Website Sells Fake Facebook Girlfriends | Hacker News Reader

Website Sells Fake Facebook Girlfriends

gma.yahoo.com

113 pointsytNumbers129 comments

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.

>The human brain is based on simple rules and you can't blame someone for capitalizing on that.

Yes I can. I don't really care about it in this particular case (although the whole concept just makes me sad), but I could give plenty of examples of exploiting human nature that are reprehensible and deserving of blame. That something is easy does not make it ethical.

To extrapolate this, people have taken advantage of other peoples' weaknesses. Gambling, drug addictions, suicidal thoughts...everyone has a weakness that can be exploited.

I reiterate your statement; exploiting that vulnerability IS to blame and should not be applauded.

Can exploiting human nature be a positive thing? If looking healthy to attract the opposite sex can encourages people to work out, is that exploiting our "simple" sexual nature?

To me, pretending to have a girlfriend seems as deceitful as dying your hair. Now, I've never done either so I can't say for certain.

Furthermore, if your perception of someone changes because they're in a relationship, then maybe you should be exploited. You'll then realize you should valuate a person based on who they are, not their relationship status - and maybe you'll be better off. Or maybe I'm trying too hard to rationalize this behavior lol

> To me, pretending to have a girlfriend seems as deceitful as dying your hair.

To most people, it isn't. If you going to "social hack", better know what to expect.

There's a concept called "lie". Dying your hair is cosmetics. Saying you're in relationship when you're not is a lie.

It's still just a lie. A cosmetic lie, but a lie. Are fake breasts less fake than a fake girlfriend? They're all just lies used by these people to get whatever they want from it.

Of course this is horrible, but it's funny how people don't think fake breasts, makeup or photoshop on personal pictures are also horrible. In those cases they are just tools, right?

Hypocrisy is the name of this age.

There's a difference. Fake breasts and makeup fall into the same bucket as actually having a girlfriend. Telling everyone you have a girlfriend when you don't is another bucket.

When a woman surgically enhances her breasts, she has bigger breasts, so she's not lying. She would be if, when asked, she would tell people that they are natural.

Dyed hair is only a lie if you claim that it's not.

>Can exploiting human nature be a positive thing?

It becomes a matter of semantics. Certainly human nature can be used in positive ways. There are techniques you can use to hack on your own brain. For example, if you want to become more conscientious and involved in improving society, signing petitions and donating to charities is a way that you can trick your brain into making you do so. Merely writing down statements and signing your name to them can actually cause you to change your beliefs.

But I don't know if "exploit" is the best word for that.

>Everyone looks differently at someone who is dating a hot chick.

How do you think they will look at you when the truth comes out? I expect the negatives will outweigh any transient positives by a considerable margin.

That assumes you ever get caught. Though I know of at least one public case where someone tried this and got busted, ruining his reputation, but the problem was he was doing all the content himself and doing it very badly. Presumably this place will write the content for you so you don't accidentally project yourself onto your fake girlfriend.

What about the people who know you? People who never interact with you in the flesh don't care if you have a girlfriend, but the people you actually see on occasion will eventually expect to see her.

You will get caught by friends and relatives. And you may laugh and explain what you're doing, but even as you explain people are going to think "What a loser!"

I think you're wrong. I'm dating a a really good-looking girl (11 out of 10) but this fact hasn't changed how people view me. I'm below average in the social hierarchy and treated that way so I would notice if anything changed.

Maybe you're not doing it right. A sloppy dresser will still look sloppy driving an exotic supercar. But a sharply dressed man will look so much more fly in that same car.

That still only impresses the kind of people who would be impressed by a sports car; the solution obviously is to hang out with more shallow people. Make 'em dumb fucking sexists for bonus points.

Who with a shred of intelligence, and the same apprecation of females as human beings and persons as they have for males, would think otherwise? Why should a "hot chick" or a "big earner" increase your "social status" with anyone but complete schmucks? I'm honestly curious.

Correct but why make a principled stand on this? Those who wish to claw onto status will like you for this, and those that don't will like you for your underlying personality. The former are quite flawed but they're still people.

The former are quite flawed but they're still people.

Which is kind of the reason for making a principled stand: They are human, they aren't going to go away anytime soon, they want to be respected or even loved, and extreme shallowness makes it impossible for me to do that. If I didn't have at least a remaining iota of goodwill towards them, I'd exploit them instead of bitching at them.

... makes it impossible for me to do that.

