Match.com Sued Over Dead/Fake Profiles

from the you-only-need-to-find-one dept

Tue, Jan 18th 2011 5:53am — Mike Masnick

Last year, dating site Match.com threatened some rivals, saying that the numbers they put out concerning marketing probably couldn't be supported, and ordering them to cease and desist with misleading claims. Of course, all that really did was make a lot of people turn around and look more closely at Match.com's own claims, which seemed only fair. I have no idea if this latest story is a result of some of that scrutiny, but a class action lawsuit has been filed against Match.com by users of the service who claimed that the company was quite misleading with its own stats. Of specific concern is the actual number of users touted by Match, who (the plaintiffs claim) leaves "dead" accounts on the system just so it can boost its numbers. Also, there are claims that many of the profiles are fakes, using images of porn actresses, models, or people from other dating sites (though, if accurate, this could just be the work of spammers, rather than Match itself). Separately, there are claims that just as accounts are about to expire, members get a notice that someone wants to contact them -- but they have to renew their subscription to respond. Except, when they do renew, it turns out that the person who wanted to contact them has disappeared. All that does seem a bit sneaky, if true.

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Filed Under: dating, fakes, profiles
Companies: match.com

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BBT, 18 Jan 2011 @ 6:01am

a pertinent link
Here's a pertinent blog entry from biased competitor (and far superior site) OKCupid:

http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/why-you-should-never-pay-for-online-dating/

Uses the dating sites' published sites to show some interesting things. According to the blog,

96% of eHarmony alleged 20 million profiles are dead
You're 12x as likely to get married in a given year if you *aren't* on Match.com
eHarmony, whose whole purpose and message is to help you find a spouse, fails to do so for 94% of the people who try.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 6:18am

Well, I can account for BBT.. I had 0% luck on match, and 0% luck on eharmony, but 100% luck on plentyoffish.
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BBT, 18 Jan 2011 @ 6:40am

Re: a pertinent link
s/published sites/published stats
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Jay (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 6:43am

Hmmm...
I doubt that Match is the only one using these tactics. I bet that any other site does the same since people are kind of hard to predict.
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Michial Thompson, 18 Jan 2011 @ 6:45am

All of the dating sites are scams
100 of the dating sites out there are scams at one level or another, and practice borderline illegal tactics.

They rarely deleted old unused accounts, they encourage fake profiles to boost their numbers, and probably the worst of it is that you pay to contact their member, but they forget to tell you that member has to pay to respond as well.

WHY would women pay for a dating site at all???
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Michial Thompson, 18 Jan 2011 @ 6:46am

All of the dating sites are scams
100 of the dating sites out there are scams at one level or another, and practice borderline illegal tactics.

They rarely deleted old unused accounts, they encourage fake profiles to boost their numbers, and probably the worst of it is that you pay to contact their member, but they forget to tell you that member has to pay to respond as well.

WHY would women pay for a dating site at all???
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Matthew, 18 Jan 2011 @ 6:47am

Re: a pertinent link
eHarmony HAD a good idea. Their algorithms were pretty accurate in finding compatibility. Their guided communication system, while sometimes annoying, took a lot of the pressure out of making that initial contact. Unfortunately, as your post suggests, they chose to allow "dead" accounts to clog up the works, decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio for paying customers. The reason for this is probably that they considered the possible reactivation of one of those dead accounts to be a valuable source of income, while a paying customer had already paid up front. Back when the service was relatively new and the ratio of active to inactive accounts was high, I got a lot of good dates out of eHarmony, but their service has gone downhill.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 6:49am

Ah dating sites. So hard to find an honest one... and it is incredibly rare to actually meet someone you would date from one since all of the good people are harassed and eventually jaded.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 6:55am

Re: Re: a pertinent link
"Back when the service was relatively new and the ratio of active to inactive accounts was high, I got a lot of good dates out of eHarmony, but their service has gone downhill."

As someone who has never used an online dating site, I've always wanted to ask what the actual experience was like. I started a longterm relationship a couple years back, but even if I hadn't I couldn't see myself diving into the online dating scene. Not because I see anything intrinsically wrong with it, but I just can't get my head around the matchmaking aspect of it, which kills all the spontanaeity. I used to get the same shivers when people said they wanted to "set me up" with a friend of theirs. Ugh....
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 7:03am

Some sites are reported to be using various baiting techniques to get free account holders (people who create a profile but don't actually sign up for service) to cross the line and start paying.

