Suits accuse dating sites of deception
LOS ANGELES -- After looking for love online and failing to find it, frustrated lonely hearts are heading to court, accusing dating sites of engaging in deceptive practices.
A recent lawsuit against Match .com claimed the matchmaking service sent a female employee out on a date with a male subscriber as ''date bait" to keep him signed up. Another lawsuit against a personals service offered by Yahoo Inc. accused the Internet portal of creating fake profiles to entice subscribers.
Match.com denied the allegations and obtained an affidavit from the woman in question, who declared she never worked for the company. Yahoo declined to comment.
The federal fraud lawsuits, which seek class-action status, have roiled the lucrative online dating industry. A 2004 report by Jupiter Research estimated the US Internet personals market had revenues of $473 million that year -- the largest moneymaker for online content.
In the Match.com lawsuit, filed Nov. 10 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, plaintiff Matthew Evans made the ''date bait" allegation against Autumn Marzec. He also accused the site of using fake profiles and sham e-mail ''winks" from potential matches to keep him subscribed. Match.com, which says it has more than 15 million members, offers a basic subscription for $29.99 a month.
Marzec said in a signed affidavit that she has never been employed by Match.com or its parent company, InterActive Corp., and has not worked for them as a contractor.
The lawsuit against Yahoo was filed in October in US District Court in San Jose, Calif., by plaintiff Robert Anthony of Broward County, Fla.
The suit says Yahoo posts fake profiles on its personals site ''to generate interest, public trust and give the site a much more attractive and functional appearance." Yahoo charges $19.95 a month for a dating service and $34.95 a month for a service geared for people looking for more serious relationships.
Anthony alleged that Yahoo also sent him fake ''new match" messages when his monthly subscription was up for renewal. After months of failing to meet a potential match, he became suspicious and discovered the same picture of a woman being posted for different cities under different names, according to his attorney, Randy Rosenblum.
''He wants to expose what he believes to be illegitimate conduct on the part of Yahoo and stop it from happening," Rosenblum said.
