Online Dating is Rigged

[tonypaladino]

Match.com being sued for sending its employees on fake dates with clients. the lawsuit claims Match.com is engaged in racketeering, and in violation of the RICO act.

article

[ QUOTE ]


It's not easy finding love in cyberspace, and now some frustrated online daters say they were victims of fraud by two top internet matchmaking services and have taken their complaints to court.

Match.com, a unit of IAC/Interactive, is accused in a federal lawsuit of goading members into renewing their subscriptions through bogus romantic emails sent out by company employees. In some instances, the suit contends, people on the Match payroll even went on sham dates with subscribers as a marketing ploy.

H Scott Leviant, a lawyer at Los Angeles law firm Arias, Ozzello & Gignac, which brought the suit, said: "This is a grossly fraudulent practice that Match.com is engaged in."

Match "promotes the policies of integrity to protect members, and yet they themselves, we allege, are misleading their entire customer base", he said.

The company said it does not comment on pending litigation. But a Match spokeswoman said the company "absolutely does not" employ people to go on dates with subscribers or to send members misleading emails professing romantic interest. The company has about 15 million members worldwide and 250 employees, she said.

In a separate suit, Yahoo!'s personals service is accused of posting profiles of fictitious potential dating partners on its website to make it look as though many more singles subscribe to the service than actually do.

Yahoo! did not respond to requests for comment.

The suits, which both seek class-action status, come as growth in the online dating industry has slowed, though web matchmaking still remains a big business.

US consumers spent $245.2m on online personals and dating services in the first half of 2005, up 7.6 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Online Publishers Association. That's a slower growth rate compared with several years ago.

At the same time, competition among online dating services is fierce, with some sites offering newfangled features such as extensive compatibility surveys to match up people with similar temperaments and outlooks.

The Match lawsuit was filed earlier this month in US District Court in Los Angeles by plaintiff Matthew Evans, who contends he went out with a woman he met through the site who turned out to be nothing more than "date bait" working for the company.

The relationship went nowhere, according to his suit. Evans says Match set up the date for him because it wanted to keep him from pulling the plug on his subscription and was hoping he'd tell other potential members about the attractive woman he met through the service, according to Leviant.

His lawyers said Evans, of Orange County, California, was not available to comment, but they described him as a working professional in his 30s.

Leviant said his client found out about the alleged scam after the woman he dated confessed she was employed by Match. The lawsuit also claims the company violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, a law best known for being used in prosecuting organised crime.

The Yahoo! suit was filed last month by Robert Anthony, of Broward County, Florida. The suit, brought in US District Court in San Jose, California, accuses the company of breach of contract, fraud and unfair trade practices.

Anthony's lawyer, Peter McNulty of the McNulty Law Firm in Bel Air, California, did not respond to requests for comment.


[/ QUOTE ]

[MasterShakes]

I met my current girlfriend on Match, and got laid from it three times other than that. I found it to be +EV.

That said, I'm not surprised by any of this. The fake profiles on both Match and Yahoo are relatively easy to recognize after you use either of them for a while. This is a pretty funny story to me.

When you compare the much more expensive eHarmony to these sites, eHarmony looks like a hose job. My experience with them was extremely time consuming and not at all pleasant.

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
I
That said, I'm not surprised by any of this. The fake profiles on both Match and Yahoo are relatively easy to recognize after you use either of them for a while.

[/ QUOTE ]

exactly. Yahoo especially, that place was bad in terms of fake profiles, especially for porn sites.

[Mr_J]

Doesn't anyone do things the old fashioned way anymore? These kind of sites take all the fun out of it.

[miajag81]

Any dirt on JDate? My ex-girlfriend is dating someone she met on there now and I'd love to rub this in her face.

Agreed - I met one of my ex's on Match.com, but I would have met her anyways because her friend worked where I worked and set us up. She is the only girl I've received a reply from on any dating site. I used to have profiles up on most of the popular ones but never heard a word. I did check out adultfriendfinder.com, and that's even more of a scam...most of the ads that reply try to get you to pay for a webcam or porn site. I did make one hookup work though. IMO these sites aren't worth it. Especially if you're paying for it. I knew about fake ads to make it seem like it's worth it, but I am not surprised to find that match.com is using its employees to correspond with customers. Haven't heard anything about eHarmony.com though. For some reason, they seem legit (they better be at those prices.)

I met most of my dates and GF's through friends. I met the girl I'm seeing now at a sports bar (she's a Colts fan and so is my friend....gotta love dating sports fans.) It's really not that hard to meet girls as long as you make it known to your friends and coworkers that you're available...and if you just get up enough nut sack to introduce yourself and go for it. I think it's also better because you meet face to face. We've all heard stories about some online face to face meeting that turned into a disaster. "I'm kinda PO'ed because she hasn't sent me a full body shot."

ScottieK

[Chobohoya]

[ QUOTE ]
"I'm kinda TO'ed because she hasn't sent me a full body shot."

ScottieK

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

[JonPKibble]

OMG, is this the new Enron?

I assumed most of the profiles you see on the geo-targetted ads were bogus, but EMPLOYEES dating members? That's totally weird.