Those entering dating sites looking for love may risk more than having their hearts stolen. A new robot is capable of flirting with chat-room users to coax personal details out of them. The flirting robot is called “Cyberlover” and comes from Russia. Not since James Bond was ensnared by a KGB honeytrap agent have we seen such an efficient Slavic smooth talker in action.

While some chat-room users agonise over their next one-liner, Cyberlover can establish new relationships with ten partners in 30 minutes — not so much software as soft-spoken-ware. Security experts are concerned at the program’s ability to mimic human behaviour and wheedle out a victim’s date of birth or home address for fraud purposes. It can analyse responses and change its profile from “romantic lover” to “sexual predator”.

Like the robot in the sci-fi film Species, Cyberlover can be deadly in securing potential mates. “If it’s spawned in multiple instances on multiple servers, the number of potential victims could be very substantial,” says Sergei Shevchenko, of the security firm PC Tools. “It employs highly intelligent and customised dialogue to target users of social networking systems.” Currently loitering in Russian chat rooms, it has no doubt set its sights on MySpace and Facebook.

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