To get an idea of how to this site works I made two fake email accounts and set up two profiles on cougarlife.com. One profile as an older lady the other as a younger guy.
On the guys' send of things everything seemed normal. However on the ladies side of things I noticed that the site send out messages to people on your behalf all stating "(profile name here) has indicated that she's interested in you." Nothing prompted this I didn't fill out a profile for either or even post any pics. I didn't even browse profiles, the site just did it on its own.
So in conclusion if you're a guy and wondering why all these dead profiles are writing you now you know.
If you're a woman and wondering why so many guys you're not interested in keep writing you, now you know why.