Match.Com .... Fraud??

A good friend of mine is a strong believer in Match.Com. Among other things - she is a also a believer in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Denver Broncos. (And by the time she reads this post - I am sure she also believes she can kick my butt for penning this post). So to save my skin - she shall go unnamed.

Being a Marketing Professional and all that nice shenanigan I pull oh-so-successfully in my day job the Market sizing of the Dating market came up as - $245.2 million on online personals and dating services in the first half of 2005, up 7.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the Online Publishers Association.

Anyways - legend has it that our Recruiting Committee head Eve Psalti (everyone reading this blog and wants to get a job here - should get to know Eve and send her your resume...) was quoted on saying that Match.com is probably populated with one-eyed bald-geriartrics, absolutely shunning my friend's belief. (For Legal purposes - I will have to claim that legends do have their way of being wrong.... sometimes) Now on with the story.

So this story on Reuters cites Match.com had been recently been "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." Yahoo.com had similar suits too apparently.

Now this is interesting. Here are some what-if scenario qns...

* What-if the Match.com members who went out on dates jus happened to leverage their access to the database and go on Dates and happened to share their place of work with the person they date?

* What-if the person who was being dated - got this info - valued the value of dating this person versus the monetization of revenue from a lawsuit and chose the latter?

* What-if having employees going on dates was not a markeitng sham but a sense of strengthening the value-proposition of the solution - after all its better than having the person whoz a customer feel single/lonely/frustrated isnt it?

Thanx BoingBoing for giving me insight into this article :)

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 01, 2005
  That would totally make sense...Is there a bad match date website, does anyone know???we need a warning of match sleezebags please, anyone????

• Anonymous
  December 01, 2005
  Beth - what does a "bad-match date website" mean? Are you suggesting a website that has a list of bad date match-ups?? or jus bad-dates?
  
  Ok i will stop speculating - but you will have define your statement better :)

• Anonymous
  December 06, 2005
  Ohhhh PUH-lease, of COURSE match.com does this kind of stuff! I've been off and on it for over 2 years and HEY, guess what? EVERY time I let my subscription expire, I "suddenly" get a flood of emails from "dream dates." Hmmmm...I search and search in a million different ways ('cuz I'm smart and have been around while and have figured out the system) and I can NEVER find these guys any other way.
  
  Then, to make it even MORE fun, once you see this flood of hunks, NONE of them ever respond back if you took the bait and re-upped.
  
  No thanks. I just did this again the other day...hid my profile all summer, turned it back on in September...forgot about it and got bored in late November and wandered back onto the site. There was a few emails in my inbox and several winks.
  
  BUT, ONE of the emails seemed interesting so I signed back up for the free 3 day trial to be able to send a message saying "sorry, I've been busy...still single?" I killed the free profile before they hit my card but guess WHAT? Since I killed my subscription, I've had a whole bunch of emails and winks...despite virtually NOTHING for months.
  
  I'm 46, I dont' expect a ton of hits but I've been telling my girlfriend for over a year that they were doing this...she just went through it herself so she FINALLY believes me. That doesn't mean there aren't good folks on Match, just that greed reigns supreme...
  
  

• Anonymous
  December 10, 2005
  I thought it was legit myeself until I got a phony email from a beautiful woman who covneniently left me her incorrect cell#. Then the email came a second time 2 months later..The only folks who knew the email address were match.com

• Anonymous
  December 19, 2005
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• Anonymous
  February 07, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 12, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 16, 2006
  I agree with Pradeep: "Ohhhh PUH-lease, of COURSE match.com does this kind of stuff! I've been off and on it for over 2 years and HEY, guess what? EVERY time I let my subscription expire, I "suddenly" get a flood of emails from "dream dates." Hmmmm...I search and search in a million different ways ('cuz I'm smart and have been around while and have figured out the system) and I can NEVER find these guys any other way." And, I agree with rnfinely.
  
  This is  EXACTLY what has been happening to me for years at Match.com. I thought it only happened to guys.
  
  I just got suckered again. I had 4 emails and a wink. So, I thought I might at least get to meet one of them. One woman emailed me about 5 times. She even answered my first email. But, suddenly grew silent.
  
  There's got to be a SCAM going on. I hope someone proves it, and sues them for a few million!
  

• Anonymous
  April 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 09, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 14, 2006
  Canttell,
  
  Please. Please!! It does not take a genius to figure this thing out. I have been a match.com member off an on for the last 2 years. Every time I cancel, I suddenly get several emails and winks within a few days after receiving nothing for months.
  
  I took the bait a couple of times only to find that the people who emailed me have generic profiles, live in some place so far away that there is no possibility I could take them out, and never respond anyway.
  
  I'm not sure what department you work in at match.com, but I can assure you, that "great people who care about matching you up with the right person" is not who is running that company.

