SCAM HISTORY: 6 Years Ago – A Adult Star/Model Sues Match.com For $1.5 Billion, Says Her Picture Was Used In Fake Profiles

This Groundbreaking Case Would Have Corrected Much That Is Wrong In Today’s Dating And Social Media Websites

Unfortunately, the selection of the plaintiff was seriously flawed. The initial plaintiff was Yuliana Avalos and it was alleged that her husband actually sold her photos to African scammers. The result is that the case collapsed and could not recover from this revelation.

However, the foundation of the case seemed sound and can serve as a template should enterprising attorneys want to step up and take this on again – against dating sites or against social media companies.

In the original suit in 2014, our own Dr. McGuinness, SCARS Director was the expert witness for the plaintiff’s legal team. SCARS would be pleased to help with expertise in future cases like this.

HERE IS AN ORIGINAL ARTICLE FROM THE CASE

2014 – Dating Website Operators Caught Turning A Blind Eye To Scammers And Fake Profiles

The following article, reprinted in the public interest provided courtesy of  http://www.businessinsider.com

A New York plaintiffs’ lawyer has filed a massive lawsuit accusing Match.com of knowingly approving hundreds, and possibly thousands, of fake profiles using pirated photos.

The lead plaintiff in the proposed class action is a mother and part-time model named Yuliana Avalos, who claims that her photo has been used in more than 200 fake Match.com profiles.

“Not a day goes by when someone doesn’t tell me that they saw my pictures posted on Match.com or another website,” Avalos said, in a written statement provided by her lawyer, Evan Spencer.

The allegedly bogus profiles on Match.com — and its niche dating sites like PetPeopleMeet.com and SeniorBlackPeopleMeet.com — are often posted by fraudsters outside the U.S. with foreign ISP addresses, according to the lawsuit. From the lawsuit:

While defendants’ sites presumably provide a legitimate forum for American citizens in the 50 states to meet new people for dating, relationships, and marriage, the truth is that a large percentage of profiles on these sites are fraudulent profiles posted by con-artists or scammers from international locations for illegal purposes, using the photographs of Plaintiff and members of the class without permission or consent.

These illegal purposes allegedly include “romance scams” in which fraudsters try to get love-seeking people to send money out of the country. The illicit photos come from modeling agencies and Facebook and even include photos of military servicemen and women, the suit alleges.

That suit is seeking $1.5 billion in damages for people whose photos have been used, as well as a court order requiring Match.com to use facial recognition software to stop fraudsters from using pirated photos.

The real scam here is this meritless lawsuit, which is filled with outlandish conspiracy theories and clumsy fabrications in lieu of factual or legal basis.  We’re confident that our legal system is as adept as we are at detecting scammers and will dismiss this case in short order.

This is not the first time Match.com has been accused of approving fake profiles.

Last year, a judge threw out a suit brought by Internet daters who claimed half of Match.com profiles were inactive or scams. Those daters claimed they’d been duped into thinking the pool of Match.com daters was bigger than it actually was, and that Match.com had violated its user agreement.

Texas federal judge Sam Lindsay, however, ruled that the Match.com user agreement “in no way requires Match.com to police, vet, update the website content” or make sure the profiles are for real” Reuters reported at the time.

The most recent suit is a little different, since it was brought by the people whose pictures were allegedly used and not Match.com subscribers.

Rather than asserting breach of contract, this most recent suit asserts claims of copyright infringement, fraud, and negligence.

This newest suit says Match.com could easily eliminate all the fraud on its site if it gets software to stop international ISP addresses from posting domestic profiles in the U.S.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/yuliana-avalos-lawsuit-against-match-2013-11#ixzz2pb4HNKcG

READ THE FULL LAWSUIT FILING HERE

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