Most of us are familiar with the pleasant experience of an arranged date or a blind date: dining under the romantic glow of the Golden Arches, learning about a day in the life of Muffin, her pure-bred Persian, or perhaps “going Dutch” on the check when all the fun finally ends.  Add to the mix online dating sites—virtual exchanges of love interests, complete with lists of mostly aspirational hobbies, and yes, user photos from ten years and twenty pounds ago.  When you sign up for an online dating service, you expect these subtle (or not so subtle) misrepresentations from other users.  What you don’t expect is the dating service doing the same—for example, by sending flirtatious notes from made up profiles.  That’s exactly what the FTC alleged last week in its second Restore Online Shopper’s Confidence Act (“ROSCA”) case ever, in which the FTC settled with a dating site for posting fake user profiles in an effort to persuade customers to sign up for premium services.
Continue Reading In Second ROSCA Case, FTC Finds Dating Site Too Clingy