This is often done by having various girls send the guys "I am interested in you" notices, which cannot be replied to without being a full paying member. One the guy becomes a paying member, he finds that none of these girls ever actually reply. These accounts appear to be created by the site owners only for the purposes of the "come on" to get people to pay for the service.

Many new dating sites also seed their systems with fake or canned profiles. There are people out there who do nothing but scrape images from facebook, flickr, and the like, and use those images as the basis of profiles. Others just go on dating sites and scrape profiles, and resell them.
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huh?, 18 Jan 2011 @ 7:13am

Re: Re: Re: a pertinent link
impertinent to a pertinent link
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 7:17am

Re: Re: Re: a pertinent link
I was on Match, eHarmony and plentyoffish.com (free site, met my wife there).

Dating sites are a good and easy way to get a first date. I spent a lot of time on my profile and put some things in there that would make people think "I don't like that" like my political affiliation, or a weird hobby. after looking at so many bland profiles, I wanted mine to stand out.

Anyway, like I said it's super easy to get a first date (compared to more traditional ways of meeting people), and it seems like because of that some people are like "hmm... I don't like brown eyes, let me try the next one". On match and POF I think I only had one female start contact with me. (eHarmony makes it easy for the female to start communication, that was a positive). So the man seems to do all the starting communication. I personally had all my "first dates" at someplace very very casual, like a bookstore cafe, so nobody was "trapped".

I had lots of first dates.. perhaps 20% of them went to second dates, and two turned into relationships.
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Hephaestus (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 7:49am

Re: Re: Re: a pertinent link
"I used to get the same shivers when people said they wanted to "set me up" with a friend of theirs."

Yeah, there was the one with the facial piercings that acted like a sprinkler system everytime she laughed with wine in her mouth. Blind Dates ... Shiver!!!
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Dark Helmet (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 8:04am

Re: Re: Re: Re: a pertinent link
"Yeah, there was the one with the facial piercings that acted like a sprinkler system everytime she laughed with wine in her mouth. Blind Dates ... Shiver!!!"

I got set up with a girl that seriously talked to me about her shoe shopping for nearly thirty minutes. I left halfway through the date and went drinking with some buddies and met another girl that night. I have to thank that horrible date for the assist I suppose....
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Matthew, 18 Jan 2011 @ 8:25am

Re: Re: Re: a pertinent link
Although for a minority, online dating might be described as "dating for the terribly busy," for the majority (myself among them), it's more like "dating for cowards." Ultimately, studying "pickup artistry" was much more useful in meeting women in more natural, "real" ways. (Contrary to popular belief, a lot of the early lessons of pickup artistry are about building self-confidence, overcome anxiety, and learning how to hold a natural conversation with other people.)
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 9:14am

Re: Re: Re: a pertinent link
Match.com was a total wast of time, mostly people just fishing without a hook. went into eHarmony with few expectations ... I met my fiancee there. The guided process helped tremendously. I don't think I would have met her "normally"
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Tom Landry (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 10:22am

actually, I don't think its match. The site has been struggling lately with Asian porn spammers and "@yahoo.com-whores". Each new profile is reviewed by a living person but if it stays within its guidelines there's not much they can do. I will say they probably tend to leave their abandoned profiles on longer than they should but members only need to look at the last time the person logged on. If it shows "over 3 months ago" (which is the longest time match bothers to report) one can be reasonably certain that said member is no longer active.

I'm guessing that the suit is being brought by 1.) one law office who did a bit of finagling to get some "members" to agree to jump on the bandwagon so the suit could be initiated for profit and epic win (this is the likely scenario). Or 2.) Fat disgruntled pigs who couldn't attract flies with rotten meat stapled to their face.
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Brad Hubbard (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 10:39am

Re: a pertinent link
I was just about to post this - I love the OK Cupid Data blog - their articles are insightful and they expose you to the actual numbers they're using.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 2:14pm

As an ominous coward, I'll admit to some things.

