Lawsuit Contains Specific Evidence That Match.com Deceives Subscribers

The law firms of Harwood Feffer LLP (www.hfesq.com) and Lever & Stolzenberg, LLP (www.leverstolzlaw.com) jointly filed a class action lawsuit against Match.com, L.L.C., a subsidiary of IAC/Interactive Corp, (“Match.com”), for its deceptive practices aimed at inducing individuals to join and/or renew their subscriptions to its dating website through various unscrupulous means.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, entitled Robinson, et al. v. Match.com, LLC, Index. No. 3:10-cv-02651-L, alleges that Match.com systematically breaches its Terms of Use Agreement by, inter alia, representing that it has millions of “active” subscribers when, in fact, a great majority of the purportedly active profiles on its site belong to inactive members (i.e., former subscribers who have cancelled their membership or allowed their subscriptions to expire) and/or are fake and fraudulent profiles posted by international scammers and others. The complaint alleges that Match.com is not only perpetuating the misperception of a robust and legitimate site for singles but putting its subscribers in danger by failing to take any reasonable steps to remove and prohibit the abundance of scammers and scamming activity that pervades its site.

This is the first class action against Match.com where the plaintiffs have put forward direct evidence of the thousands of fake profiles and numerous incriminating statements from former employees and witnesses to support the case. The evidence obtained thus far confirms that Match.com leaves tens of thousands of expired and inactive profiles on its site (listing them as “active”) that remain searchable by unsuspecting, legitimate subscribers but are nonetheless unreachable. The evidence also includes thousands of examples of fake and fraudulent profiles, likely placed by third-parties for illegal means (i.e., to prey on legitimate subscribers or to test stolen credit card numbers). Former employees and witnesses confirmed that Match.com does little to police its site or protect its legitimate subscribers from scams.

As alleged in the Complaint, Match.com entices individuals to pay subscription fees by creating a false perception that it has millions of active members that can be contacted through its site. Some of the tactics used by Match.com (and confirmed by witnesses), include:

• (a) representing that it vets and approves new profiles when, in actuality, it fails to do so and thereby allows a deluge of fake and fraudulent profiles to be created;
• (b) failing to remove inactive profiles and labeling such profiles “active” despite, in many cases, inactivity and non-payment of subscription fees for many months;
• (c) failing to take any reasonable steps to police its site from the proliferation of false and fraudulent profiles and thereby subjecting its members to frauds and scams of the worst order; and
• (d) sending “winks” and/or emails out to former subscribers telling them someone is looking for them or that they have a “match” (only after renewing their memberships do these former subscribers learn that they have been duped and that the supposed profiles of interested people are no longer active and/or cannot be reached).

A copy of the complaint is available for download.

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