Finding true love can be just a mouse click away. But it can also be misleading. Recently, a happily married, well know Louisville man found out someone was using his picture on a popular dating website.
Phil Russell has been happily married for 20 years. He says, "Just celebrated 20 in November."
So imagine his surprise when his picture showed up on a popular dating website. "A happily married man, father, a Christian leader and all of a sudden my face is now looks like I'm philandering around on the side on match-dot-com," says Russell.
Turns out, someone high-jacked Russell's picture from Facebook and created an account on Match-dot-com.
"I don't know what his intent was but he had communicated with apparently a few ladies," says Russell.
Russell is well known from his time as a spokesperson for the Louisville Metro Police Department and his role at the city's largest church. So right away friends warned him that someone was using the picture and he took action. "Character is important to me, my reputation is important so I wanted to make sure that I nipped it quickly just because I didn't want someone to get the wrong impression about me," says Russell.
The name and information was all different but getting match-dot-come to take the profile down wasn't easy.
"They asked me a lot of questions, including some personal information and I said wait, I don't need to give you that you can go online and google this and figure out that this is me," says Russell.
"Is it right? No, it's not right but people will do it," says Reanna Smith-Hamblin, with BBB.
Smith-Hamblin says what happened to Russell is very common. "Whether it's match-dot-com or any of the other dating sites, you really got to be cautious these days because people will say they're one person, they'll say they're this height, this age."
Match-dot-com eventually took the profile down, but Russell says anyone who really knows him should know better. That's especially after reading the like and interests. "That guys profile...he said he like dancing and I'm like...it can't be me! Because I hate dancing."
We contacted Match-dot-com to find out if there's anything in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening, but the only thing we've received so far is an email with information on how to block or report other users.