I've used a few dating sites - some free, some pay. Of the ones I've used, Chemistry.com is the worst. Chemistry and Match are the same company.

The ONLY contacts I ever received on Chemistry were fake. While I was a paid member, I had few matches actually show up in my queue and none ever hinted at responding - only a couple ever logged in long enough to click "not interested". I have to believe that a large number of those accounts were either fake or had been sitting there so long the person behind them was years gone. Once my subscription ran out, exactly as you mention here, I suddenly start getting craploads of messages saying "she is interested in you".

Eharmony, on the other hand, was very different. I got lots of matches while I was a paid member. Most of them responded - some positively, some just to click 'not interested'. I communicated with quite a few people, and a couple led to dates. All in all, I feel like they were pretty honest.

And to be thorough, I'll say that the free sites have been better. I won't say the name but the "largest free dating site" has been the most successful for me. I've talked to LOTS of people for free, had a good number of dates, some good, some bad, and one that may last :)

But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to find out Match is as fishy as Chemistry was for me. I also wouldn't be surprised to find out the same parent company owns a number of adult-oriented sites that are full of spammers and scammers.
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harbingerofdoom (profile), 21 Jan 2011 @ 6:14am

so boggle me this:
if the sites that are supposedly set up to match your profile with someone elses so that you are more likely to hit it off, why would anyone say not interested without so much as a how-do-you-do?

that right there just screams ripoff... but maybe thats just me...
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Mary, 26 Jan 2011 @ 1:17am

Dating sites...waste of my time, emotion and money. Regret!
I joined one paid Christian dating site (Christianmingle.com), one 'free' one (realchristiansingles.com), and two general ones (Match.com and Chemistry.com). I had hoped to meet friends and possibly like-minded dating opportunities on at least one of them. The result? Zilch. I got scammer after scammer after scammer, winks from profiles I knew darn well were fake because of the model-perfect pictures, and ogled and emailed by guys that I had virtually nothing in common with. It's as if these sites totally ignore your preferences and send people waaaay older, waaaaay more out of your area of interest, and waaaaay not likeminded in terms of things like children, religion and politics. I got tons of winks and pushy IM attempts, but no one I was interested in even said boo back? I don't mean to brag, but I'm a catch and men notice me...I just can't find one that attracts me back so I thought I'd give online dating a try. Not one date out of hundreds and hundreds of views, received winks and even a few smiles and hello's of my own? So to me these sites are bogus. I regret being naive enough to think that these sites really understood how hard it is for quality singles to find quality singles, and that we have emotions that get jerked around hard by their statistic-padding and fake profile-allowing tactics. I'm not just frustrated, I'm angry. I'm a smart cookie, but was vulnerable enough and hopeful enough that I just got flat-out duped. It hasn't made my post-divorce life any easier emotionally.
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Mary, 26 Jan 2011 @ 1:23am

Re: Agreed, Match and Chemistry are lame.
I can't add a thing to what you wrote...Chemistry has been an utter dead end, too. I'm just giving up on online dating, and trusting that it's all a scene that just isn't right for me. It just kinda wore me out, and ended up being a pointless distraction in the end. I wish I could warn everyone to just stay away from them, really...at least guard your money, and for sure your heart. Thanks for weighing in.
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Mary, 26 Jan 2011 @ 1:26am

Good point!
You know, you are sooo right about the statistics and how misleading they are...just goes to show 'How to Lie with Statistics' is still a bestseller. :) The irony. I have read that the failure rates are actually more like 99%...that only 1% of registrants on dating sites ever meet their mate online. I wonder what the stats are on scammers? It's brutal...I got hurt twice before I clued into this aspect of the online dating world. I know I keep saying this, but folks, just stay away. It's just too fraught with problems.
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Aaron, 24 Mar 2011 @ 5:12pm

