Match.com Sued for Fraud
I love this (well, not love, but you know what I mean): Online daters sue matchmaking Web sites for fraud.
Match.com, a unit of IAC/Interactive Corp. (IACI.O: Quote, Profile, Research), is accused in a federal lawsuit of goading members into renewing their subscriptions through bogus romantic e-mails 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.
[snip]
The company said it does not comment on pending litigation. But Match spokeswoman Kristin Kelly said the company “absolutely does not” employ people to go on dates with subscribers or to send members misleading e-mails professing romantic interest. The company has about 15 million members worldwide and 250 employees, she sa
November 23rd, 2005 at 2:37 pm
This is compounded with Match.com not allowing members easy access to ending their subscriptions – instead of being able to cancel their subscriptions, many were (are?) forwarded to renewal web pages instead.
November 25th, 2005 at 4:12 pm
I have been on hold for a very long time with Match when trying to cancel my subscription. Then the workers try to go on and on about why, why, why ? I just tell them to cancel it and then I block any further charges to my CC.
I personally wont use Match or Yahoo every again – they both charge what? 24.00 a month or so and BOTH members have to be paying members ? That just isnt right. PLUS, when you do try and get personal contact info in either Yahoo or Match they both block that info and wont allow the regular email to go through ! How in the heck are you supposed to ever actually get in real time touch with anyone on these sites? If people are really smart, like I am, :) – I make my name everyplace the same – I have used uwishtoo for my emails to anything else online. So, if a guy has a lick of brains all they have to do is DUH – go to yahoo member directory, do an advanced search for women in my age group in my town and state – and they will find me. And if a guy isnt that smart, then forget it – dont want to date him! :)
You can usually mask your name on the sites emails as U W I S H T O O
AT ATT DOT NET – and again, if a guy cant figure that out, then, too dumb to consider.
Yahoo and Match both shouuld be sued for double dipping in the pockets. If a guy makes the first move to me why should I have to pay just to answer him back?
I will meet men the old fashioned way thanks !
November 27th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
You know…these news articles never answer my lingering questions: were the employee-daters hotties? Was there any booty rewarded during or after these dates? A date-with-a-hottie and/or mostly-free-booty promotion seems pretty OK to me.
February 3rd, 2006 at 4:21 pm
I suspect I was just “baited” by Match.com into subscribing in the first place. I just created a profile on Sunday, Jan. 29, and today, Feb. 3, I received an e-mail already. Unfortunately, in order to even READ an e-mail, you have to be a subscriber. So I subscribe, and I find the e-mail is (supposedly) from a woman in El Porto, CA. I live in Dayton, OH. Her profile doesn’t contain a picture, is very vague on details about herself, and gives no details about what she’s looking for other than men 35-50 (I’m only 33.) within 50 miles of El Porto. Did I mention I’m in Dayton, OH?
The entire e-mail I received was this:
“Hi,
I liked your profile and I think we have got much in comon, so I’d like to know you better if you don’t mind. You can find me at ************@yahoo.com since I am not often to the site.
I ‘ll be looking forward to your reply.
Cheers…”
We have almost nothing in common, at least as far as I can tell; her profile claims to be PhD/Post Doctoral, which doesn’t seem to be reflected in the e-mail; and I don’t know about you, but I always sign a first contact with my first name, to try to establish some sort of familiarity. The one and only part of this e-mail that suggests it might not be bogus is her inclusion of an outside e-mail address, but even THAT could be more bait.
If I don’t try to cancel immediately and get my money back, I’ll most likely cancel before my initial one-month subscription expires. Either way, unless something good results from this subscription that I was apparently baited into, there’s a good chance I’ll try to get in on the class action suit, so hopefully I can at least get my money back.
October 27th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Why not go to more free sites that let you match yourself with someone based on keywords and such or even activities. There are sites like matchactivity.com that let you pretty much auction an event with you and then you get to pick who to go with. There are promo codes that give you a year free(I used web99) so you dont have to worry about getting ripped off.
November 21st, 2006 at 8:08 pm
The class action suit apparently hasn’t slowed them down, but maybe there will be another one starting since I’ve found a twist on it. If you’re a non-paying member, they send you bogus e-mails from non-existent people (who haven’t viewed your profile, duhhh) to get you to sign up.