Nobody cares about your love and admiration unless you're somebody whose interest they think they should seek. That's why you're complaining about not having proper, willing targets for your affection -- desirable people have the problem of having their attention excessively demanded. The way you signal that you have something interesting is by displaying evidence of demand, not by standing up and reciting principles.

Hahaha, you wish! My problem isn't lack of demand, if anything it's women pouting because I ignore them, and dudes being aggro because said women are pouting. so thanks for playing. Maybe you should simply speak for yourself and otherwise get off the strawmen...

Um... okay whatever you say captain. I'm sure a baller like you doesn't have to prove your player status to a random nobody on a nerd forum, so I appreciate your going out of the way to do it. Coupled with your previous complaints about how unfair social dynamics can be, you don't at all sound pathetic.

This is the only time/place people are getting brownie points for calling something out as sexist -- i.e., when they realize that having a girlfriend could make a man look good, and the other guy just found an unfair advantage in that department.

At all other times, women have every advantage in the world and no imposed limitations to speak of.

You might have made the mistake I don't include certain ladies in "dumb fucking sexists" ^^ And on what planet are downmoderations brownie points?

WTF is this social hierarchy? I hear about it a lot but really it just sounds like hanging out with douchebags.

I think this is an expression that sums up how you view yourself in comparison to other people and how you think other people view and "rank" you. I can honestly not imagine that anyone has never had thoughts like this, so for better or worse, there IS something like this out there and if you need more proof then just think of all the brands and labels offering you mostly image and their name and a perceived step-up in that imaginary hierarchy.

After a couple of years of trying to become more outgoing and understanding social mechanisms, I rate pretty high on this "ladder". But as a byproduct, I can't stand to hang out with people who actually seem to care about people's social standing.

People who care a lot about fake gimmicks like these (clothes, friends, status, power) are usually shallow, self-centered and insecure; the exact opposite of the people a self-confident and secure person would want to hang out with. It's the same thing when dating; there are a lot of semi-dishonest tricks guys can use to appear more attractive to a lot of girls. But the girls that fall for these tricks are rarely very interesting on a more personal level.

It's a mechanism that's cool to be aware of, but not something that any secure person would actually endorse. Unless you _need_ to interact with people like these in a professional setting or something.

> After a couple of years of trying to become more outgoing and understanding social mechanisms

Could you elaborate on that or provide links, books, anything that worked for you? I agree with your view and I don't see this ever changing for me, yet I would still like to make these experiences for myself to be honest.

I'm not the OP, and I haven't read these books, but many people swear by:

Influence: the psychology of persuasion, by Robert Cialdini

http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Busine...

The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Queen-Evolution-Human-Nature/dp/00...

One I HAVE read, and I strongly recommend is How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influenc...

Also, I've read many people mention a lot about Neuro-Linguistic Programming. I'm usually skeptical of this stuff, but I want to read about it.

I did read "The Game" by Neil Strauss... while it is not something I want to do, it is really intriguing, and he advocates NLP a lot in that book.

And while I'm nerdish/socially awkward, I have a long-term relationship with my girlfriend so I don't "need" to go picking up girls :) .

I look forward to the original poster's list :)

Try Rejection Therapy: http://rejectiontherapy.com

If you do a search online, you'll find lots of stories and comments of how it's helped people or even changed their life.

Sure. It's been a long journey that I started about four or five years ago. I honestly haven't been reading that much. I guess if anything, Neil Strauss's "The Game" was probably the only significant piece of writing that set me off and piqued my curiosity for social games and mechanisms. I've also read some of the darker pickup blogs (http://heartiste.wordpress.com/) which are not recommended if you want to retain your faith in humanity. They do provide some insights in some social games, though, including status whoring and related things. Don't take it too seriously, but there are probably some insights to learn there. It seems to me that the best people to hang out with are the ones that are impervious to stuff like this. None of my best friends (well, maybe with one exception) would fall for the kind of manipulation that Heartiste describes. Some subreddits (/r/sex, /r/relationship_advice) have been valuable for hearing horror stories of people not standing up for themselves in a relationship setting, and why it's important to have principles. You'll hear these in real life as well.

The most significant thing I've been doing has really been to get out in the world and meet as many people as possible, along the way seeing these social games first-hand. This has involved living in a different country for a year and going to almost every party or social event that presented itself. Initially it was to overcome depression/social anxiety, meet girls and make new friends, but after a few years it's turned into more of an interest in people and getting new experiences. After a while you have been in so many social situations that you stop worrying about what image you present, and see more of the personalities, motivations and insecurities behind most people's facades.