Match
I've been on match for awhile (not after the next few days when my subscription expires) and have gotten a few responses. The trouble is, with the exception of one person I already knew and lived a few blocks away, they've all been fake profiles, scammers, or what DO seem like staff trying to get me to renew or keep interest. The only few REAL replies have mostly been a few separated stay at home mom's looking for the next meal ticket sporting a few sexy photos that give a clue to stay away. Unfortuanately, I'm divorced, financially stable and responsible, have a home, paid for vehicle, don't drink much at all, don't smoke...etc. But, I'm 5'5" tall. I've never had really a problem talking to women in person but don't like bars. Sites like match give a great opportunity, but I think people go into it like they're picking out their next new car. Don't like the color exactly, move to the next. Not give enough, move to the next. What really got me about match was the fake interest that what seemed like staffers showed then suddenly stopped any correspondence and disappeared when a few e-mails were exchanged. It does suck when I'm eager to get back and check e-mail to find out it was staff or scamming. I hardly like wasting my time chatting away at someone laughing on the other side.
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Devon, 18 Jun 2011 @ 1:12am

sex
How old are you?are you good in bed and are you sexy?
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Chris, 19 Jul 2011 @ 6:31am

Re:
Match.com is so obvious with this.
I had a subscription for 3 months, the whole time not one girl would reply to emails or winks. And almost get nobody viewing my profile even after sending emails out to many different girls. But the day after my subscription expires I get a notification that someone sent me an email. Then about a week later, I get the notification that someone added me as a favorite. Then a few days later, someone else added me as a favorite. I also get all these 'someone viewed your profile. All these notifications to persuade me to renew my subscription.
Which I know if I do, I'll find out that the girl who sent me the email, will either say 'inactive for over 3 weeks' or the profile will be deleted. Same with ones who saved me as a favorite.

It's a huge scam to try and get people to renew, and I really think this should be illegal. I hope that court case goes forward.
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BURKE, 17 Aug 2011 @ 3:53pm

MATCH FAKES
IT IS SO SO TRUE....I HAVE SEEN IT MANY TIMES
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Wink2date, 22 Sep 2011 @ 4:58pm

fakerssss
That says it all really they need to lie to get customers very low.
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ItIsReallySuspicious, 20 Nov 2011 @ 1:02pm

My match subscription is up for renewal at the end of this month. Starting about 2 months ago but with increasing frequency over the past month - i will get a wink or be favorited by someone who seems, maybe just slightly out of my league to be honest, not a supermodel but certainly attractive female 2-5 years younger then me. What is odd is that, like clockwork, within 24 hours of that "contact" I will be met with the oops this profile is not available when I try to click on it. This is before I've even gotten a chance to screw it up! Maybe there is an explanation for this outside of some something sketchy going on but I can't imagine what it could be. Sure maybe once or twice, but now I just laugh about it as soon as I get the wink and without fail my suspicions are confirmed when I go to look at the profile even hours later - and it is "unavailable".
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biptu, 28 Nov 2011 @ 7:33pm

fake profiles
Yeah this stuff needs to stop! Free sights like POF.com and OKCupid.com dont do things like that. I stopped paying for dating sight along time ago. Singlesnet.com , for some reason is packed with scammers. where as IHookup.com, and speeddate.com are packed with "Yahoo whores" as someone stated.lol. Then there are just the plain nasty ones like amaturematch.com and xxdatebook.com that are packed with with everything, mainly obvious profiles that are generated for the sole reason to lure you to pay for subscriptions. Even sights like AreYouInterested.com send fake emails. Wonder what FaceBook thinks of that. Then they are sights like zoosk, who recently started charging for emails etc, and actually have the gull to respond for the member your sending a flirt too. Im starting to wonder if its not easier to just go the bars and blow 100 bucks or more, just to at least get honest rejections...
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Tsetse, 27 Jan 2012 @ 5:15pm

Re: All of the dating sites are scams
Yeah, why would women pay for a dating site unless they are fat, unattractive, insecure, or just too plain picky(in which case they will never be happy)? I meet more men out in the real world who are single than I do women. I suppose there is a gender imbalance in my area though.
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Tsetse, 27 Jan 2012 @ 5:39pm

