Online Dating Sites Accused of Deception

The AP reports:

After looking for love on the Internet and failing to find it, frustrated lonely hearts are heading to court, accusing online dating sites of engaging in deceptive practices.

A recent lawsuit against Match.com charged the matchmaking service with sending a female employee out on a date with a male subscriber as "date bait" to keep him signed up. Another lawsuit against a personals service offered by Yahoo Inc. accused the Internet portal giant of creating fake profiles to entice subscribers.

Match.com denied the allegations and obtained an affidavit from the woman in question, who declared she never worked for the company. Yahoo refused to comment.

The federal fraud lawsuits, which seek class-action status, have roiled the lucrative online dating industry. A 2004 report by Jupiter Research estimated the U.S. Internet personals market had revenues of $473 million that year — the largest moneymaker for online content.