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Online Daters Take Match and Yahoo To Court For Fraud
One of the major categories contributing to the growth of the Internet in the 90s was Online Dating. It was also a category that seemed to survive the dot com bust mainly intact. Recently, though, it seems online dating is oversaturated and losing its effectiveness. And that may be leading the top services to do some unsavory tactics to extend subscriptions from unsatisfied memberships.Online daters are taking matchmaking services Match.com and Yahoo! Personals to court, saying they were the victims of dating fraud. Match.com is being accused of tricking customers into renewing their subscriptions to the service through e-mails sent from presumed love interests, when in fact the messages come from company employees. The lawsuit also contends that Match.com charges employees to go on sham dates with subscribers as a marketing ploy. Meanwhile, Yahoo! has been accused of posting fictitious profiles on its personals site to make it look like more singles have subscribed to its site. Both companies, of course, declined to comment on pending litigation. It's interesting to note that the suits come at a time when growth in the online dating industry has slowed significantly.
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posted by Unknown @ Sunday, December 18, 2005,
