
Website Sells Fake Facebook Girlfriends - ytNumbers
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/website-selling-fake-facebook-girlfriends-232429663--abc-news-topstories.html
======
hooande
Social hacking at its finest. The benefits of a fake girlfriend go far beyond
attracting a real girlfriend. _Everyone_ looks differently at someone who is
dating a hot chick. This could be just as valuable in terms of general
networking or self promoting.

It makes me wonder what similar ideas are out there. For the majority of
people, social capital is the most valuable kind of capital there is. Facebook
itself is kind of a social hack, and there's a lot more value there. Plus,
this is one of the best things to happen to nerdy high school kids. It's like
the "I have a girlfriend but she's in canada" on the next level.

If you find this business to be repugnant, who do we blame? These enterprising
brazilians for starting the website? Or ourselves for being so influenced by
relationship status and physical appearance? The human brain is based on
simple rules and you can't blame someone for capitalizing on that.

~~~
wamatt
It's kind of depressing, that promoting phoniness and deception, is elevated
to the top of HN as a cool 'hack'.

Seriously? What ever happened to.. I don't know.. _honor_ and _integrity_?

While not all are guilty, it does appear somewhat hypocritical that a
presumably similar group, would grumble about the ills of Wall St. execs, and
yet simultaneously employ analogous reasoning, just splashed with a little
erudite cologne.

"Be creative, think outside the box", chanted COO Jeff Skilling whilst driving
Enron to bold new heights. Results are all that matter right? 'Fuck the
environment, or society or those pesky things of the past. What did you call
them again? Morals? Oh how _adorably_ cute and quaint.'

What's it called when the effects of your actions are not easily measurable
and are lost in a web of causality? Who cares... it's not like we're hurting
anyone elses feelings _directly_.

But I digress, and ranting somewhat, but please go ahead and rationalize it
away (you'll feel better):

(a) 'What nonsense, you're just over-extrapolating, those things are in _no
way_ connected.'

(b) 'Ooh tell us how you really _feel_ '

(c) 'meh'

(d) ...?

~~~
elorant
Pardon me, but 90% of people tell lies in their CVs (which also happen to be
in the social networking space). Every single person I know who has a profile
at LinkedIn has falsified somehow their job history, their set of skills or
their credentials.

So why do we take for granted that someone can lie about his job skills but
not about his personal life?

If people are so retarded to appreciate you more when they see you with a
beautiful woman (instead of I don't know, judge you by your character
perhaps?), then you have every right to give them what they expect.

~~~
wamatt
>If people are so retarded to appreciate you more when they see you with a
beautiful woman (instead of I don't know, _judge you by your character
perhaps?_ )

The irony of that statement just kills me.

As for CV's, happily I've never needed one, and am certainly not an HR
manager, but I'd be most surprised to find " _90%_ of people" merrily go
around inventing full-on fictitious companies they've worked for.

For example:

While I accept your point that some may color their CV's... falling short, by
embellishing one's previous role at a prior company, is simply not in the same
ballpark as _inventing a completely fake person that you're dating_.

And for the record, the existence of gray in the world, does not give one a
free pass, to simply proceed straight to black.

~~~
GFischer
I don't think the OP says people invent fictitious companies, but I see
fiction and embellishment in a lot of CVs..

One guy that worked in the backroom sorting correspondence in the company I
work for claimed he was "Manager" on his LinkedIn profile.

And all the programmers I work with claim they "led" the projects they were
in.

I've yet to see somebody invent a company, but many cite their own freelance
"companies" and their roles as CEOs.

I do agree that there shouldn't be a free pass to proceeding straight to
black.

------
personlurking
"To bolster the ranks of fake girlfriends, the website is inviting women to
send in their profiles, with a 50 percent profit-sharing incentive."

The site (namorofake.com.br) now says their fake gf profiles are all real
women. They've also got a selection of types ranging from Ficante (Hook-up),
Ex-Namorada (Ex girlfriend), Namorada (Girlfriend) and Namorada Virtual
(Virtual Girlfriend). The difference between the latter two is the virtual gf
lasts longer and leaves more comments.

