process payments from 42 Currencies internationally, and furthermore the presence to advise our partners where to direct their attention geographically.
• Our analytics and site admin centre gives our partners meaningful and detailed reports, which provide complete transparency. Detailed tracking and in-depth analysis gives partners complete control to generate maximum ROI.

Q: Who are your clients, can you name some of them?

A: Since establishing ourselves in the B2B marketplace World Dating Partners have secured valuable brands such as Dating.com, the social network Perfspot, varied media clients from Radio; Matchlink radio in the USA, Several regional and local radio stations in the UK; Printed Press such as The Canadian national newspaper and Essential Publishing; and TV, with the popular American show No Cheaters.

We are currently working on several extremely exciting new partnerships, which we will be announcing in the very near future.

Q: How the current financial crisis affects your operation in the UK and worldwide?

A: We continually evaluate the cost of membership to the many sites we power, to ensure it is both competitive and affordable. Internationally we undertake competitor analysis and liaise with our Channel Partners to review our pricing structure. Their local expertise is invaluable in providing realistic and helpful answers that are both region specific and up-to-date.

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Below is a partial transcript of this podcast. Click here to listen the entire 30-minute interview.

Q: What’s your background and what inspired you to start EliteMate.com?

A: I came from owning a dieting fresh food delivery service called ‘Zone Diet Fresh Food Delivery Service”. We did really well and were on TV. Then we sold out the company and decided that we are going to get into the dating business. And in 2001 we’ve started Elitemate.com. We had to build a foundation, and we did most of it offline, by doing testing calls for the next TV commercial we were going to do, because I was in a TV business with an actual dieting company. And all the people that showed up for the casting call – we took their picture, had their video – pretty much had all their information. At the same time we signed them all up to Elitemate free lifetime membership.

Q: How many people do you have in your team?

A: Right now I have all in all - with techs and everybody else - 52 people.

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Q: How did you come up with the name “Bone Fish”?

A: Considering as we were the first white label company EVER to come on the scene and therefore we actually had carte blanche to choose whatever took our fancy, we chose a rather ambiguous name for our white label program and service.

We decided that we needed something that would subtly and elegantly express what we were trying to create on a more conceptual level, and as such, our line of thought took the following route.

We were going to provide a back end and platform that would enable affiliates to run sites of a dating nature, but we would be relatively invisible to the outside world - seen by only those that would do more than merely scratch the surface. To us, this business model appeared to be the analogy of a bone fish – otherwise known as the ghost or phantom fish. This fish is invisible when under water, rather like ourselves, who are powering a number of dating brands out of the limelight… Hence the name of the company.

Q: How is your affiliate program different from the others?

A: Our program is different in that we offer multiple and very specific niches that – unlike some providers out there – are actually real and are very much defined. As such, we can assure our affiliates that their sites really are made up of specific types of people, which of course helps to capture a better target audience and thus generate more profit for the affiliate.

Also, due to having a very large database of members from all around the world, we offer affiliates the chance to target multiple locations and countries rather than just the UK or USA, which is the norm amongst our competitors.

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Q: How old is your web site?

A: Date.com was started in 1997, it originally was a free dating site, and was later converted into a membership site in 2001. Matchmaker.com which is also owned by the same company is actually the oldest online dating site. It was started as a BBS (Bulletin board system) in 1986. We recently launched a 3rd site, Amor.com. This site focuses on Latin singles in South American and those people interested in meeting Latin men or women.

Q: Do you have any statistics on happy matches you created?

A: Over the years we’ve received thousands of success stories from happy couples who’ve met through our sites. We often get invited to weddings and people even send in photos of babies who’ve been born through relationships started at Date.com & Matchmaker.

Q: How did you start your dating business?

A: It seemed obvious to us… the internet would become a great way for people to connect.

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