We’re back with another romance site review. And this time it’s Date My Age – one of the worst “dating” sites on the internet (seriously bottom of the barrel). And this is saying a lot considering I’ve been on places where I couldn’t read three words without tripping over a dick pic.
So, let’s dive into what makes this slimy site something you should avoid at all costs and other entertaining tidbits and screenshots that will make you roll your eyes so hard they will pop out of your head.
WHAT IS “DATE MY AGE“
On the surface, this site looks like any other dating site – with the cravat that it’s aimed at people who are over 40 years old (or “mature singles who are young at heart”). They have all the bells and whistles when it comes to language. Like: join free, romance, friendship, secure service, soulmates, blah blah blah.
Sign-up is indeed free. Chatting isn’t really free because you only get to see the first message. After that, you have to pay to see anything else. They also have ridiculous “gifts” that are just pictures that cost an arm and a leg to send (such as cheap clipart images of flowers or gem hearts etc.).
There are video chats, and emails, too.
WHAT DATE MY AGE REALLY IS
Here’s where the slime starts to ooze … and fast.
I hadn’t even filled out my profile yet – no details and not even a photo. And the chat requests started to FLOOD in like the world was ending and I was the last woman alive. Not only that, but every single guy looks like he could walk off a New York runway. The site even has an “explanation” for why there are so many good-looking people. And it’s HILARIOUS, not to mention super sketchy.
From reading previous reviews about Date My Age, I knew this was going to happen, but my god … I had to make some popcorn because this was going to be entertaining as hell. So, I choose the first 10 “people” who contacted me (without even knowing what I looked like) and struck up a conversation.
But here’s the first catch of the site…
If you want to chat with someone past the first message (because everything else is blurred out), you have to buy credits. So, for this particular experiment, I bought the smallest package (20 credits @ 95 cents per credit = 15 euros) to see what that would get me.
Yep. It didn’t get me far at all. And I guess that’s the point of the site.
So if I was going to get anywhere, I had to shell out for more credits (which get cheaper the more you buy).
Yeah, nearly $500. Ouch. But it was going to be a good cause … letting the public know what is really going on (with the stern intention of getting a refund after it was all said and done), so I went for it.
SPYING ON THE OTHER SIDE
The first few conversations were obvious bots. But if you’ve never been on a dating site and don’t know what that is, it just means a computer program is spitting out answers or questions while you chat. It doesn’t take long for the other side’s answers/text to make no sense. This means you have a bot.
However…
Bots are still a pain in the ass because you’re being charged ONE CREDIT PER MINUTE to chat with people. So, you’re still wasting money in the first few exchanges to find out you’re speaking with a computer.
However, I did end up with a few humans. Their profiles called them: Jorge, Gabriel, Anthony, Adrien, and Luiz. All of these profiles held impressive jobs like CFO, pediatrician, marine biologist, general doctor, etc.
They also ALL had this line of small text under their profile – “This member is curated by our partner and uses the website for free.”
Now, the text might say that these people are free on this site because partners have put them there and they don’t receive money. However, based on their behavior (and from COUNTLESS user reviews) that is a flat-out lie.
Most of these profiles (I would dare say a solid 80-90%) are not who they say they are. Instead, they are “employees” of the company that are paid to drain users of their money by keeping them talking as much and as long as possible (or the bots I mentioned before). They will ask all sorts of questions, keeping the conversation going, and I will admit they are good at what they do. I had a nice conversation about Stranger Things with one of them. But the rest were more of generic things like hobbies, work, and family.
Still, there are common red flags that are on any dating site. And they are glaring if you know what to look for.
Here are some examples that I found on Date My Age…
- People’s whose first language was English didn’t not speak English well AT ALL.
- They went out of their way to send emails rather than chat texts (because emails cost you more credits to open and read).
- They are always there to chat (even if they have a job like a doctor – which would never be that available to chat that much in real life).
- They find every way possible to keep the chat on that site. They say they don’t have other social media options like WhatsApp or Telegram … or email. Which we all know is total bullshit.
- Things that feel like a copy and paste or sudden language switches.
It’s the last one that is the easiest one to spot, and how these “employees” keep making money for the company. They are trained to have several excuses ready as to why, including “It’s my choice to talk on this platform.” The fact that you can’t afford the conversation, and that there are free options outside the dating service doesn’t matter – it’s their literal job to keep you there.
