Match.com and Yahoo (personals) sued in LA County

Online daters sue matchmaking sites

Pretty interesting.
Among other things, the people bringing the suits are saying:

Match.com, a unit of IAC/Interactive Corp., is accused in a federal lawsuit of goading members into renewing their subscriptions through bogus romantic e-mails sent out by company employees. In some instances, the suit contends, people on the Match payroll even went on sham dates with subscribers as a marketing ploy.

Ouch.
Man, that would suck.
One guy says:

[H]e went out with a woman he met through the site who turned out to be nothing more than "date bait" working for the company.
[he] found out about the alleged scam after the woman he dated confessed she was employed by Match. The lawsuit also claims the company violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, a law best known for being used in prosecuting organized crime.

Now that's intereting.
When you read how RICO is applied on this site, you wonder at first how you can apply this to Match.com.
Well, look no further, gentle reader:

In the 1980's, however, civil lawyers noticed section 1964(c) of the RICO Act, which allows civil claims to be brought by any person injured in their business or property by reason of a RICO violation. Any person who succeeded in establishing a civil RICO claim would automatically receive judgment in the amount of three times their actual damages and would be awarded their costs and attorneys' fees.
The financial windfall available under RICO inspired the creativity of lawyers across the nation, and by the late 1980's, RICO was a (if not the most) commonly asserted claim in federal court. Everyone was trying to depict civil claims, such as common law fraud, product defect, and breach of contract as criminal wrongdoing, which would in turn enable the filing of a civil RICO action.

I'm not saying this guy doesn't have a claim, but you know he sees serious dollar signs after his lawyer let him know they would proceed with a RICO contention.

Also in the story, as it relates to Yahoo personals:

In a separate suit, Yahoo Inc.'s personals service is accused of posting profiles of fictitious potential dating partners on its Web site to make it look as though many more singles subscribe to the service than actually do.

Not as bad as (alledgedly) sending someone out on a date with a poor slob, but still pretty shady, if in fact they did do this.

So, be careful when you are out there on the Internets looking for love.
Maybe just check out Craigslist.com for people that want partners for nothing but a little in and out...