Match.com is a scam and eHarmony is a lost cause
I have been on dating websites since 2000. I started out with Matchmaker.com which had a few second dates and a short-term relationship on. That went downhill in 2004 so I quit. I was have been on eHarmony since December of 2003. I have only had one time dates and ever since moving to Oregon for school I have not dated one damned woman, whether on or off the website. I started Match.com a couple of months ago, sent out so many e-mails I cannot even count them and have not received a single reply. Now, surely if a good number of these people were real at least somebody would respond. I have recently received a good number of winks since I put up one of my more spiffy-looking images only to receive the notification: "Oops, that member profile is unavailable at this time" when I click on their photo. I'm getting tired of internet dating. I have a lot going for me, I just don't have the woman. I'm thinking about finding a mail-order wife from South America.
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Michael, 28 Jan 2012 @ 8:54pm

Dating
Yeah fake profiles I'd say are on both payed and free sites. The pay for sites lure you in thinking there are quality people on here, and they don't necessarily have to be supermodels but someone decent all around, you pay to contact the person then no reply of course. Then you're left with the sub par people's you'd normally not be interested in anyway.
Then sites like POF which are free make money from advertising on their site, the more members they can get to sign up the more they charge for advertising.
Yep dating in the 21 century is tough, no matter what route you try. Empathy to all singles out there still looking...including me!
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Mar 2012 @ 5:14am

This is true. In my experience match.com makes their money from fake users who fish for private information from legitimate users. The fake users far outnumber the legitimate users. In fact there are almost no legitimate users. I switched from match.com to eharmony but it is the same thing, just more expensive. This is true for okcupid as well, except it is free unless you upgrade.

They are all places for people to steal your photos and private info for their own personal gain. You will rarely meet a real person on these sites.

For example, they will often offer to meet with you and give you a number to call them hoping that you will call them when they won't show up so they can get your phone number. This has happened to me several times, except I never called these numbers. Do not ever give out any personal information to anyone unless you've met them already and you know they are a real person.

I am canceling all of my accounts. It is too dangerous and there are no regulations protecting consumers.
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SpinningAround, 19 Apr 2012 @ 11:18am

Re: Re: All of the dating sites are scams
You're gross and undateable
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Plenty of kaka I mean fish sucks, 1 Jun 2012 @ 4:11pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: a pertinent link
You are full of shit. All of those sites are 90 percent scam. I don't believe you. You are a paid member of a site probably.
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Darrel Horton, 22 Jul 2012 @ 6:47pm

Scams
Yes they are all scams. Everyone of them!
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Darrel Horton, 22 Jul 2012 @ 7:02pm

Re:
Good people? What good people? I guess the good people
are all the people who pay money on dating sites and get
screwed. I guess that makes up about percent of everybody
who joins the sites. Who are the rest?
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disappointed, 23 Oct 2012 @ 1:49pm

match.com scamming practices
i opened my profile couple of days ago. when i tried to subscribe today, to my surprise i learnt the fee jumped to �31.99 over night! i checked with my friend who opened profile 3 days ago and his fee stayed unchanged (with significantly fewer views displayed).

see the screenshot: http://oi49.tinypic.com/jzi6mh.jpg

it a deliberate move to encourage people by displaying high number views/winks and then put the fee higher! this is outrageous practice, also discriminating users to access services. in this circumstances i did NOT subscribe and will keenly share it with other bloggers on the forum.

before i post it publicly i offered match.com to explain the situation but did not hear from them. the reason i turned to paid dating portal was in pursuit of more ethical approach and genuine experience. because of the data manipulation i'm concerned whether users on match.com site are actually genuine persons, or merely automated avatars just to drive the sales higher!!

very disappointed...
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alex, 13 Nov 2012 @ 4:27pm

match seems to have a lot of fake profiles where men are widowed and have a little girl... I guess they think it makes us feel more sympathy for them. Of course all these poor men also are very good looking movie star good looks and very well off
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John, 16 Nov 2012 @ 1:29pm

I tried match 3 years ago and again for kicks and giggles 2 months ago. Match female profiles' can be broken down like this:
1. Fake profiles (i love how i log into match and the same gorgeous girl from 3 years ago are still listed as active with same pictures, are these site created profiles?. There is also plenty of scammers who seem to pop in and out with single profile pics and o i am stuck in Europe plz send cash...)
2. Single mothers looking for bachelors with well paying jobs for $$$.
3. "I can do better than my husband/bf so let me a make profile and see what i get"
4. Genuine single women sadly they make up smallest portion of match profiles'.
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Michael, 22 Dec 2012 @ 9:28am

