FTC Fines Dating Site for Creating Fake Profiles, Crushing Hopes

The Federal Trade Commission today fined an online dating company for using fake profiles to profit off the aching void left in the soul when it has no one to love.

JDI Dating, which operates 18 niche dating sites with imaginative names such as GetFlirting.com, FlirtCrowd.com, and NaughtyOverForty.com, was slapped with a $616,165 fine for catfishing its users in order to make money.

According to the FTC, here’s how the scam was run: JDI sites would allow its users to create free profiles, and then send them alluring messages from fake profiles. In order to read said messages, however, the users were asked to pay a subscription fee of up to $30 a month.

“The fake profiles and messages caused many users to upgrade to paid subscriptions,” the FTC said in a release, adding that while the fake messages had a tiny icon indicating that they were “Virtual Cupids,” it was unclear that they were simply manifestations of human cruelty and corporate greed, stomping on their flickering hopes of finding someone, anyone, please, they don’t want to die alone.

(JDI Dating was also fined for not informing its users of its terms of service, which is shady, but not as cruel as convincing people that someone actually loved them.)

[The Hill]
[Image via Shutterstock]

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