The men PAYING women to make them look popular on Facebook... for just £3.20 per week

The men PAYING women to make them look popular on Facebook... for just £3.20 per week
Websites promise users the ability to create their 'perfect girlfriend', who will post messages on their wall
Virtual girlfriend will 'like' statuses and photos and allow user to say they are 'in a relationship'
A girlfriend costs just £3.20 for a week

One BBC reporter tested out the site
Source: BBC
By BIANCA LONDON
PUBLISHED: 18:46, 14 February 2013 | UPDATED: 18:46, 14 February 2013


They say you can't put a price on love. However one internet venture now claims to have pulled it off - offering a Facebook girlfriend for just $5 (£3.20).
In the age of social media, it is no longer the most important thing to have a pretty blonde on your arm at a cocktail party.
These days it's all about impressing online - and the pressure to impress in a virtual world has sparked a surge in websites offering to boost your online personality.

Buy a girlfriend: Websites promise users the ability to create their 'perfect girlfriend', who will post messages on their wall, giving the impression that they are in a long distance relationship for £3.20 a week
One such site, Cloud Girlfriend, promises users the ability to create their 'perfect girlfriend', who will post messages on their wall, giving the impression that they are in a long distance relationship.
Billing itself as 'The Social Network Girlfriend', the site describes four steps to creating a virtual partner, with users asked to 'define their perfect girlfriend' before the site's owners 'bring her into existence'.

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It then promises the budding online Romeos they will be able to 'connect and interact' with their new girlfriend 'publicly on your favourite social network'.
Advertised as a 'public long-distance relationship', the creators of the site say it will employ real human beings to act as fake girlfriends.

Make believe: Billing itself as 'The Social Network Girlfriend', Cloud Girlfriend allows users to find their dream lady
Co-founder David Fuhriman claimed that Cloud Girlfriend helps users to bag themselves a real girlfriend.
He explained to website Business Insider that women who see posts from a virtual girlfriend will think 'someone else thinks highly enough of this person to date him, so maybe I should too'.
But who are these girls?
One BBC technology journalist sought to find out and joined a similar site to Cloud Girlfriend, Fiverr - a website which lists things people are willing to do for $5.
WOULD YOU STALK A POTENTIAL DATE ON FACEBOOK BEFORE MEETING THEM?
Everyone is always slightly curious about a potential suitor before meeting them for a first date.
And it seems that it's the women who are most keen when it comes to pre-date homework with 48 per cent of single women admitting to researching a partner on Facebook before the first date compared with 37 per cent of men.
Men are more keen to find out for themselves in person with nearly half of single men believing that researching someone prior to a first date is unacceptable, found Match.com
Here he met Sophia, an intelligent, attractive 24-year-old.
But after a few days in a fake relationship with her, he couldn't keep up the lies so came clean that he was a journalist to which Sophia responded: 'That's quite funny actually.
'The whole Sophia thing is just my marketing username.
Nothing on that Facebook profile is real! My photos on there are really me, but nothing else is.'
Speaking to the BBC about being a member of the site, she said: 'It's not a big deal really. It's just easy to do... I just tick 'in a relationship.'
Sophia explains how men who 'buy' her relationship are mainly those trying to make someone else jealous - a scenario everyone can empathise with.
Some have voiced concerns that Cloud Girlfriend contravenes Facebook's terms and conditions with regard to fake profiles.
The site's terms currently state that users must 'not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than themselves without permission.'
Services that offer an opportunity to create a virtual girlfriend are already popular in Japan, with one Nintendo DS game, Love Plus, selling 100,000 copies within a month of release.
In December 2009, one user even 'married' a character from the game, tying the knot at a ceremony attended by 40 people.