Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ

Are there any catches?
Only one! If you meet someone via this free Japanese friends, language exchange and personals site and you develop a relationship with them and get married, I hope you invite me to your wedding! Or, at the very least, send me an email with your story so that I can add it to a story page. :)

How do I become a member?
Click here to register. Fill in your details and click the register button. An email will be sent to you that you must click on to confirm to be able to continue with the sign up process. After you click on the url in your email your profile will be sent to me and I will review it. If I'm satisfied that it does not contravene our terms of service, I'll activate it and send you an email letting you know you can login and send messages.

I didn't receive an email to be able to confirm my profile. What should I do?
Contact me directly here. I will look at your profile. It may be that the email address in the profile is incorrect, or that your confirmation email was sent to your bulk mail / spam folder. In any case I can usually sort it out within 24 hours.

I didn't receive an email from you saying that my profile has been confirmed, and it's over 24 hours.
Contact me directly here. Maybe the email went missing. Let me know and I'll look into it.

I sent an email to another member but I haven't received a reply.
All email addresses in member's profiles are checked every few months. If you don't receive a reply it could be that the other member has already found someone, or that they don't check their emails that often. I have another email account for personal mail from old friends that I only check every 3 months! Best to move on and contact someone else.

My profile isn't there any more. What's going on?
Did your email address change? Was your email account full? If I tried to contact you during a database cleanup and I got a bounced message then I probably deleted your account. Feel free to sign up again with your updated details. Or maybe your profile is under another login.

I've lost my password.
Click here to get your password sent to your email address.

I tried to upload my photo but it didn't work.
Please keep your photo to less than 100kb and the size to less than 300 pixels by 300 pixels. Please also upload your picture in jpg format. If that's not possible, feel free to contact me and I'll edit and add your picture to your profile.

I tried to visit Oz Deai but the site wasn't there. What's happening?
Unfortunately, to keep everything free, Oz Deai is hosted on a very low cost server. The server has a failsafe security system that means that if anyone tries to use it for phishing or spamming, or other illegal activities, it detects this and instantly disconnects from the net. That's great protection for everyone but it may mean Oz Deai is offline for an hour or two every now and then. Very sorry about that.

I just received an email I'm not sure about. How do I know it is legitimate?
Does it look like this?
hello My name is ********  i saw your profile today and became intrested in you,i will also like to know you more,and if you can send an email to my email address,i will give you my pictures here in my email address (*************) I believe we can move from here! Awaiting for your mail to my email address above *******
Then it's not legitimate. Unfortunately I can't interview every person that signs up here but I do review every profile. If I think it is suspect then I don't let it through. (That includes any robot driven profiles from Senegal) Unfortunately the profile robots can sometimes be too convincing or get around the security. If you receive an email similar to the one above please contact me immediately and I'll remove the profile. I have several dummy profiles set up to catch any robot which is posting to more than one member with the same message. A regular person is unlikely to reply to those 'dummy' profiles, nor are they likely to send completely identical messages to every member either.

Having said that, a scammer does slip through the net. I usually delete them as soon as I receive an email like that. But if you think I might have missed one, please contact me.

If you're wondering what will happen if you reply to the message above, expect to be contacted by Nigerians telling you that they need your help getting millions of dollars out of their country. That scam is the biggest export market in Nigeria and there are businesses set up with hundreds of employees within the government and other countries working on the scam. Be wary and get ready with your delete button!

What is Compa?
Compa is a popular way to meet people in Japan and is steadily becoming popular in other countries too. If you're unsure about setting up an individual profile about yourself, get a few single friends together to create a group profile! Choose a group captain and fill in the form using his or her details. Then add the details of your other group members in the description. Include a photo of the group members. See an example here. Register here.

I heard you've got an rss feed. How do I access it?
If you'd like to have access to the Ozdeai.com rss feed, you can use your gmail account's web clips section to view the latest profiles. Or any other rss feed reading software/program. The feed is here:
http://www.ozdeai.com/ozdeai.xml
You can find out how to set it up on your Gmail account here.

Got any other questions not covered here? Please contact James here.