Too add
Once you leave match.com all the sudden you're bombarded by emails from them with people who are emailing you and checking you out constantly. Plus I also suspect they leave your file up so to keep a higher member count. This would explain why some profiles are there for years even though the person left a long time ago, and their profile will say "Active longer than 3 weeks ago" or something along those lines. When if fact it should say something like "left years ago, and was also a fake profile to begin with".
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Michael, 22 Dec 2012 @ 9:29am

Too add
Once you leave match.com all the sudden you're bombarded by emails from them with people who are emailing you and checking you out constantly. Plus I also suspect they leave your file up so to keep a higher member count. This would explain why some profiles are there for years even though the person left a long time ago, and their profile will say "Active longer than 3 weeks ago" or something along those lines. When if fact it should say something like "left years ago, and was also a fake profile to begin with".
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Jack, 31 Dec 2012 @ 12:19pm

Well I was on Match and few other dating sites there are plenty of women who don't even have courtesy to reply back to emails. Heck i did my best to reply all the emails and gently turning them down (one of them ironically became a friend in RL) . Is our society that bad?

I ended by finding my wife the old fashioned way but my wife had unique perspective on it she said most of her friends who are on there are in it to boost their egos, they are still single and have wild expectation of their true partner. They end up getting what they deserve (cheaters).
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jan 2013 @ 6:54pm

Re:
There are a huge number of fake profiles set up by law enforcement to draw in predators (which I guess is a good thing). What you described sounds like one sort of a trap.
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anON, 11 Jan 2013 @ 11:40pm

Match.com is definitely a fraud - I've been on it several times with different user names and every time it's the same thing, emails while you're not paid up and then nothing after... a more genuine site would at least let you see who emailed you without paying. Eharmony isn't much better in that you cannot tell if someone you are trying to communicate with is a paid member or not so most likely you are wasting your time anyway..... also they advertise constantly about their accurate matches due to all the answers yet if you don't get many matches, you are constantly prompted to slacken your match ideals - it once kept telling me to change my preference to drinks rarely to often to get more matches - why?????
Eharmony also has no option to provide feedback via email, I rang to get a contact to do so and was told I would be emailed one, still waiting......
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Michael, 13 Jan 2013 @ 3:21pm

?
"There are a huge number of fake profiles set up by law enforcement to draw in predators (which I guess is a good thing). What you described sounds like one sort of a trap."

I don't follow the logic on this comment, why would they do that it's not like Too Catch an Internet Predator on MSNBC where it's a sting operation for pedos.
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maxshea (profile), 6 Feb 2013 @ 3:59pm

Dating sites will make you hate women
As the gentleman above mentioned, I am also five-feet-five. That's red flag for women who assume I come across like a Hobbit. I don't. If you were talking to me, you wouldn't think about my height. Dating sites turn dating into a soulless numbers game in which women hold ALL the cards. Some women say not to assume just because they're pretty that they can find "quality" dates. What they mean is they can't find a guy with the face of Jon Hamm and the wallet of Bill Gates. Boo-effing-hoo for them. Women act like woe-is-me in the world of men, but they're manipulative, scheming, vulgar users. They use men and throw them away. Even the ugly ones when they can get away with it. On Match and eHarmony, the only real profiles are the old, the fat, and the ugly. Their attitude is straight out vengeful because even a dame who can't get picked up at 2 AM Paradise Cafe gets 100 hits a week on Match, eHarmony, Chemistry, etc. I wish I had never joined dating sites, they greatly diminished my attitude towards women.
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Tom, 17 Feb 2013 @ 2:25am

Match.com is the worst company you can deal with....
YES worst site ever BE WARNED JOIN at your own RISK also be aware they will simply not give you a REFUND.....i signed up and asked for a refund with 48 hours and when i called they said NO!

