One of the Problems with Dating Sites
Match Group Inc., the company behind Match.com, vowed to fight a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit claiming the dating website promoted profiles created by scammers to lure new subscribers.
The site, which allowed users to sign up for free but required them to buy a membership in order to respond to messages from other members, flagged non-subscribers with messages such as "you caught his eye" when users showed interest in their profiles -- even when it knew the users were phony and their profiles were likely to be removed shortly, the FTC claimed in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Dallas.
"Online dating services obviously shouldn't be using romance scammers as a way to fatten their bottom line," Andrew Smith, director of the commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. The agency also alleges that Match failed to provide services to consumers who unsuccessfully disputed charges and made it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions.
Match.com, however, says the agency "misrepresented internal emails and relied on cherry-picked data" to support claims in the suit, which seeks an injunction barring Match.com from similar behavior in the future, civil penalties and restitution to injured consumers.
Source: Match.com used phony profiles to lure subscribers seeking love
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The_Face_of_Boo
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Joined: 16 Jun 2010
Age: 41
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I usually can spot the fakes pretty easy. If they have only one picture or barely anything written, they are frauds. Another easy way to spot the real users, find the ones who are actually active such as the ones that say online now or recently active. The frauds almost never say they are online now in my experience.
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"The less I know about other people's affairs, the happier I am. I'm not interested in caring about people. I once worked with a guy for three years and never learned his name. The best friend I ever had. We still never talk sometimes."
There is also the problem of presenting long dead profiles as real live matches. I got many eHarmony matches that I was skeptical about and my skepticism was proven once I got a match with someone posed in front of a local Dairy Queen. The only problem? It had closed about 7 years prior!
I also agree with the 'difficult to cancel' bit. Not only did I get charged AFTER I cancelled, but they sent me a condescending email about how my "unusual" request for a refund was denied. Apparently at the time if you log in after cancelling it (but before your subscription expires) automatically renews "for your benefit".
nick007
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Joined: 4 May 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 27,126
Location: was Louisiana but now Vermont in the police state called USA
I bet the real ratio is 1 for every 20 males.
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I can confirm that three different women told me they paid a tiny fraction of what I paid to join eHarmony, one of who is my wife. I could easily verify this because I can see her credit card transaction history. In short, she paid about $10 for 3 months and my bill was over $50. The upside is there were plenty of women (I estimate 60/40 women to men) but the downside is the quality was lacking, especially for a site that supposedly promotes marriage and family.
At least they were real women: there was only one profile who I suspect was a scam (a nurse who was local but happened to be in Africa). That's another issue right there: this "woman" was exceptionally convincing and it took me years to realize for 100% certainty it was a scam profile. It's not like she messaged saying she needed $1000 for taxes to share her lottery win but rather a very well written story about how she lost her two parents by 16, how hard that was and how that inspired her into Nursing. She slowly talked about how she was from Jacksonville, Florida and moved here to be with her aunt and asked a bit about my life before asking to switch to MSN messenger. When I mentioned I would be more comfortable here she said she understood and never talked to me again. Can't say I was heartbroken.
My point is that we laugh at these fake model pictures but scammers can be far more subtle and use a "normal" girl's picture and profile to attract attention. I have no doubt if I kept talking with her she would have had an accident and needed a small amount like $50 and that would have been the start.
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