Many people make themselves look better than they really are by posting things that aren't true on their profiles on social networking sites.

But imagine if others are creating false profiles about you, and they aren't so complimentary.

On gossip sites, people create profiles about others, listing their full names and where they live or go to school. The people posting this stuff remain anonymous.

College graduates entering the job market may not want to think about prospective employers reading about them under such headings as "Most hated sluts on campus" or "Biggest slut at Baylor" on college gossip site JuicyCampus.com. On JuicyCampus, students are identified by name and by the college campus they're on.

But gossip has its place in society, said Elizabeth Bloch, co-founder of GossipReport.com, a Wilmington, N.C.-based site that launched in testing mode a year ago and went national in January.

"Gossip is a really valuable communication tool for people," Ms. Bloch said. "It's how we police each other socially. We hope people will learn that GossipReport is a tool to make decisions about roommates, co-workers or somebody you're going out with on a blind date."

The site tries keep malicious gossip and slander under control -- again through policing efforts by its members. "We don't want trash talk or lies," Ms. Bloch said.

Readers can vote to remove gossip they feel is false or too nasty. If someone finds something offensive or untrue about themselves on the site, they're invited to post a response, she said. "If somebody has something about you that is a lie, you have a chance to stand up for yourself immediately." With conventional gossip, she adds, "You don't even know someone's saying something about you."

And people who want to conceal things about their personal lives will find that the Web can be used to reveal a lot more about them than they want others to know. For example, straying spouses who use Internet chat rooms to meet other people now stand a chance of getting caught in a Web trap.

CheatingSpouses is designed to help people confirm if their spouse is cheating on them. Founder Taunya Poupore, who is originally from New Castle, got the idea from her own bad experiences with online dating. "I came across numerous men who lied and said they were single."

The Grand Blanc, Mich.-based site operates in conjunction with a licensed private investigator in that state. For a $49.95 fee, they'll investigate wandering spouses online.

"We initiate a chat," Ms. Poupore said. "We let them lead the conversation. We usually stop the chat once I get a phone number or they say let's meet. Then we set up time and date. We never call them or meet them." Chat transcripts are then turned over to the client, and to the private investigator for more traditional forms of surveillance.