• Anonymous
  April 25, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 27, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 27, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 20, 2006
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• Anonymous
  June 12, 2006
  I have been on an off "Match.com" for about two years. There are definately a lot questionable accounts out there. I think I'd rather spend my time training for marathons.

• Anonymous
  July 10, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 17, 2006
  Report the fraudulant profiles to www.matchinform.com. It helps us all out if we can save time.

• Anonymous
  August 23, 2006
  The comment has been removed

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  September 14, 2006
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• Anonymous
  October 15, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 19, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 21, 2006
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• Anonymous
  October 28, 2006
  I signed up a week ago on match.com and got a bunch of those Nigerian winks.  I'm a 48 male.  The winks are from 30 year old beautiful women.  Hey, I like fantasy as much as anyone and want to believe that I'm irresistable...but c'mon that's even too much for me. Anyway, I respond to those winks with an email disclaimer saying I will not send any money to anyone.  Hmmmm, for some reason they never write back. Pretty lousy of match.com NOT to screen these profiles better or at least to warn potential subscribers.  Oh well, a case a greed winning over integrity again. And to top it all off, I suspect many of the people on these online dating sites are there because they've been hurt by someone they met through other methods (bar scene!). If you want to write to me, go to match.com send me an email (vbprogrammer on match.com).  I'd love to hear about other people's experiences on match.com and maybe how to force them to give you a refund (ha ha!).

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2006
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  December 01, 2006
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• Anonymous
  January 02, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 02, 2007
  I thought more about this, after reading more on this blog and other places... Match.com are negligent for sure, as someone else pointed out: they screen all profiles before they go live. Here's an example of how broken this policy is: In an effort to reduce the spam I was getting, I tweaked my education level down to "highschool", but I mentioned in my profile that I had a higher level of education and that I just set it lower to avoid getting emails from spammers - actually I think they target age more than education, but it was a desperate attempt on my part. Guess what! Match.com censored my "scammer" comment - I only discovered it when I went back to change my profile again. What a stupid design of their site! I'm not sure if a human removed the words, or if it was software. They are smart enough to censor stuff that points out the fact that there are lots of scammers, but can't block a new profile of a so-called African woman who has posted Caucasion photos that look like a runway model, yet her description contains 100 typos and grammer mistakes? Something is wrong with this picture and it smells like Match.com doesn't care who's putting what in a paid profile. This has been going on since at least October of 2006 (according to the postings on this blog), so they obviously have other priorities.

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2007
  Hi Everyone: Match.com may or may not be posting fake profiles in order to entice people to subscribe or stay subscribed.  What I know for sure is that there are scam artists posting profiles on there, specifically the members currently in Africa and needing money to get back.  I emailed match today and asked them to consider at least warning every new member, by email, about this scam.  It would protect everyone, specifically the older members and the more gullible ones, and it would show that match truly cares about its members.  We'll see if and what they respond.  I for one have enjoyed toying with these women...I'll suggest I send more than the $750 they need to get back here, how I truly love them, etc.  It's funny, but not for people who get ripped off.  And so my advice if you're turned off of online dating...hit the local grocery store and knock the milk out of that attractive someone's hand and start a conversation.  You just saved yourself $29.99 (minus the milk container if it broke) and you KNOW they're not in Africa.  Good luck. NormalGuy

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2007
  OK - here's another one - joined match.com Beginning of Dec under the '6 month gaurantee' (prepaid 6 months upfront, with the gaurantee that if I don't 'meet someone special' I will get 6 months free).  This past couple of months has been busy as my Dad got sick middle of Dec and passed away Jan 11.  My intention was to do the basics until things mellow out a bit- have been chatting with a couple of guys - met a couple, nothing special.  And now they say my profile was 'hidden earlier this month' which invalidates the gaurantee.  I HAVE NOT HIDDEN MY PROFILE and customer service doesn't respond to my emails inquiring about this.  BLATANT FRAUD as far as I am concerned.  Does anyone have a suggestion on how to handle this?  Did copy the internet fraud sites - ty for who posted those?

• Anonymous
  March 10, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 11, 2007
  mmm.. nice design, I must say..

• Anonymous
  April 01, 2007
  Ok..I just signed up about 2 hours ago and while I was reading all of these messages..i just checked and low and behold..as if they read my mind..i get two emails totally bogus. WHY ARE THESE GUYS STILL IN BUSINESS??  I think sites like these can only be effective if you use them as a tool and actively try to contact profiles that look real. Good luck..I am getting my money back ASAP!

