FTC Sues Match Group for Profiting From Fake Dating Profiles
The Federal Trade Commission sues Match Group, accusing the dating giant of tricking hundreds of thousands of consumers into buying subscriptions through messages from known scammers.
The Federal Trade Commission sues Match Group for fraudulent business practices, alleging the dating app giant knowingly profits from bots and scammers. The lawsuit claims Match tricks hundreds of thousands of consumers into paying for subscriptions by sending notifications about messages the company already flags as suspicious.
According to the FTC, scammers account for 25 to 30 percent of daily Match registrations, and during certain months between 2013 and 2016, over half of all communications on the platform come from fraudulent accounts. Despite knowing these accounts are fake, Match sends "You caught his eye" marketing emails to non-subscribers to lure them into paying to read the scam messages.
Nearly 500,000 consumers sign up for subscriptions within 24 hours of receiving these deceptive emails between June 2016 and May 2018. Many of these paying customers discover the scammer's account is deleted or unavailable, leaving them stuck with a subscription they struggle to cancel due to the company's unfair billing practices.