Translated from the site/Portuguese...

"Because of the large amount of simultaneous hires our profiles are all
occupied at the moment. (Now all of our profiles are from real women and not
fake profiles.)"

On their Depoimentos (Testimonies) page, one guy says...

"I had a lot of success. The reaction of my friends was unbelievable, it was
(just) three comments that made my Facebook take off hahahaha. I even had some
girls from my college adding me, I think it was because of this (site). In a
few days I'm going to hire another "ficante" to make me look even more
important. Thanks guys..."

~~~
GBond
This company's product has a critical mass marketing problem; as more people
know about this Brazilian company and the biz model, the more the product is
devalued.

i.e. Now that I know this, I'm just going to assume that all my FB friends who
are in a long distance relationship with a Brazilian girl are in a fake
relationship.

~~~
olivier1664
Does it limit to Brazilian?

If the market is here and if they pay $20 per month per annimated fake
profile, the problem is now to find a way to emulate fakes profiles to seems
real. It would be like playing to the Sim, but being paid.

------
shellehs
Like since years ago, in China there are some singles using online or offline
methods, to request to _rent_ a boyfriend/girlfriend to go home with him/her,
during the days of traditional Chinese new year Chunjie. Because their parents
did not want to see them go home alone, maybe, kids went home alone at age 20s
was shame to the parents in the hometown I guess.

But to the kids, they simply want to avoid parents and relatives to ask them
again and again "why did you not find a boy/girl?" "You are not child, you
need a partner." "Look at the one (who was a neighbor or someone's parents
also living in the same place or whatever), he/she is better than you and has
not been single any more." "...". So many questions like these. They will
never lose passion to ask you such question till you move ass away home.

But these days, boys still lament how hard to stop single life and to find a
_Goddess_ , Goddess these days refer to the one you have no chance to make her
be your girlfriend. I think fake girlfriend should be a good idea to some
people. Some boys will say that cause girlfriends are expensive, they cost you
lot of money as well as energy. Having a fake girlfriend You could feel not
lonely while don't really need to spend too much.

------
orangecat
They do have science on their side:
[http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17619-its-true-all-
the...](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17619-its-true-all-the-taken-
men-are-best.html)

------
orangethirty
This is kind of scientific from an evolutionary stand point. The company is
allowing males to setup a mating ritual display to appear more desirable. I
don't know if its scientific, but my fisrt hand _experience_ always had me
being more desirable to the opposite sex when I was in a relationship. Now
that I wear a wedding band around my finger, I could swear that the effect has
increased. Which is quite funny at some times, but very uncomfortable at
others.

But I wonder what purpose in the evolutionary side of things does the company
play? Are they doing like some species that help others mate through their own
mechanisms? Or am I just too tired from programming all day and writing
endless babble?

~~~
ahelwer
Jumping straight to "from an evolutionary stand point" in these sorts of
things is just gross. Evopsych is pretty much BS anyway, and seems to find the
most play in circles that enjoy spouting off about how women are _this_ way,
and men are _that_ way. The New Yorker had a good article on it.

[http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/09/17/12091...](http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/09/17/120917crbo_books_gottlieb)

~~~
krickle
Sexual selection has been observed in other animals. It's inaccurate to say
that all men or all women are alike but it's not far fetched to think humans
have certain behavioral trends.

~~~
ahelwer
Sure. And when these discussions on the internet happen in a vacuum of social
studies or experiments it inevitably devolves into people dumping their half-
baked post hoc rationalizations on each other backed by some crap anecdotes.
It also inevitably turns sexist, especially given the issue at hand.

~~~
krickle
Ah, I misunderstood you. You're right that our own opinions aren't really
relevant without a study.

~~~
marvin
Yes, and evo-psych is usually unfalsifiable. So these studies probably won't
show up any time soon.

------
h2s
This is really weird. Everybody on HN appears to be praising this for the
clever entrepreneurial idea. I'm kind of amazed that I'm apparently about to
be the first person on here to call this out as a hugely misogynistic
endeavour. Women should not be treated as a SaaS product.