• Anonymous
  April 02, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 04, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 09, 2007
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• Anonymous
  April 10, 2007
  I would not totally discount profiles that appear to be created then abandoned.  A lot of women, especially attractive, intelligent ones use match.com and other internet dating sites on a month-to-month basis.  They may also use an email address that was created specifically for the dating website.   When a woman meets someone that she likes, she is far more likely to quit using the internet dating site, especially if she only signed up for a month.  However, just because she “quits” does not necessarily mean that she will take her profile down.  If she is not in a serious relationship, she may like the attention or want to keep doors open for her if she decides to sign-up again, and if her email address is not one she uses frequently, the spam is not an issue. With all of that said, fake profiles do exist.  If you have any complaints with internet daters or suspicious profiles, you can file a report against them at www.matchinform.com.

• Anonymous
  April 20, 2007
  I have seen quite a few fake profiles on Match.com.  They use the same photographs, and the same headlines!!  It's ridiculous!

• Anonymous
  June 30, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  July 15, 2007
  I signed up for the 6 months make love happen promotion and followed the requirements to the letter.  At the end of the 6 months I was given a link to get my 6 months free.  The link said to call an 800 # but it was after hours.  I put in a customer service e-mail a couple of days later saying that I tried to claim my 6 months.  So far I have put in 5 customer service tickets and talked to 2 people on the phone but no one has helped me what so ever to redeem my free 6 months.    When you follow the rules you should not get taken like this.  Very poor customer service. Budster

• Anonymous
  August 19, 2007
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• Anonymous
  September 11, 2007
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• Anonymous
  September 23, 2007
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• Anonymous
  September 24, 2007
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• Anonymous
  November 17, 2007
  Whenever they said they're from/ at/ in/ lodging in Africa or Nigeria. Most likely they will tell you:-

1. about the lousy connection which is true
2. the hotel manager who keep on pestering them on the internet usage which is true
3. they're are alone & single & without family which is true Finally, they ask you for $$$$$$ wired suing Western Union remittance service. All these are so TRUE that ONLYthose blind by the heart will follow unreasonable request from a blind love who is a CON-PERSONAL.

• Anonymous
  November 17, 2007
  Whenever they said they're from/ at/ in/ lodging in Africa or Nigeria. Most likely they will tell you:-

1. about the lousy connection which is true
2. the hotel manager who keep on pestering them on the internet usage which is true
3. they're are alone & single & without family which is true Finally, they ask you for $$$$$$ wired using Western Union remittance service. All these are so TRUE that ONLY those blind by the heart will follow unreasonable request from a blind love who is a CON-PERSONAL or MLM in conning weak people. Jeremy

• Anonymous
  December 14, 2007
  Yes, it is a scam in many ways.

1. The psychological need for companionship is the bait.
2. A nibble from what you think is a person, but to see who that is, you have to pay.
3. the wink, flirt whatever is a programmed shadow bot that looks for new members.
4. The member has a need for love, that is why he or she is their in the first place.
5. Once the hopes are up, you pay and then you learn... The majority of the user images that you see on the site are also found on many software programs that are specific to "Social Networking"  software.  Don't believe? Try to Google Social Networking software and you will seee that the software provides fictional members.   I am not saying that all of the members are fake but I can say the bots will send a wink or a nudge to get you sign up.  Once you are in, they have your money but we have no one to blame but ourselves.   In the end - it just goes to show how anyone, including Dr. Phil will do anything for money, even if it means crating false hope in others.

• Anonymous
  December 18, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 07, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 12, 2008
  Now, I'm not stupid enough to actually pay for this service, but I did get a "free" profile.  It's great, you can search, "wink," and "be winked."  BUT, if you actually want to talk to anybody, you have to pay. Naturally, I am forced to find a way to put my email address into my profile so that I can avoid the fee. However, Match.com is notorious for their censorship of profile pages, and I find it quite difficult to list this information (though not impossible). For example, I know that you can't say: dirty petite gmail <your user name> Does anyone know of a webpage that lists the words that Match.com automatically censors from profile pages?

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 10, 2008
  Match.com is a fraud and if you paid with a credit card, make sure to cancel that card because they put a recurring charge on your credit card and they will charge your card whether you like it or not and its when you least expect it.   It looks like we now know how Dr. Phil really makes his money.

• Anonymous
  April 19, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 06, 2008
  Whoah, at least I am not the only one, some comfort in that. My subs being cancelled and card changed!

• Anonymous
  May 17, 2008
  oh boy!  Just found this blog above and read all your comments.  The lies and deceit on Match.com is surreal.  Fortunately I did not join but I have searched and found men who I dated and married on here now - with completely phony profiles. Also, I sent a 'heads-up' to match about this, --naturally - no reply! Also, I attempted - several times to go on matchinform.com and guess what? - page cannot be found!

