While there are many, many stories of romances that begin online ending in happily-ever-after, sometime the method doesn’t quite work.  In fact, sometimes the method is so far from working that lawyers are involved.

Take, for instance, the example of Matthew Evans.  Evans was *this* close to canceling his subscription to the dating website in 2005 when he was contacted by a potential match on the site.  He and the potential mate went out on a date, but according to Evans he learned that his date was actually an employee of Match.com and also told him that Match.com was responsible for a lot of the dates that came from a Match.com connection.  IAC, the company that owned Match.com at the time, said that the allegation was totally false, and the case was dismissed on April 25, 2007.

In more recent news, someone else filed another class action lawsuit against Match.com alleging that the company misleads paying members into thinking nonpaying members are really paying members.  The result of which negatively impacts the self esteem of the paying member, because here they are writing emails to somebody who never even logs on to the site and they’re not getting any response back, which makes them think something is wrong with them because they don’t know that the person they emailed is a nonactive or nonpaying member.

I’m sure that’s why that dude couldn’t get a date.  It WASN’T because the emails he sent went something like this:

“Hey hottt stuff.  U are so sexy.  I am looking for the write girl to hang out with – sumbudy that will listen to my World of Warcraft stories and wax my back for me.  Hit me upp, QT.”

or maybe it went more like this:

“I am a sexy, well-off, mature man looking for the similar traits in a woman.  Please email me your credit score, an overview of your stock portfolio, and your BMI rating for consideration.”

OK, OK.  Maybe he wasn’t that bad, but as this online personals site I found defended Match.com in saying that if a user hasn’t logged on for 3 weeks Match.com lets you know that.  So, for a casual user, you just stay away from people who haven’t used the site in 3 weeks, I guess.  Here is what they said:

“Internet dating is like fishing.  Those with paid memberships just cast out further and more frequently.  Those with idle unpaid memberships are waiting for the big fish.  The question is, should the dating site identify the pro fisherman form the amateurs?  I think the amateur fishermen would rather keep their hooks in the water.  The fish, meanwhile, would want to see when someone last logged in.  That’s the best indicator of activity and the potential to respond.  Still, is 3 weeks long enough?  How about 3 months?  Anyone who hasn’t been active in 3 months would be very unlikely to respond.”

Huh?

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• Should Online Dating Sites Do Background Checks? (abcnews.go.com)
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• Match.com taking over Yahoo’s dating service (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

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