~~~
diminoten
If it makes you feel any better, you can pay me $39 and I'll pretend to be
your boyfriend on Facebook.

On a slightly more serious note, this is, in itself, not really sexist in your
typical "Internet at large" sexisism. Don't get me wrong, there is some very
serious and deep seated (seeded?) woman hating that occurs on the Internet,
but this isn't it. This goes way beyond the Internet, and into ancient mores
that carry across time and culture, which are definitely sexist, but not the
kind of sexist you find in Halo 4.

More like the kind of sexist you find when you wander Amsterdam's red light
district. Old-school misogyny.

------
fossuser
Couldn't this be done trivially enough by creating your own fake girlfriend
account and commenting on your own page?

Is that just too depressing?

~~~
fbpcm
Or for $5
[http://fiverr.com/gigs/search?query=girlfriend&x=0&y...](http://fiverr.com/gigs/search?query=girlfriend&x=0&y=0)

~~~
untog
Fascinating. Even more fascinating when you think that there is no guarantee
that the person advertising is the person in the pictures.

Rip photos from unsuspecting innocent FB profile, create a new one, post on
fiverr, profit!

~~~
mylittlepony
In case someone too naive reads parent, I can count at least 3 crimes there:
using someone else's image without consent (is there a name for that?),
impersonation, and fraud.

~~~
throwaway125
_is there a name for that?_

At the very least it's copyright infringement, although I'm not sure it's
criminal copyright infringement.

~~~
mylittlepony
I was talking about the protection of your personal image. Let me give you an
example: Let's say you are walking down the street, and I take a picture of
the street (perfectly legal). But then I crop and zoom the picture to show
only your figure, and publish it. That's not legal. I don't know whether it
belongs to copyright law (I could imagine something like 'you own the
copyrights of any pictures taken of your image') or it's something else.

~~~
transitionality
It's perfectly legal. Anything that's in public is part of the public record.

~~~
mylittlepony
That's not true.

~~~
transitionality
Yes it is. It's how journalism works -- including paparazzi journalism.

~~~
mylittlepony
Have you studied the subject? I doubt it, so please stop. Paparazzi usually
focus on public figures like actors, which don't have the same rights over
their own image, since they have voluntarily exposed themselves to the public.

~~~
transitionality
Everyone in a public area voluntarily exposes themselves to the public. Your
images in public spaces are legal to record. If you disagree, try suing a
security camera operator.

~~~
mylittlepony
Clearly you don't know the law, and what's even worse your logic is broken. I
give up.

------
sharkweek
In case you missed it and feel like reading a really bizarre story about fake
girlfriends, this account of Notre Dame football player Manti Te'o faking the
death of his non-existent girlfriend is just too weird --
<http://deadspin.com/5976517/>

~~~
unreal37
He claims he was duped. There's not evidence he faked the death or knew his
girlfriend was fake.

~~~
swang
Did you read the article? It is pretty obvious he perpetuated the hoax or lied
about activities involving her to media. Either he is really naive or a liar.
He even continued talking about her as a real person to the media even after
he found out it was a "hoax" and reported it to coaches 3 weeks later.

~~~
ernestipark
It is a possibility that he was just embarrassed. I would be..

~~~
swang
Let's assume that Deadspin didn't trace it back eventually to a close mutual
friend of his.

So he's _REALLY_ embarrassed because someone online pulled a pretty hardcore
prank on him. Yet he still continues to act as though she was a real person
even after he found out about it?

Because if that is true, it makes it seem to the rest of the sports world that
he's just trying to garner sympathy to win the Heisman. That kind of makes him
even more scummier: the fact that even though he knows that he got pranked, he
continues to perpetuate the lie.

Edit: for more context about it, read this:
[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-
football/news/20130...](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-
football/news/20130117/teo-girlfriend-hoax.ap/?sct=hp_t2_a2&eref=sihp)

~~~
shock-value
Apparently the guy who it got traced backed to 1) wasn't actually a close
friend, just an acquaintance the player met relatively recently ( _after_
being contacted by the "fake" woman), and 2) had pulled similar stunts on
other people in the past.