They are the worst company for customer care, NEVER use your credit card to ever PAY them you will REGRET it. Do a proper review via Google and see how they have screwed others before you before you part with your hard earned money! Don't be a FOOL.....i say this in the hope you don't get ripped off like i did!
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Ken w, 27 Feb 2013 @ 6:23pm

Want to sue eharmony
I need a lawyer to sue eharmony . I am positive they have employees set up dates to lead you on and cancel with excuses . I also had one stop messaging me and I emailed her my number saying I hear eharmony uses fake people text me if your real . I got a text 1 minute later . She is out of town next to her dying dad .. Went through days of text messages .. Don't hear for weeks and I see her active on eharmony . I leave text ... No response so I message on eharmony and here comes my text reply .. New phone .. Talk on phone make date and then 1 hour later she needs to cancel because she doesn't like dogs and I have one .. I asked her if she works for eharmony .. No response
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Stuart, 21 Apr 2013 @ 2:12pm

This is so true. They have my own sister inlaw getting intouch via this person likes you you like her bollox this was my first contact via match and therefore never ised it again, my inlaw has never used the site tho they have pictures of her from a few years ago from thr net from when she used to sing in a band
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Mitko, 24 Apr 2013 @ 6:47am

Re: a pertinent link
Your link isn't working. Here's the same article on Columbia.edu - http://www.columbia.edu/~jhb2147/why-you-should-never-pay-for-online-dating.html

Additional interesting resources for online dating:

Dating in the Internet Era
http://searchwithmylife.com/dating-in-the-internet-era/

Facebook apps to find a date
http://reviewsmylife.com/top-5-facebook-apps-to-find-a-date/
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cupid1891, 10 May 2013 @ 5:17am

totally true and even worse
I am currently on match.com with a valid paid subscription. It seems like they try to keep on members longer on their site because this is the second time that the profile of people that favorited me just disappears right after they fo so and I cannot longer get in touch with them. Should I sue the motherfuckers?
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anonyray, 31 Aug 2013 @ 3:45pm

Re:
me too!
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DO, 14 Sep 2013 @ 6:10am

Re: Re:
they continually semd "matches" from people wno are no longer members...one friend's profile appeared on one of these supposed matchups and he told me he hasn't been with Match for five years...
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john bumblefuck, 5 Oct 2013 @ 9:21pm

Re: totally true and even worse
No. Mail them a pipe bomb. Kill the fuckers.
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Armando, 30 Dec 2013 @ 5:00pm

Re: totally true and even worse
I really wish we could. That's exactly what happens. Is it really possible that someone that looks like a great person has NO!!! PREFERENCES??? on who they are looking to meet. Or that just after a few days of membership there are so many perfect, as if GOD just created them, matches wanting to meet you???

And the disappearance of this AWESOME!!! matches... SAME HERE!!! It happened to me and MANY!!!, MANY!!! others.

I really hope the get caught!!!
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dennis teel, 25 Apr 2014 @ 6:11pm

granny ate my mom
I find it terribally odd that the majority of female members of these sites claim to have a bachelor degree or business degree of some kind..I find it very highly unlikely that there's THAT many out there..this would mean that it's so common we'd be running into them everywhere we golike rabbits in a hutch.when I read the profile of a female that's in her early or mid 20's and she claims to have a bachelor or business degree I pass that person up and go on to the next..usually the next woman's profile says the same..i'd say about 2 out every 3 female profiles are professing bachelor or business or some kind of degree..that's absurd..with all the issues combined I say staying away from dating sites is a good idea.
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nathan, 2 May 2014 @ 7:38pm

date in asia
This is so frustrating using dating site whose sole purpose is to create revenue, i for one am interested in using in dating sites to find a date in asia but this kind of news is discouraging me to do so, :(
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Tom, 11 Nov 2015 @ 5:09pm

Match Full Of Match
The idea of Match NOT deleting expired profiles and conning at minimum of all its users goes on NOW. Do a search and say you retrieve 100 names. Check them out and you'll discover only about 30 % still are active - misleading ? Of course. Minor to an indiviudal but how about Verizon as on example paying them for an assumed 10 million active users when they turly have about 3 million. (I told the Attorney General of Texas
in Dallas about one year ago - NOTHING changed ! Shock ? Why ? The world is rather imperfect !
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Tom, 11 Nov 2015 @ 5:12pm