I don't know how old you are (I'm 26 now) but I'd guess some form of social travelling (backpacking, maybe studying abroad) and saying yes to as many invitations as possible would be a good starting point. Also actively trying to become a better person - more fit, more friendly, less able to get manipulated or taken advantage of, more knowledgable, more secure. There's probably some confirmation bias on my end here, there are probably multiple was to get these experiences. I _do_ recommend "The Game" since it's a very fascinating account. Hope that helps.

While it IS a human-made fiction, the "social hierarchy" is not imaginary (as you said, there is "something out there").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_stratification

It also depends on the society or country (ask Indians about it).

Defying/misclasifiying yourself in social hierarchies can end up very badly for the one doing it, but they can be succesfully hacked (like you mention, brands prey on that).

Edit: not only humans, other animals have social hierarchies as well.

I'm probably projecting a bit, but it's always struck me as the domain of non-creators who cannot find anything meaningful to do with their lives, so they ladder-climb everywhere they can.

Many people never graduated high school in that sense.

I did have thoughts like this, but I grew out of them when I stopped being a teenager.

"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."

Right, assuming your primary concern is convincing douchebags to like you, you'll be golden.

Um, the person who's lying, obviously.

...up until the point when everyone keeps asking you when you will FINALLY bring that "hot chick" to the next party or meet-up.

Then you have a very "public" (on Facebook) bust-up where she makes you seem even more attractive by complaining about the attention you supposedly get from some other hot girl, and "break up" so you can show up all "emotional and vulnerable" at the party....

But this only delays the inevitable and you cannot stretch this game on forever either.

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'

(d) ...?

When exactly was honor or integrity the norm? There have always been heroes, of course, but the reason there are heroes, and the reason we celebrate them, is because they're rare.

Besides, social interactions need some amount of deception; makeup is deception (and fake breasts, and hair dye, etc.)

Why pretending to have a girlfriend when you don't should be considered worse than makeup?

>Besides, social interactions need some amount of deception; makeup is deception (and fake breasts, and hair dye, etc.)

Sure, I can empathize with that, no-one is perfect, not our heroes and certainly not myself.

Ashamedly at one point, I seriously contemplated buying Twitter followers, as a quick boost to perceived social status. I was already rationalizing 'Oh it's just marketing' before deciding against it.

It appears to be a slippery slope though, from which making up major parts of our life story, does seems rather far removed, from a flashy tie, or a dash of makeup.

Could we not turn our gaze from heroes, instead towards ideals, knowing full well that we will never fully be able live up to them, but with the daily challenge to see how far we get?

>is elevated to the top of HN as a cool 'hack' //

There's no "cool" rating. It's interesting, it's a social hack, ergo it gets ranked well.

For this to be truly dishonorable, one would first have to accept that the enormous influenced by relationship status and physical appearance is a good thing. If one do not accept that relationship status and physical appearance should have such high impact on society, then such deception is not going to bring to mind any concept of dishonor or a lack of integrity.

Enron on other hand had a large negative impact on society. Killing the environment also bring a large negative impact on society. Wall St. execs that cheats people out of their homes, steal farms from farmers, and put people homeless on the street clearly brings to mind the concepts of dishonor and a lack of integrity.

Comparing deception directed at peoples superfluous obsession with relationship status and physical appearance, and deception that are made in an effort to earn money on the bones and lives of others are dishonest thinking. Its like comparing a DDOS attack against a corrupt police station, with terrorist attacks. They two things has nothing in common, and neither does Enron and deception regarding relationship status or physical appearance.

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.

>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.

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.

> Every single person I know who has a profile at LinkedIn has falsified somehow their job history, their set of skills or their credentials.

That says more about the company you keep than anything else.

Wow you really know everything don't you?

It says that they’re ordinary folks who would like to be perceived a little better than their current status. I guess your acquaintances are all super successful people who have nothing to lie about regarding their professional life. It must be so boring for you addressing mere mortals like us, with flaws and everything.

I'm just regular-successful, but my resume does not contain any embellishment. If anything, it undersells me.

I know at least one person who doesn't lie on his LinkedIn--in fact, I'm not sure I know anyone who does, though it's statistically likely--and never considered this especially remarkable before.

You don't really need to blame someone, but if your life capital depends on hacks like that, then it's a sad life.