So it definitely isn't cut and dry, and I'm leaning towards extreme naivety on
Te'o's part at this point (and possibly some embellishment to cover up
embarrassment), although it definitely is a bizarre story either way.

------
danhodgins
An illustration of how shallow social proof can be. The fact that human
psychology can be so simple and game-able at time never fails to amaze me. At
the same time, I can't help but objectively analyze their business model and
be intrigued by its possibilities - regardless of any moral or ethical
landmines.

------
whatshisface
Just a thought...

Be allowing (almost) everyone the same power to falsify information, this
company is reducing the power of today's fraudsters to lie convincingly. (Now,
people won't trust unreliable sources so easily.)

Could this be a good thing?

------
borplk
This is pretty stupid in my opinion.

If you have real friends and family in your Facebook why the hell would you
want a fake girlfriend?

They will grab some random photo from the internet and create a fake
profile...and your friends will ask you about the new girlfriend and you will
have to lie to everyone about it and you can only take it so far.

Soon (very soon) people will find out and you will look, well, pretty damn
pathetic.

------
victorhn
Among PUA circles, this is known as preselection, an effect where women become
more attracted to men that are already "chosen" by other women, so they may be
onto something.

~~~
daeken
Which is really no different than, say, giving precedence in hiring to someone
from Google or Facebook. Preselection isn't a bad thing, though gaming it in
the dating world is easier than in business. (And not terribly ethical to game
in either case.)

------
hawkharris
Don't pay $19 for a disgruntled ex-girlfriend; I'll give you mine for free.

------
utopkara
Finally a simple product idea that I am jealous I didn't think about it first.
Any HN reader could have thought about this, and many could even implement it
in a weekend, yet it was these guys. I salute the open mind, and the
entrepreneurial spirit.

------
mistercow
>Sometimes people need to rent a fake girlfriend to make jealous a jealous ex-
girlfriend. In truth, we have a lot of clients for that reason,

Sometimes technology is depressing.

~~~
enraged_camel
It's not technology that is depressing. It's people.

------
hcarvalhoalves
Escort agency for virtual Facebook girlfriends. Genius. Why am I not surprised
this is brazilian?

------
unreal37
Also R$39 is actually only $20. Brazilian Real is R$2 to US$1.

------
ja27
Years ago I joked about starting a service that sold fake kid packages after
seeing so many co-workers that were able to leave early, work from home, not
work over the weekend, etc. because of their kids. For $20 a year you'd get a
frame with a couple photos of the kid, some child-created artwork, and a life
outside of work.

------
xijuan
I just want to see as a girl, I want to see one in which I can buy a fake
facebook boyfriend!! Why only gfs?!

------
capkutay
Slowly the crooks/phonies are integrating with the social web. Yelp reviewers,
linkedin skill endorsers, facebook friends/significant others should be taken
into account only if you can confirm it in real life or at least trace it to
some level where you can be 90% sure it's the truth.

------
nnq
Naaah, still waiting for "Turing-test passing" AI-girlfriend to appear on the
market...

~~~
DanBC2
Given the quality of a lot of Facebook comments any of the Loebner Prize bots
would have a reasonable chance of passing as human.

(<http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html>)

A bit of tweaking - some learning and some Markov chains - and you'd have
something reasonably solid for that narrow gap.

Obviously there are trivially easy ways to trip up bots, if you suspect they
are bots.

------
frostli
This is so sad that the website will prob. be profitable soon by all the buzz.

~~~
ddrmaxgt37
Probably not. The buzz will work against them and get Facebook Site Integrity
working hard to remove fake accounts.

------
aakarpost
No Man.

------
goggles99
Am I missing something? Why pay $40 for this??? Cant you just do it yourself
for free in about 5 minutes? You could probably set up a fake account with
pics found online and have it all set up in less time than it would take to
use this service.

~~~
flyinRyan
There is another post on the front page of a guy who tried this and got
busted. You're vastly oversimplifying how hard maintaining a lie of this level
is.

------
transitionality
Anyone who's nerdy enough to need a fake girlfriend is nerdy enough to know
how to create and populate a fake profile quickly.

