Weak Passwords Lead To Ruined Reputations

By Author: Chinalovematch
Total Articles: 14
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Today a pretty Chinese woman had a very rough day here on ChinaLovematch.net (CLM), and we feel terrible for her. Unfortunately she has nobody to blame but herself. She's been run over like an innocent pedestrian who failed to pay attention, stepped off the curb while facing a Don't Walk signal and was instantly flattened by a speeding bus. But then she should have been paying attention and waited for the light to change. If she'd been smart she would have played by the rules and taken the time and effort to follow the signal. This lovely person was not hit by a bus, however, but instead was run over by an internet scammer of the worst kind, and it could have been avoided so easily. Here's what happened.

CLM is an online dating website for Western men who wish to
meet Chinese woman for their perfect lifemate. What they emphatically do not want to meet is some big, hairy man from Senegal who is pretending to be a pretty Chinese woman. But it turned out that is exactly who they met (okay, maybe it was a big hairy woman from Senegal) when they thought they were meeting our lovely Chinese girl. And that happened because ...
... she used one of the dumbest, simplest passwords you can imagine.

We try everything possible to prevent Scammers from infiltrating our website, and we get many letters everyday thanking us for our efforts and telling us we are the most scammer free dating site they have ever been on. But we cannot prevent a scammer from getting on the website if they don't even have to register. And if they can guess someone's password and take over their profile as happened in this case, they don't have to register, because the silly girl from China has registered for them. And then they go wild trying to find victims who will send them money thinking it is for these very cute and sincere China doll.

Passwords are intended as a lock to secure your confidentiality and safety from Scammers, not as keys to open the door. But this girl naively used the simplest 6 digit password it is possible to use. Over 1,700 people have used this password on our website alone. So all the scammer has to do is keep trying member after member until he finally finds one with this password. And of course eventually he will. Then he is off in Scammer Heaven because now he's communicating with some men who already believe he is the sweet Chinese woman they've been messaging for the past few days. Eventually someone reports behavior that is suspiciously unlike a Chinese person, or is scammer-like whether or not she is Chinese, as was the case here, and the Scammer is removed (Or ignored if the website is one of the many who couldn't care less).

But on CLM when we find a Scammer, we not only place them in Scammer Prison, but an automatic notice goes out to every member who has had any contact with or from the Scammer to tell them that the person was a Scammer and not to maintain contact with them. To us, this notice is essential because without it who knows how many members are already in communication with the Scammer off site using Yahoo, MSN, Skype, etc. They have to be warned. These are men who were out to seek Chinese woman lifemate, and for all we know they are falling into a trap being set by a Senegal Nightmare. But in warning these members and placing the stolen profile in Scammer Prison, the poor innocent Chinese woman who simply didn't use common sense and choose a strong password gets mowed down by that speeding bus. Her reputation is shot. We do what we can do convey to the members that it wasn't her, but someone who stole her password, but it's too late to save her from at least a partial disaster.

The moral of the story is to take the extra 20 seconds required to think of a strong password and store it to memory. Make it at least 8 digits long. Make it contain at least 1 capital letter, 1 small letter and 1 number. Do not use any two letters or numbers in natural succession - that is, no a,b, no g,h, no 1,2, no 6,7, etc. Do not use simple keyboard combinations based on obvious patterns on your keyboard. Do not use common names.

Do not use anything remotely close to your username. USE YOUR COMMON SENSE! Help ChinaLoveMatch.net or whoever else is your favourite website protect you by protecting yourself. If you don't do this, maybe next time it will be your good reputation being smashed into oblivion by that speeding bus.