Match Full Of Match
The idea of Match NOT deleting expired profiles and conning at minimum of all its users goes on NOW. Do a search and say you retrieve 100 names. Check them out and you'll discover only about 30 % still are active - misleading ? Of course. Minor to an indiviudal but how about Verizon as on example paying them for an assumed 10 million active users when they truly have about 3 million. (I told the Attorney General of Texas
in Dallas about one year ago - NOTHING changed ! Shock ? Why ? The world is rather imperfect !)
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Tim M, 15 Feb 2016 @ 8:52pm

Empty or expired profiles
Seems to me that after 3 plus weeks if someone if paying on Match.com to meet a prospective mate these women would look at their profile and see if someone is interested or not. Kind of fishy. I'm done with Match.com when my contract is over. Dating stinks if you are over 50 especially for men.
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Carol Zoba, 31 Mar 2016 @ 2:29pm

Scammers and dead profiles
Since me as a female being on Match for two months I have found many scammers, dead profiles,etc and they WON'T give back your money. IT is a SCAM itself. Report to Better Business Bureau.
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MG, 15 Apr 2016 @ 9:49am

Zoosk dating site
I cancelled with this dating site months ago. They still have my profile as an active member. I still keep getting messages that 'so and so' wants to meet me. I used to get a lot of those when I was an active member and I answered 'yes' I want to meet you also and never once got a response from any of them. So I can only assume that they are all 'dead' members. I have tried several dating sites through the years and they all do it. These sites are mostly run by scammers. Don't waste your time and money.
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Jimbo, 25 Apr 2016 @ 11:49am

Match.com
I was on match.com on and off for a number of years. When the site was relatively new it seemed as though I was getting way more responses. I think there are so many people on line now; it’s hard to get noticed amongst the douche-bags and players that overwhelm any attractive woman that puts up a profile. Recently, my subscription was about to expire. For several weeks leading up to the expiration date of my subscription, I had no activity or interest from anyone on the site. I wasn’t using the Daily Matchup (which I’ve always thought was totally useless), or sending any emails. Suddenly, the week up to and the week after, I started receiving winks and likes. I think Match intentionally either sent me fake “likes”, or featured my profile more prominently in women’s searches.
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gene, 4 May 2016 @ 8:16am

e harmony , a real "dead " person they keep on
i met my girlfriend on e harmony in 2009, she said she only met me there and did not renew and yet her profile is still on e harmony now when i sign on in 2016.

the reason i am back is because she Died , Oc 26,2015.

http://www.eharmony.com/member/matchprofile/match/1587563954

this is a very clear example of a real dead person who they have on profile and who should not have been there for 7 years, but who is actually dead. i would want to know how to make this public or add to a suit that says this is a wrong practice.
gg
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Norma Petrie, 20 Jun 2016 @ 6:18pm

A Big Con
I subscribed to match.com about 3 weeks ago, it has just came to my notice that they have taken two amounts of money from my bank account 1for 59.90 and the second amount of 59.40 both taken on same day. I can't understand why i have been charged twice? And now match.com have stopped me from using account, but haven't reimbursed me for either of payments taken
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Jenna, 9 Jul 2016 @ 8:21pm

Re:
Both eharmony and match have scammers on their sites and no one should ever use them
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Vee, 21 Jul 2017 @ 12:53pm

Fake emails when subscription is expiring
"Separately, there are claims that just as accounts are about to expire, members get a notice that someone wants to contact them -- but they have to renew their subscription to respond. Except, when they do renew, it turns out that the person who wanted to contact them has disappeared. All that does seem a bit sneaky, if true." This statement is true, I have a complaint with Match right now, July 21st, 2017, and they keep pointing me to cookies and browsers and bookmarks, the same standard email keeps getting sent to me. They are a big scam.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Mar 2018 @ 2:45am

i paid for match.com but dont even receive it robbery?
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Sophia, 14 May 2018 @ 5:36am

I believe that match.com also creates fake profiles itself, in order to lure people in and convince them there are many attractive profiles.
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Eric, 7 Jun 2018 @ 4:43pm

Match.com itself is a scam. When i'm not a subscriber, I get tons of "likes" or "emails" daily lure me to join and see who the senders are. But as soon as I join, these profiles either don't exist or they won't respond to you. Also a lot of the profiles have the exact same profile summaries like they are being copied multiple times. They just ruin the online dating experience.
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