For the dating site beautifulpeople.com, several thousand “ugly” people were able to “invade the site” last month due to a virus, the company said on Monday. However a security firm said it is likely a hoax to attract more attention.
Nearly 30,000 unauthorized people were able to enter the site last month via the virus instead of going through the “strict” entry, which is based on ratings, a statement from the company said.
“We got suspicious when tens of thousands of new members were accepted over a six-week period, many of whom were no oil painting,” said Greg Hodge, the managing director of the site.
“We responded immediately, repairing the damage from the ‘Shrek Virus’ and putting every new member back into the rating module for a legitimate and democratic vote. The result is that we have lost over 30,000 recent members.”
Hodge did not sugar-coat his words about the recent loss of members.
“We have sincere regret for the unfortunate people who were wrongly admitted to the site and who believed, albeit for a short while, that they were beautiful,” he said. “It must be a bitter pill to swallow, but better to have had a slice of heaven than never to have tasted it at all.”
However, security firm Sophos said the virus allowing people to enter the site was likely a publicity stunt to get people to search for it.
“It’s a fantastic piece of chicanery, of course, designed to boost awareness of the dating website, get them many thousands of pounds of free publicity with little risk of damage to their reputation,” writes Sophos after the news broke.
The security firm said that the website is investigating the matter “internally.”
“My bet is that BeautifulPeople has just come up with its latest publicity stunt - and you know what? It’s worked,” Sophos noted.
