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FTC fines JDI dating sites for Scamming Members | Forum

Topic location: Forum home » General » Scam
Jstnona
Jstnona Mar 6 '15
In its first law enforcement action against an online dating service, the Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement that prohibits JDI Dating Ltd., an England-based company with 18 online dating sites,  from using fake, computer-generated profiles  to trick users into upgrading to paid memberships and charging these members a recurring monthly fee without their consent. The settlement also requires the defendants to pay $616,165 in redress.

https://www.ftc.gov/...ve-use-fake-profiles
billyHill Moderator
billyHill Mar 6 '15
If I'm not mistaken, Marisa has had "companies" that put up those fake profiles approach her so the site could be more enticing.... Also if memory serves me well, she went to them. Marisa has a lot of guts and high moral standards. She won't be sucked in over crap like that. She is one of a very few if not one and only.
Marisa Admin
Marisa Mar 7 '15
Yeah, this is not exactly scamming (at least not in our meaning of the word "scammer"), this is when the website owners create fake profiles and send fake messages to members to create an impression of "activity" on the site. This is what paid sites usually do, to make people pay for memberships. This is not the first lawsuit like that (well, maybe the first in the UK), but the very first lawsuit like that was against match.com few years ago. 


There are companies that you can hire and they will fill up your site with "members" and create "activity". This is dishonest practice of course, but the dating industry has its tricks and cheats, without which dating sites cannot survive, the competition is too tough, dating is a second competitive industry online after adult.


I have high moral standards, but they take me nowhere. My site is online for 10 years, and still small, still struggling. I started it at the same time as POF, connectingsingles, and other big sharks. And look where they are now and where I am now. 


As for scamming, like real scammers on the sites, there will never be a lawsuit about that, because the law says that the sites that allow placing personal ads or classified ads by third parties are not responsible for the content of those ads.

Jstnona
Jstnona Mar 7 '15
Thanks Marisa, was unsure where to put it.  Does it not mean that this is the first time the Federal Trade Commission, as a American law enforcement agency, has taken action?  Vs. a lawsuit.   I found it interesting, and encouraging,  that they fined a company operating out of UK.  Especially addressing the continued unathorized credit card charges also.  Something that so many other non-dating online businesses resort to also.
 Now, if only they had the abilitiy to attack the real scammers. 
Ahhh Billy, YES.... through the years Marisa has consistently displayed her strength and high standards. 
Marisa Admin
Marisa Mar 7 '15
Well, but this is still a result of a lawsuit, and Federal Trade Commission is a plaintiff. Honestly, I don't remember who was a plaintiff in match.com case. 
billyHill Moderator
billyHill Mar 7 '15
oh stop whining, Marisa. if you got rich doing internet dating you would have sold your soul to the God of Money.... and then you wouldn't want to look at yourself in the mirror at all, ever... We like you better the way you are
Jstnona
Jstnona Mar 7 '15
Marisa, you piqued my interest... Googled Match.com's lawsuits.  Seems there have been many.  All thrown out, because Match.com never agreed to "police" profiles.  The latest, a class action  1.5 Million dollar lawsuit.. was thrown out also.  But, I think perhaps this should be in jokes.  What a convoluted fiasco.   I am still laughing.  
 https://nypost.com/...eated-fake-profiles/
Marisa Admin
Marisa Mar 7 '15
OMG, what a bullshit!!!  This last lawsuit was from a porn model Julie, the poor girl's pics are the most abused by Nigerians, together with Raven Riley's pics, there are thousands of profiles out there with Julie's pics, every single dating site and soc network has infinity of them, except DNM of course. Julie is a nice woman, she sometimes posts on RS, tries to help scammed men. We had a topic about it on the old site. But it was quite obvious she was going to lose. Well, even if RPOs (real picture owners) cannot do anything about scammers abusing their pics, what can victims do??


This is Julie, I am sure single men who have profiles on other sites have seen this faces millions of times. 


The Forum post is edited by Marisa Mar 7 '15
Jstnona
Jstnona Mar 7 '15
Did you see that they tried to say that Julie sold her pictures to Nigerians, to use in scams.   Thought not....why would they pay for something they just lift off the internet.  Nice to hear the truth. 

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