Match.com Says It Never Had Business Relations With That Woman

from the the-affidavit-says-so dept

Last week we wrote about a couple of lawsuits alleging questionable activities on the part of two dating sites. Match.com was accused of sending people on dates specifically to try to keep others from canceling their memberships and Yahoo was accused of stuffing its dater profiles to make it look like there were more people on the service. Match.com has now fired back and said that the charges are baseless and point to a sworn statement from the woman accused of being the fake date saying that that she was never an employee of Match.com and she was never paid to go on any dates by the company. At this point, who knows who's telling the truth, but it would be interesting to hear what made the guy who filed the original lawsuit think this particular woman was only dating him on behalf of the company. What's a little odd (though, perhaps understandable) about Match.com's retort, however, is that they never come out and say from their side that she didn't do things on behalf of the company -- they specifically say her statement says she never worked for the company. It has the wording of someone trying to step around something -- though, that might just be because that's what the lawyers told them to do.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Jeremiah, 22 Nov 2005 @ 12:43pm

    relations

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    The Other Mike, 22 Nov 2005 @ 12:55pm

    most likely...

    My bet is that they are most likely trying to avoid admitting that they have profiles up that are specifically designed to entice people to try to communicate with them. Membership is free until you communicate after all.

    Having used their service I can say that there are profiles up that are too good to be true - and they always are. Even when they send out winks or emails that contain absolutely no reference to anything in your profile. A few weeks using the service for real will enable you to spot the fake winks/emails pretty quickly.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Bob, 22 Nov 2005 @ 1:09pm

    Truth

    "point to a sworn statement from the woman..."

    ..which is all well and good and everything, however a sworn statement is not the same as an official swearing of oath in a court of law, which is more unlikely to be broken.

    If the plaintiffs have sufficient evidence to prove their case, then the statements will likely be ignored and thrown out. If there's not enough evidence, then the company has nothing to worry about.

    The court will eventually discover the truth of the matter.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Nov 2005 @ 1:17pm

    No Subject Given

    Doesn't it seem wrong to profit off the loneliness of people?

    Of course, I guess it's wrong for businesses to profit off of "love" as they do on Valentine's Day as well...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Will, 22 Nov 2005 @ 2:35pm

    No Subject Given

    The guy suing should realize that if the woman thinks you're a dork, it doesn't mean she works for the dating company. It could mean you ARE a Dork.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Martin, 23 Nov 2005 @ 6:21am

    I guess maybe match.com has gone downhill...

    ...since I met my now-wife there in 1999!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    John, 26 Nov 2005 @ 11:39am

    Re: I guess maybe match.com has gone downhill...

    That's how 99% of dating sites go. They start out great, but then someone figures out how to auto-register and suddenly there are 3,000,000,000 profiles for webcam girls looking to get naked on cam for you!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    RAA, 18 Dec 2005 @ 2:19pm

    Too simple

    Their name should probably be changed to "watch the con", "match dot com".

    Now Match is saying that they've gotten the employee to sign an avidavit that she was never and employee. Yeah right.

    Isn't that too easy. If anybody brings up an allegation against a giant like Match that seriously damages its reputation, do you really believe that all Match would do would be to get the person to sign an avidavit? No way, it'd be more like suing the pants off that woman.

    The case of her signing an avidavit just means she's been bribed with a few millions to keep here quiet. Scams will never end. Support the free sites: oasisoflove.com and end the greed.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Just another, 11 Nov 2007 @ 4:58pm

    Well... I just finished my Match.com account. Two days later (after cancelling) I received a nice wink from a young girl. Nice to know she is interested. Wink came on the 8th and her profile says she hasn't been active for OVER 3 WEEKS.

    Come on....what do you think of that!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    chrodrig86, 7 Aug 2008 @ 7:09pm

    Dubious

    There is definitely something sketchy about match.com. I found two separate profiles with the same photo. The information in each profile were completely different. Because I'm frustrated about it, hahah, I'll let y'all see for yourselves. The user names are:

    love4ubug and nirvanarelief


    I think match.com creates fake profiles to inflate the number of users.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    anthony, 4 Feb 2009 @ 4:38pm

    Re: watch.com

    i must agree with you on this one. I sent out well over 20 responses, all were generically based for curiosity. i got about 3 or 4 responses, one called and kept making excuses as to why she could never meet. Somewhat questionable indeed. Then the membership expired and also received a notification that I had a message. I of course was not able to retrieve the message unless I joined up again. I signed up and the ad was not able to be found of course. They have a scam going of some sort and I hope they get busted soon.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    anthony, 4 Feb 2009 @ 4:38pm

    Re: watch.com

    i must agree with you on this one. I sent out well over 20 responses, all were generically based for curiosity. i got about 3 or 4 responses, one called and kept making excuses as to why she could never meet. Somewhat questionable indeed. Then the membership expired and also received a notification that I had a message. I of course was not able to retrieve the message unless I joined up again. I signed up and the ad was not able to be found of course. They have a scam going of some sort and I hope they get busted soon.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    anthony, 4 Feb 2009 @ 4:38pm

    Re: watch.com

    i must agree with you on this one. I sent out well over 20 responses, all were generically based for curiosity. i got about 3 or 4 responses, one called and kept making excuses as to why she could never meet. Somewhat questionable indeed. Then the membership expired and also received a notification that I had a message. I of course was not able to retrieve the message unless I joined up again. I signed up and the ad was not able to be found of course. They have a scam going of some sort and I hope they get busted soon.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.