It’s hard coming up with a profile. If selling ourselves was easy for single people, we probably wouldn’t be as single. But really, plagiarism?

The Mind Hacks blog has a good post on personality plagiarism on online dating sites, inspired by a recent WSJ article in which one victim of this identity theft (a guy who teaches an Internet dating class) actually had his photo stolen.

These items inspired a new category for 100 Emails, 20 Dates: red flags. People, if someone clearly stole someone else’s headline or description, you don’t want to date them. There’s always an excuse to be lazy: I was busy, I’m not creative, etc. But someone who actually wants to meet someone will put in the effort to come up with something original, even if it’s boring, rather than using the lazy “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” excuse.