Match.com: Accused of email fraud

Η Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claims that the Match.com has its own scammers on the dating page to entice free users to pay a subscription.

ΑTo receive an email from Match.com, which claims that the profile "caught" someone's interest, be on the lookout. In a new lawsuit, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) he argues how Match.com has its own scammers on the dating site to entice free users to pay a subscription.

According to the federal regulator, Match.com persuaded hundreds of thousands of consumers to subscribe to the site by sending out email notifications claiming that their profile had caught their interest.

The only problem; The mysterious person was usually a fake account scammer, and Match.com was fully aware of the situation.

The dating site allegedly allowed the email to be sent to motivate users to create a paid account. The FTC told her post "To put it another way, Match is rumored to have used a not insignificant number of scammers on its website, the number being estimated at 25-30% of the accounts, as an advertising opportunity to sell more subscriptions.

In response, the FTC is suing Match.com to stop its alleged activities and pay the sanctions.

Internet "romance" scammers have always been a scourge. As a result, most dating sites have security valves to detect and delete fake accounts. But according to the FTC, Match.com took advantage of the scammers by allowing suspected "fraud-flagged" accounts to send email alerts to free users. Paid subscribers, on the other hand, would not receive notifications except in the event of fraud.

Anyone can set up a free Match.com account, but will need a paid account to reply to messages. "Specifically, when non-subscribers with free accounts receive likes, favorites, emails and messages on Match.com, they also receive email ads from Match urging them to subscribe to Match.com to see the sender's identity and communication content, ”the FTC said.

His practice of sending email notifications has been quite effective in attracting new subscribers. From June 2016 to May 2018, Match.com found out that consumers bought 499.691 subscriptions within 24 hours of receiving an email notification from a scammer, according to the FTC lawsuit.

"Many consumers responded the way the company wanted, quite often paying more than $ 100 for a subscription in the hope of connecting with people who had already expressed an interest in them," the FTC said.

Match.com is part of the Match Group, which owns dating platforms such as Tinder, OkCupid and PlentyOfFish. In response, the company he said that the FTC's lawsuit is based on "distorted internal emails" and "selected data" to make outrageous claims.

"Fraud is not good for business, that's why we fight it. We catch and neutralize 85% of potentially inappropriate accounts within the first four hours, usually before they even become active on the site, and 96% of inappropriate accounts within a day,Match Group added.

The company intends to deal with the lawsuit, which was filed in the Texas District Court of the United States. The FTC also claims that Match.com, among other illegal activities, deliberately created a difficult process for consumers to stop recurring billing on their accounts and distorted how users would receive a free six-month subscription to the platform.

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