Online dating sites are a common way people seek romance. But what if, instead of a potential match, you find a scammer? Today, the FTC announced a lawsuit against Match.com, challenging several of Match’s business practices, including ones that the FTC says exposed customers to romance scammers.
If you had a free Match account and got a message from another user, Match would send you a notice like this one to encourage you to “read his email” (or hers)…which required you to subscribe and pay:

But the person whose eye you caught? Match had already identified many of them as likely scammers. So if you paid Match to read that message, you might have found either a scammer or an empty inbox, instead of, possibly, “the one” Match advertised. That’s deceptive, the FTC says.
Even worse, says the FTC, is that Match had blocked some of these suspicious accounts from sending messages to its paying subscribers, but didn’t give the same protection to free account users. The people who then subscribed in response to these messages could have been exposed to scammers. The FTC says that practice is unfair, placing people at risk of romance scams so that Match could make more money.
FTC data show that romance scams are on the rise. So how to protect yourself if you’re still looking for love in online places?
- Listen for details that don’t add up, and do a reverse-image search on profile pictures. If those pics show up with someone else’s name, you’ve found a scammer.
- If an online sweetheart you haven’t met in person asks you for money, stop. That’s always a scam.
- Talk to someone you trust about this love interest – and pay attention if friends or family are concerned.
- Learn more at ftc.gov/imposters.
If you think you’ve encountered a romance scammer on an online dating site, report it to the website and to ftc.gov/complaint. Watch this video to learn more about romance scams.
30 Comments
In reply to I was a paid customer of by Daisy
If you think you encountered a romance scammer on an online dating site, report it to the website and to ftc.gov/complaint.
In reply to Thank you to whoever launched by Francis
In reply to Happened to me His name he by Mikko
Read Our Privacy Act Statement
It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.
Comment Policy
This is a moderated blog; we review all comments before they are posted. We expect participants to treat each other and the bloggers with respect. We will not post comments that do not comply with our commenting policy. We may edit comments to remove links to commercial websites or personal information before posting them.
We won’t post:
Comments submitted to this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include personal information. Also, do not use this blog to report fraud; instead, file a complaint.