Match is sued for lying about romantic interests to get paid subscriptions

Match is being sued for using fake profiles to generate paid subscriptions. At least half a million people would have been fooled with this system.

If you've ever been annoyed by dating service ads that claim someone wanted to give you romantic feelings, you're not alone. The FTC has sued Match Group, managers of the well-known dating portal. It is for allegedly using fake profiling email ads to entice you to pay for Match.com subscriptions until May 2018.

Millions of accounts that generate ads have already been labeled as fraudulent, the Commission said. Even so, they were still used to generate ads for free users. The goal was to pay for a subscription and then find the fake profile already removed. Match's own studies showed that nearly 500.000 people signed up within one day of receiving these ads, according to the FTC.

Fake profiles to win subscriptions

The FTC also charged Match with failing to properly disclose the processes that walk-ins must go through to qualify for a free six-month subscription. Match also did not provide a simple way to cancel those subscriptions, authorities say, and those who disputed the charges through their banks had no chance to claim.

Unsurprisingly, Match strongly denies the FTC's claims. In a statement, they said the agency misrepresented the company's emails and misinterpreted data to make its claims. Instead, the emails were the result of bots, spam, and other criminals outside of them.

The FTC's argument is not so much that Match sent the messages intentionally, but that it had different standards for spam based on whether or not you were a paid user. If regulators can show that Match was deliberately letting spammers go, the company could be in as much trouble as if it had sent those emails on purpose.

Source Engadget