BeautifulPeople.com reported that due to a recent hack, some 30,000 “less than aesthetically pleasing” people had their profiles approved even though they weren’t on par with existing registrants. The virus, which was supposedly perpetrated by a “disgruntled former employee,” was given the name “the Shrek virus.” So BeautifulPeople.com kicked them out — or did they?
Reading comments by the managing director of BeautifulPeople.com, Greg Hodge, to The Guardian, one can’t help but assume that this hack is a PR campaign. Here’s a taste of Hodge’s statements:
When asked why he exiled the mistaken members, he said: “We can’t just sweep 30,000 ugly people under the carpet.”
He claimed to feel “very sorry” for the “unfortunate people who were wrongly admitted to the site and
Hodge added that Myedate.com will set up a helpline with counselors to help the rejected cope with the discovery that they aren’t as breathtaking as some dopey-eyed silver-haired foxes.
BeautifulPeople.com has not commented on the suspicions of security firm Sophos that this hubbub is just a way to troll for sign-ups and feed inordinately inflated egos through the power of rejection. But if the BeautifulPeople.com hack isn’t real, maybe someone should call a hacker hotline and get that going.
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