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Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

nytimes.com

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Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#191

Post by kkarakk »

opportune wrote: post #90
yumario wrote: post #45

Rewriting one of my earlier comments: I have used Tinder (owned by Match) before and it was one of the must frustrating experiences ever. First, they do shady things with your data. Since I made a Tinder account I been getting constant ads for random dating sites. This have been going on for months. God knows how many companies now have my data. Second, they employ dark patterns: 1) Easy account deletion. Why does th…

Regarding 4, I don't think that is necessarily a shadow ban. AFAIK Tinder will sometimes surreptitiously give you a boost, the huge one being when you create a new account, and subsequently when you change areas, and probably a few other triggers

It FEELS like a shadow ban, no matter how many people you superlike or swipe right on you'll never get a match.

Current time to shadowban seems to be around 3 months

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#192

Post by kkarakk »

rolltiide wrote: post #72
yumario wrote: post #45

Rewriting one of my earlier comments: I have used Tinder (owned by Match) before and it was one of the must frustrating experiences ever. First, they do shady things with your data. Since I made a Tinder account I been getting constant ads for random dating sites. This have been going on for months. God knows how many companies now have my data. Second, they employ dark patterns: 1) Easy account deletion. Why does th…

And if you complain about your experience in an open forum you get berated by people assuming you arent attractive or your profile isnt good Glad to see the FTC curbstomping it

Reddit and other anonymous social media sites have "profile rates" where you can just submit your profile and have people point out issues.

Lots of people are told they have no problem with their profile and that they should just recreate their account to get around their shadow ban.

The house of cards that Tinder built is falling down

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#193

Post by manigandham »

systemcluster wrote: post #157
input_sh wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pay for your email address to solve the problem. On my email provider, I can create a catchall alias: *@example.com will end up in my johndoe@example.com mailbox. So, instead of doing johndoe+hn@example.com, I can do hn@example.com.

If your email provider does not offer a catchall alias option, this is also achievable with an email forwarder (e.g. mailgun), provided you are ok with giving another service provider access to the content of your received mails.

Technically most email is not encrypted so every single mail server in the middle also has access.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#194

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

vanderZwan wrote: post #162
Simon_says wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s brutal. My new hypothesis is that Match acquired OKC just to get Rudder to STFU.

The OKC blog was also full of good advice and interesting research about how online dating works. In some sense it was probably considered a threat that was revealing trade secrets.

That blog was amazing - one of the best overviews of the realities of dating published anywhere at any time.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#195

Post by [deleted] »

jdm2212 wrote: post #81
1024core wrote: post #67

Back when I was single, I was on a dozen dating sites. It was frustrating as heck to keep getting led on by fake profiles. eHarmony is the worst: they actually sold my email address to spammers. How do I know this? I have my own domain, and use a unique (hard to guess) email address for each site I have to give an email address to. So it was trivial to nail eHarmony as the culprit. Someone has already linked to the O…

I do the same thing with a gmail address -- just do myemail+uniqueid@gmail.com, because gmail drops everything after the + for routing the email but still tells you which address it was sent to.

[deleted]

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#197

Post by odiroot »

RandomBacon wrote: post #5

Unrelated, but I'm thinking about using one or more dating sites. Which ones do people here use, and what are your thoughts/observations?

I met my current partner on Tinder but I just didn't bother to look in my current place of residence.

I wouldn't recommend Tinder to anyone though.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#198

Post by Stratoscope »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #189
Stratoscope wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes indeed, and I have no problem with their choice to serve only those who fit with their mission. If they had only been honest and up front about it, and as soon as I said I was "separated" they said "sorry, we're not the dating service for you", it would have been fine! I would have respected that and moved on. But when they actively lied to me by leading me through the entire onboarding process - when they knew f…

The "separated" issue makes sense because on Planet Dating "separated" can mean anything from "The divorce papers have arrived and I haven't updated my status yet" to "I'm still living in the same house as my spouse and we have sex in between rows, but I'm not sure where this is going" to "I didn't mention I was married? Oh. Well. Sorry." But I suspect incompetence rather than malice. They simply didn't care enough -…

You are right, and I ran into a few of those variations including "we still live together and sleep together, but we don't feel any emotional connection any more."

And point well taken about suspecting incompetence rather than malice. Or not even incompetence. I can easily imagine some poor overworked web developer (maybe someone like me!) trying to meet their deadlines and business requirements and not even realizing that the "funnel" should have had a filter at the very top instead of waiting until the end to note the error.

This is why I try to put myself in the shoes of whoever is using my app and hopefully look at it from their perspective. I try not to just to ask myself if the interaction I'm building meets the technical requirements, but how will the person feel who is using my app?

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#199

Post by albertgoeswoof »

jdm2212 wrote: post #81
1024core wrote: post #67

Back when I was single, I was on a dozen dating sites. It was frustrating as heck to keep getting led on by fake profiles. eHarmony is the worst: they actually sold my email address to spammers. How do I know this? I have my own domain, and use a unique (hard to guess) email address for each site I have to give an email address to. So it was trivial to nail eHarmony as the culprit. Someone has already linked to the O…

I do the same thing with a gmail address -- just do myemail+uniqueid@gmail.com, because gmail drops everything after the + for routing the email but still tells you which address it was sent to.

This is ok but many sites strip the plus now (usually the most nefarious ones). Plus you’re linking your identity back to your gmail account which is probably not what you want to do on a dating site or in general online.

I wrote about this here: https://idbloc.co/blog/background/2019/04/14/keep-your-addre... and it’s one of the main reasons https://idbloc.co exists

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#200

Post by malicioususer11 »

shartshooter wrote: post #17

Juicy part from the actual complaint. Since at least 2013, Defendant has maintained the following five deceptive or unfair practices to induce consumers to subscribe to Match.com and to keep them subscribed. First, until mid-2018, Defendant sent consumers misleading advertisements that tout communications from persons Defendant identified as potentially fraudulent users of Match.com and led consumers to believe that…

didnt read all that. sounds shitty, actually...
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