I came across a press release stating that “Match.com, a unit of IAC/Interactive Corp., is 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.”
H. Scott Leviant, a lawyer at Los Angeles law firm Arias, Ozzello & Gignac LLP, which brought the suit:
“This is a grossly fraudulent practice that Match.com is engaged in…Match promotes the policies of integrity to protect members, and yet they themselves, we allege, are misleading their entire customer base.”
In a separate suit, Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO – news)’s personals service is accused of posting profiles of fictitious potential dating partners on its Web site to make it look as though many more singles subscribe to the service than actually do. Yahoo is accused with breach of contract, fraud and unfair trade practices.
Yahoo posting fictitious profiles? If they are responsible for all the fake Russian bride profiles on the site, they certainly deserve to be raked over the legal coals. But for some reason, I have a difficult time thinking Yahoo is responsible for the fakery.
The Match suit plaintiff claims a Match employee went out with him to make sure he didn’t cancel his subscription. Talk about viral marketing! This is a classic, however I would be shocked if the allegations are true. Come to think of it, if I were a Match employee out on brand-oprtecting viral dating, I’d be asking for some serious overtime.
They would do better to leave the viral marketing to the experts and hire BzzAgent to have their bevy of “associates” out and about talking up the dating services instead of using company employees after-hours.
The news is sure to give legal counsel at major dating sites something to think about over the weekend.
The release mentions RICO, the organized crime-fighting tool as a possible legal tool.
[tags: match.com, yahoo personals]