Tangentially, Michael Sandel's "What money can't buy" is a good book about the morals of markets:

  You could even bolster your online popularity by hiring 
  some good-lookgin "friends" for your facebook page - for
  99 cents per friend per month

> If you find this business to be repugnant, who do we blame?

People that use it.

"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..."

Would anyone believe the testimonials on a site that sells fake messages from fake girlfriends?

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.

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.

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.

They do have science on their side: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17619-its-true-all-the...

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?

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...

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.

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.

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

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

Actually, it's based on the radical notion that our brains are not made out of a magical substance that's immune to genes and hormones. In a utopia where there was no gender discrimination or societal pressure to conform to expected roles, do you really think that women would commit half of all violent crimes, and would have identical mate selection criteria as men?

>Actually, it's based on the radical notion that our brains are not made out of a magical substance that's immune to genes and hormones.

There is a mind blowing Norwegian documentary on the nature versus nurture debate the HN community should watch. The show touches on a lot of taboos, which might be too controversial for some people. The first episode is about gender equality. The interviewer investigates why/how there are less women in engineering and less man in nursing in a country listed having the highest level of equality. Other episodes are about parents influence, sexual preference, violence, sexual desire/commitment and race.

According to wikipedia a producer has made the series available online with English subtitles. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xp0tg8_hjernevask-brainwash...

It's also on youtube (ignore the terrible comments as usual) http://youtu.be/KQ2xrnyH2wQ

My point is that just like some animals put off mating rituals to attact mates, we humans do so. Still, I know as much about that as I know about zoology. Zilch.

> my first hand experience always had me being more desirable to the opposite sex when I was in a relationship

But it's not necessarily the case that this is due to others thinking you're in a relationship.

I suspect at least a large part of the effect you describe (which seems to be pretty well-known) is because people tend to be more relaxed and confident when they're "out of play"—the pressure's off—and ironically that tends to make them more attractive....

Not sure. I've always been shy in real life (not on the net), and have dressed in the same style for years (black plain tshirt, levy jeans, asiics sneakers). I'm not one to come off as confident or even stylish. Heck, I prefer to use the same style shirt because I cant match colors for the life of me. But Im pretty athletic, and run about 20-25 miles per week. So it might be that.

I think it's simply social expectations. Single guy is expected to make the first 'move'. Married guy is expected to not make any moves at all. Therefore it's on the woman to begin flirtations with guys who appear to be taken. Married guy concludes he's must be more desirable because women are suddenly flirting with him.

As ahelwer has observed, assuming evolutionary causes for anything is a troublesome way to build a case.

But why bother? "Social proof" is a well studied effect in psychology. Having a girlfriend increases your attractiveness to some other women; saying "We're the leader in X" increases sales; adding canned laughter to sitcoms fools people into thinking they're funny.

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.

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.

I agree. But I wish I could be treated as a SaaS product. I mean men are also objectified by socioeconomic status. Just go into any strip clubs and you'll see that it's not a man's character but the size of his wallet that determines a woman's attention. Or any bar or nightclub for that matter where it's determined by a man's race and social status in whatever social scene that the venue covets in.

Man I wish I could monetize on my sexuality because I think I have plenty to give to any needy ladies. Sadly, the backwards 21st century social construct constricts me into repressive gender-roles where I have to solicit sexual services instead of being receptive to all outstanding sexual advances that are demanded of me out there. I only hope feminism could advance further to erase this injustice for gender equality for all.

While I also think it is sad if somebody decides to resort to that service, lets not forget that these "women" are virtual. No real humans are being hurt.

This is not selling women, it's selling relationships. Fake relationships.

If it's wrong, it's on the same level as selling fake reviews for apps or hotels.

I don't think it will backfire for people using it, but it could backfire for Facebook.

Because fundamentally, this is spam.

Women are selling contact from their own authentic profiles.

If you claim that this is misogynistic, you are claiming that women hate themselves.

This service is not reflecting misogny. It's reflecting _both genders'_ values, expectations and prejudices. It is not an example of men's oppression of women, it's an example of screwed up gender roles. So in a sense it's even worse.

Okay, so this is somehow "objectifying" women. I might buy that argument. But what does it say about a society where men who are obviously more successful with women do better, both with other women and with their peers?

I think that discrediting this as misogny is missing half of the story. Society, both men and women, are 100% complicit in the mechanisms that make this service a good idea. Pinning it on only the men is dishonest.

Let me get this straight: Men are being exploited to give their money to a scheme that capitalizes on the unfounded social hollywoodian illusion that "good men get the hot girls". Women make profits out of it in return for a few seconds of their time every day. And that's called misogynistic, as in, it's the women who are being exploited?! Let's apply some basic common sense here ...

