Someone is eyeing the silver-haired blind date
Be careful about "finding a wife" online
According to the seventh census, my country’s aging population exceeds 264 million, and there are nearly 50 million widowed elders.
Various factors make the number of silver-haired singles continue to increase, but their emotional needs are always in a gray area of social discussion.
At the same time, many marriage and dating platforms are targeting this group of people and have built "online blind dates" for middle-aged and elderly people.
The reporter experienced multiple middle-aged and elderly dating platforms and found that the convenient and secret advantages of the Internet have attracted many elderly users, but there are also problems such as false information and inducing consumption.
▍Not a real person can also post information
In the related introductions of many dating platforms, the authenticity of user identities has been emphasized.
However, the reporter randomly downloaded a piece of software and found that he only needs to enter his mobile phone number to register.
Simply select age, educational background, upload a photo, and you will have a nickname assigned by the system.
In the follow-up information improvement page, users can enter information such as height, income, real estate, etc., but these information systems have not been verified.
In fact, the reporter registered as a male and then registered as a female. All the information was fabricated, and the photos were not his own, and they could still be approved.
In another dating software, registration is also done through a mobile phone number, and it is approved after filling in gender and age.
As for the photo, if you upload it, you can receive additional financial rewards. The reporter randomly uploaded a non-person profile picture and successfully passed the verification.
Of course, some dating software will also guide users to enter ID information or perform face recognition to complete real-name authentication, real-person authentication and other links.
It is also said that authenticated users can get more display privileges, but even without relevant authentication, the information filled in by reporters is still posted on the platform, and a large number of chat requests, private messages, etc. are received within a short period of time.
▍Dozens to hundreds can not be played without paying
Ease of registration does not mean that it can be used smoothly.
In a certain piece of software, a reporter who turned into a "61-year-old, male" received a reminder that "43 people of the opposite sex have come to see you."
When I clicked it, I found that their avatars were all blurred, and a pop-up window popped up and said, "You can unlock the visitor function by opening a member."
The price is 30 yuan per month, and it is discounted to 98 yuan for one year of direct opening.
Not only that, it takes sincerity to add friends, greet, and send messages to the opposite sex.
The platform uses roses as the exchange standard. 1 rose is about RMB 0.1, and 20 roses are needed to add friends.
On a middle-aged and elderly social platform, the “blind date” section is lined up with the avatars and basic information of many users, and each user has a “call” and “chat” icon next to it.
But it can be realized by opening VIP.
The newcomer price is 128 yuan per month or 328 yuan per year.
It can be said that in the process of using online dating platforms, if users are not prepared to pay, it is almost impossible to move.
▍Anyone can go on a blind date with Mai, lack of sincerity
As communication channels become more and more diversified, in addition to text and voice messages, online blind date software for middle-aged and elderly people also has video blind dates and live blind dates.
The reporter saw that there are mostly "three-person rooms" in the live dating rooms. The upper part shows the "matchmaker", and the lower two areas are the male and female "guests."
I thought that the blind date should be when the two parties decided to meet and enter the live broadcast room to talk about each other. What is strange is that only the matchmaker and female guests are waiting in the live broadcast room.
"Welcome Xiao Huihui!" Seeing that the opposite sex entered, the matchmaker quickly sent a "Lian Mai card", inviting reporters to enter the live broadcast room.
After the reporter clicked to reject, she continued to solicit other onlookers, as if as long as someone "linked" with the female guest, it didn't matter who the blind date was.
In the live broadcast room where the male and female guests have been "catch up", the matchmaker will be able to instigate the male guests to give gifts to the female guests.
These are some animated icons, but you need real money to purchase.
"You send a wreath for her to wear on her head and see what color it is." "Sister likes big red flowers the most, give her a bunch"... Under the instigation of a "brother" by the matchmaker, it took only ten minutes Inside, a 55-year-old Beijing man gave a 54-year-old female guest a number of gifts, equivalent to more than 30 yuan.
In the live broadcast room of another platform, female guests sang "Rain Butterfly" enthusiastically, "Brother, can you be more generous?" "Man, be generous, stingy men are most desperate!"
▍Forming groups to cooperate with revenue depends on routines
Matchers are undoubtedly the group with the most "force" on the platform that has opened the video blind date method.
It is understood that the matchmaker is not a platform employee, but a conversion from users.
In fact, matchmakers, including the male "Yue Lao" on some platforms, have formed a working business chain with some blind date guests.
"I have been doing business for more than two years, and I have to do business just like opening a store. The income depends on my ability, and there are tens of thousands of them." A senior matchmaker revealed that in the blind date room, no matter who the gift is given, they will actually enter the matchmaker. Account.
Because the revenue has to be shared with the platform, the platform is more to maintain the matchmaker, and the matchmaker is also higher than the guests.
This can be seen from the platform’s requirements for matchmakers-newly registered users can enter the live broadcast room for blind date "Lianmai", but if you want to be a matchmaker or a month old, you must meet the cumulative blind date of more than ten or tens of hours. condition.
In other words, a matchmaker can go on a blind date as a guest, but the guest has to go through advanced stages to become a matchmaker.
In addition, even if the length of time is reached, some platforms need to contact the "predecessor" matchmaker to obtain the invitation code to activate the permission.
The matchmaker "olds the new" layer by layer, forming factions like a snowball.
In some live broadcast rooms, reporters saw the second half of the nicknames of matchmaker and female guests with the same suffix.
When the male guest was vacant, the two chatted enthusiastically, and they had obviously known each other for a long time.
The reporter entered into a "Matchmaker Yue Lao Group" with more than 140 members and found that matchmakers and Yue Lao often greet each other and invite "family members who are free" to help on the wheat, hang out for a long time together, and receive platform mission rewards, and "Supervise" male users to swipe gifts and so on.
These members referred to blind dates as "going to work" and "starting", and they also discussed the troubles of "after receiving gifts from guests, the other party wants WeChat, but they don't want to give it, and they are afraid that the other party will not come to give gifts".
▍Lost wealth and sad, be alert to online fraud
The reporter noticed that many blind date platforms will scroll and display a line of small characters at the bottom of the screen to remind users to "be cautious in adding strangers to WeChat friends, and do not have money or money exchanges with strangers."
Some will even write plainly, “Those who borrow money for various reasons such as having no money to buy a ticket to meet, being knocked into hospital, etc. are basically scammers.”
If you say recharge members, rewards and gifts, etc., they are still some controllable expenditures in the process of "playing software".
In recent years, criminals have frequently targeted the middle-aged and elderly people who long for "twilight love."
According to Xinhui Public Security, at the end of March 2021, 54-year-old Lao Yang met "Ali" through the middle-aged and elderly blind date platform.
After adding WeChat to each other, the "feelings" of the two quickly warmed up and became commensurate with each other, but they never met.
One day, "Ali" sent a website to ask Lao Yang to help her invest in "XX Finance".
Seeing that the income of the "Ali" account is considerable, Lao Yang also opened an account.
It wasn't until one day that the system could not withdraw cash and could not contact "Ali", Lao Yang found out that he was cheated, and the entire investment lost more than 60,000 yuan.
Our reporter Wei Jing