The other part I know other people have had issues with are the “gifts”, but I never got that far because I only had a limited stipend to test the site. But some of these gifts cost thousands of credits to send and they’re just pictures!
OTHER SHADY BUSINESS
This site is operated by Venta Solutions PTE LTD., located in Singapore. Also, the “About” section, it says it’s located in Malta. Then, on Datingscout.com they give this information.
So, aside from also having no clear manager/owner/founder/operator, there are a bunch of other things that make this site an affront to the dating deities.
- You have to request your profile to be deleted. I asked two days ago (as of writing this article) but still haven’t heard anything back. So essentially you have no control over your account.
- Many people have reported their cards being overcharged.
- Even more people have reported their information being passed on to other companies.
UPDATE
I had to reach out to the online customer service to get my account deleted – which is insane because you should have control over your own information and banking info PERIOD.
To which they asked for evidence of my problems with the site. Well, considering I deleted the bot conversations and the scammers aren’t going to admit they are scammers, it’s a bit of a brilliant circle of jerks that leaves people like me without the ability to get any evidence whatsoever.
They gave me the standard corporate line of “we have anti-scammer” bullshit. Which clearly they don’t because OMG so many bots are on this site.
But the cream de la cream? Their “solution” before deleting my account…. giving me 30 free credits. Well, I might have been on this site for undercover purposes but that’s when I legitimately lost my shit. I spent $500 and their come-back was giving me 30 free credits so I don’t delete my account. Oh, and when I got mad, they upped it to a “whopping” 60. Oooooooh.
Getting your account deleted from this site is like trying to get yourself out of a pyramid scheme contract or leaving Scientology for fuck sake. Yeah, you can tell I’m still raw from the encounter (you can also tell I was angry because my spelling during the conversation went to seed).
DATE MY AGE – AN AMUSING BONUS
When my credits were nearly gone, and it was time to close the experiment, I decided to reach out to all the five “men” I had been chatting with and tell them what I was really doing. My hope was that at least one of them would want to talk with me about the truth of what was going on behind the scenes.
But even when the promise of their names and online personas being kept anonymous, their answers were nearly all the same (practically copy and paste). You know …as-if-they-had-training-for-this-situation. Imagine that!
Oh they fiend confusion, with plenty of “I don’t understand”s (even with them understanding everything we had talked about before). Lots of pretending to be insulted and hurt that seemed to come from a script. Blah blah blah. I tried my best to get at least one of them to talk to me for real through email (you know, getting their side of the story, because I’m sure we would all love to know what would motivate someone to do something like this). However, there were no takers.
But here’s the hilarious thing…
Since the site hadn’t deleted my account at that moment, I decided to pop on the next day to try and get a few more screenshots, etc. And oh boy did the guys come back on strong!
Flowers, emails, darlings, honeys, dears, hope you’re wells, and what nots. Almost as if they had totally forgotten that I had directly told them I was a blogger investigating scams less than 24 hours ago, and they had been insulted and didn’t want to talk to me ever again.
But I guess that’s what happens when you’re juggling multiple scam profiles and conversations at once.
These people were determined to drain every last cent from my account.
DATE MY AGE CONCLUSION
There was really only one guy out of the entire lot that didn’t message me back (Adrian) when he found out the truth. Could he have been a legit person that was trying to find love? Who knows, maybe. If so, I wish him all the best. Chances are there are a few real human beings on there that want to find love.
But with the draw of mature people wanting to be in a romantic relationship, it’s just too strong a draw for scammers. This means that you’re going to be meeting more fake people than real ones. And to find them (considering the predatory nature of the site) will end up costing you literally thousands of dollars. It’s just not worth it.
This makes the $29.99 monthly fees of other sites feel like a drop in the ocean.
Look anywhere on review pages and you’ll see that Date My Age has abysmal ratings and with good reason. A huge percentage of people seem to work for the company and are highly trained to keep you talking as long as possible to make you spend as much as possible.
So, stay away from this site. Period. It belongs in the bottom of a garbage bin and tossed into a lake of toxic waste in the fiery depths of hell (as well as everyone who works for it).
Also, stay tuned to see if I can get a refund (which they say you can get before 10 days). But let’s just say I won’t be holding my breath. But it will be interesting to see what happens when I reach out to the Malta and Singapore bureaus.