• Anonymous
  May 20, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 29, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 05, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 23, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 01, 2008
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• Anonymous
  September 02, 2008
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• Anonymous
  September 02, 2008
  I just remembered one other thing to keep note of, and I havent proven it just yet. When you recieve WINKS and such in your personal email, do not use the links provided in that email. Got to the site manually and check. It is easy to fake an email to look just like match.com's messages to you and cause you other problems. Before all my troubles happened I got one of their emails about someone who WINKED at me. Not think I just clicked the link in the email provided, and my entire computer locked up for about a minute. Once it unlocked, I then found out I had been signed out of match.com and my sign in problem began. I dont know yet if that had anything to do with it, as I deleted the email before I thought to look into it, so I have to go back into some system logs and router logs to determine if it did anything (not sure I will bother), but for safety sake, take the extra couple of seconds to log into the site manually and dont use the links in their emails. Especially when many people have reported recieving WINKS from people that dont show up in on their match.com accounts, and from people not even on match.com as well as recieving winks when you have your profile hidden. Just think before you do...be safe.

• Anonymous
  September 08, 2008
  And the drama continues. As of today, my match.com account has been broken into yet again. This is after changing my password and email address associated with match.com the first time this happened less than a week ago. This time, after calling the 1-800 number, their representative told me that she cannot do anything for me and that I have to email their executivetech email service, or whatever it was. I emailed it before during the first problem, as well as 2 other locations for Match.com. I have never received any responses from any of them for that situation yet, so I hardly expect to get any reposnse this time. Looks like I will have to go directly to their home office. For reference, this go around, I never gave out any email address or other information to anyone I talked to (only talked to 2 people this time around), so how they were able to pretend to be me and have this happen again I am unsure of, since I changed my email address, password and zip code location from the last time. The lady on the phone stated that this is probably due to the storms recently, however the storms hadn't hit when this all began, they were still in the Atlantic somewhere. There is alot of fishything going on at Match, as anyone doing any basic searching will find out. My drama is about to end with them. Luckily the first time this happened I managed to get in and cancel my subscription completely, so I shouldnt be billed again, and I was reassured this on the phone as well (we'll see). But once I can get back in my account will be shut down for good, along with a written letter stating to do so. As most would suggest, stay away from Match. They are intentionally allowing scammers to work there, have no interest if you try to report one and in some cases people are having the accounts closed if you even try to report a scammer. They want the scammers because they are active and they add numbers to their system. They may even give them special benefits, who knows, but they certainly show ever effort that they want them there, and show no effort to try to get rid of any.

• Anonymous
  September 21, 2008
  Having just joined match.com I got contacted by two nigerian scammers in 1 day.  1 I chatted to and one that winked me.  Having joined the site because I thought it was genuine and stupidly not googling it beforehand because two girlfriends has met their ideal men on there.   I have emailed them asking them to cancel my membership and give me a refund but I cannot find their number on there would be interested to know if they have a number I can use to call up and confirm.

• Anonymous
  October 29, 2008
  DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE.... THESE PEOPLE RENEW SUBSCRIPTION AUTOMATICALLY....UNLIKE OTHER WEBSITE.. ITS FRAUD SERVICE. Do not give Match.com your credit card number. They will auto-renew your subscription without notification or authorization or advance warning. Once they get your money they will not refund the charge and it is nearly impossible to find a representative of Match.com that is responsible for fraudulent credit card charges. If you try to call a representative live on the phone be prepared to wait on hold for a long time and listen to their endless commercial about how great their service (the service you're trying to stop) is. Eventually you'll be connected with a zombie who will tell you that she cannot access your account and that you'll have to contact the "executive committee" via e-mail. That's a hard link to find but if you keep tying you'll eventually find that buried in their website somewhere. Then you wait a few more days. All-in-all, Match.com is little more than another e-scam and not worth the effort. I'll let you all know if I ever get my money back; but it doesn't look good !

• Anonymous
  October 29, 2008
  DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE.... THESE PEOPLE RENEW SUBSCRIPTION AUTOMATICALLY....UNLIKE OTHER WEBSITE.. ITS FRAUD SERVICE. Do not give Match.com your credit card number. They will auto-renew your subscription without notification or authorization or advance warning. Once they get your money they will not refund the charge and it is nearly impossible to find a representative of Match.com that is responsible for fraudulent credit card charges. If you try to call a representative live on the phone be prepared to wait on hold for a long time and listen to their endless commercial about how great their service (the service you're trying to stop) is. Eventually you'll be connected with a zombie who will tell you that she cannot access your account and that you'll have to contact the "executive committee" via e-mail. That's a hard link to find but if you keep tying you'll eventually find that buried in their website somewhere. Then you wait a few more days. All-in-all, Match.com is little more than another e-scam and not worth the effort. I'll let you all know if I ever get my money back; but it doesn't look good !

• Anonymous
  January 11, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 12, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 20, 2009
  match.com is a fraud , so is just about every other dating site on the net , after spending hundreds of dollars i have not yet found one legit site , they all use the same tatics , fake profile bots and autobots.

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