While some sites conduct background checks on members, many do not, resulting in some uncertainty around members' identities.For instance, some profiles may not represent real humans but rather "bait profiles" placed online by site owners to attract new paying members, or "spam profiles" created by advertisers to market services and products.
Online dating services allow users to become "members" by creating a profile and uploading personal information including (but not limited to) age, gender, sexual orientation, location, and appearance.A great diversity of online dating services currently exists.Some have a broad membership base of diverse users looking for many different types of relationships.Still others rely solely on paid membership subscriptions.Opinions and usage of online dating services also differ widely.