Was It Really a Woman Who Liked Me? The Betrayal of Dating Apps

Techlabs Fined 52 Million Won for Creating Over 270 Fake Female Accounts
Fake Female Account Activity Quotas Assigned to Employees to Attract Male Users

A dating app company that created fake female member accounts to induce male users to make in-app purchases with real money has been sanctioned by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC).

On May 29, the KFTC announced that it had imposed a fine of 52 million won on Techlabs, the operator of the dating apps Amanda and NeorangNarand, for violating the Electronic Commerce Act. The KFTC also issued a corrective order requiring the company to inform users that it had been sanctioned.

Techlabs is accused of creating fake female member accounts on Amanda and NeorangNarang between October 2021 and April 2022 to lure male users into using the dating apps.

The investigation found that, due to the gender imbalance typical of dating apps, with relatively few female members, Techlabs created around 270 fake female accounts to encourage more activity among male users.

At one point, the total number of members on the two dating apps reached as many as 10 million. However, as the number of users declined and the apps dropped in download rankings, it appears the company planned this operation. The fake female accounts were created by illegally using photos of female members from another dating app (Yeonkwon) operated by Techlabs in Taiwan, and then arbitrarily adding information such as age, height, region, education, and body type.

Photo unrelated to the content to aid understanding of the article. Pixabay

Techlabs used these fake accounts to conduct "male user care" operations to stimulate activity among male members. The fake female accounts viewed the profiles or expressed interest in 1,137 Amanda users and 64,768 NeorangNarang users. The targeted male users could immediately see these expressions of interest via app push notifications.

In addition, on Amanda's anonymous message board called "Secret Square," fake female accounts posted 982 posts and 4,990 comments, and sent "likes" or "Secret Matches" (a feature to express interest) to male members.

The company also assigned quotas for fake female account activity to employees, including male staff members.

On Amanda and NeorangNarang, users can purchase virtual currencies called "ribbons" and "hearts," respectively, to send friend requests or view other members' profiles as paid services. The KFTC concluded that, through these deceptive "care" operations, the company encouraged male users to be more active and induced them to make payments for virtual currency.

Previously, in September last year, Techlabs was fined approximately 220 million won by the Personal Information Protection Commission for illegally using profile photos. Song Myunghyun, head of the KFTC's Electronic Commerce Surveillance Team, said, "This action sanctions a business that promoted dating app usage through unfair means, such as deceiving consumers by pretending female members were highly active. We expect this will raise awareness in the dating app industry and help prevent consumer harm."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.