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?

Or for $5 http://fiverr.com/gigs/search?query=girlfriend&x=0&y...

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!

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.

is there a name for that?

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

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.

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

That's not true.

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

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.

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.

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

A lot of things are more efficiently done by paying a professional. Hence, YC.

Can you consistantly post what a real gf would post and consistantly post on both accounts without ever messing up? Lying on this level is hard to do. There was a very public case in the last year or two where someone did that and got busted doing it because he was projecting too much through her posts and made a few mistakes with stolen photos and so on. This site would make that vastly easier since you wouldn't need to worry about any of that.

My facebook girlfriend is "Sweetba Bytruth" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPKhLJeLHC4 ) or something, but I don't think anyone is falling for it ^^

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/

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

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.

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

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...

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.

He may have been duped initially, but he has claimed to have met the girl on multiple occasions.

The best case scenario for his credibility is that he was fooled, felt like an idiot and kept lying to prevent everyone from finding out.

The ultimate story is of the Anandtech forums, where someone invented a woman, sockpuppeted her on the forums, romanced her on the forums, got married, had a child (or she already had one?) and then killed them both off in a road traffic accident.

(http://web.archive.org/web/20010624115154/http://forums.anan...)

(http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=275172)

(http://oro.open.ac.uk/647/)

Fakery on the Internet is fascinating and very very common. People fake having cancer; people fake their own situation; people fake their friends. The movie Catfish is a nice exploration of one person's fakery. (It would have been easy to say "OMG SHE'S MENTAL LOL" but it's a surprisingly gentle confrontation and you end up somewhat sympathetic to her.)

Here are some other notable fakes:

SEXTORTION AT EISENHOWER HIGH

(http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/200907/wisconsin-...)

> Last year, an awkward high school senior in Wisconsin went online, passed himself off as a flirtatious female student, and conned dozens of his male classmates into e-mailing him sexually explicit images of themselves. What he did next will likely send him to jail for a very long time

DAVE ON WHEELS

(http://betabeat.com/2012/10/meet-hunter-dunn-the-young-man-w...)

> Followers of “Dave” on sites like Twitter and The Chive thought they were reading posts from a deaf young man suffering from cerebral palsy who had worked tirelessly to overcome his obstacles, all the while maintaining a positive outlook and relatably wry sense of humor.

KAYCEE NICOLE / DEBBIE SWENSON

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2001/may/28/internetnew...)

> For two years, a young American girl recounted her brave struggle against leukaemia in a daily online diary. This month she died. Thousands of web-users sent condolences. But [...]

(http://web.archive.org/web/20050115092141/http://www.rootnod...)

(http://www.metafilter.com/7878/The-Kaycee-Nicole-Swensen-Faq)

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaycee_Nicole_Swenson)

THE LYING DISEASE - in which a cancer patient is befriended by another cancer patient, who is faking cancer. (Happens three times.)

(http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-lying-disease/Content...)

WARRIOR ELI - a ten year hoax

(http://gawker.com/5914621/the-long-fake-life-of-js-dirr-a-de...)

Playing devil's advocate here: Ultimately, isn't this like a form of story-telling? A lot of books claim they are based on a true story, faking the story online makes it feel even more real and as long as it isn't abused to extort money or post naked pictures... as long as it was just people's interested they invested in the story.. is that such a bad thing?

Story-telling is story-telling, you know you're reading fiction. This kind of thing is lying, and lies are bad, because they poison the 'great web of causality' and can do lots of damage in completely unpredicatble ways.

The point is, no matter what you read or hear on the web or anywhere else... shouldn't you always be asking yourself how much you let it affect you? The illusion that the web is that one place to figure out more "truth" than in person, well those times are looong gone - see grassroot advertising and fake forum posts paid for by companies and all that.

Every time you give either time and/or money, you absolutely always could possibly get scammed so the only way you can deal with this is asking yourself if you for yourself and your own sake care and want to do something or if you will just quietly follow whatever story is being told and not let it mess with you.

If what you say is true and some forum posts could indeed "do lots of damage" then it is all the more necessary that people wake up and understand that they shouldn't just blindly trust people on the web, just as much as they don't blindly trust strangers on the street.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.)

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

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.

>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.

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

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

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

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.

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?!

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.

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

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.

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

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

No Man.

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.

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.

That's $40 Brazilian reals... roughly $20 USD.

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

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