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I hope that this situation interests you in the interest of all the victims Matchmaker.COM, Fraud, Scam and Negligence
It has been only eight days since I have joined Matchmaker.COM, the date.com site. In the eight days, I communicated with thirteen or more girls who had shown interest in my profile. All girls had posted false profile and false photos taken mostly from model agencies including, Hawaii Modeling Agency. Once I communicated with those young ladies, they immediately had a story to tell and asked for financial assistance. While most of the stories are similar, some were quite unique. One needed money for a birthday party; another needed money to help her sick mother; another needed money to see a doctor as she suddenly had gotten ill; another needed money, and top open a Pay-Pal for her, so that she could pay for her Internet access to chat with me.
After the first seven scammers, I contacted Matcchmaker.Com to complain and explain. I sent them t pages of chats; they ignored it and did not respond. Here is the message I had sent:
“These girls are Scammers from Africa – Their profiles are not the truth--They all have the same story and ask for money after the second communication. They also have false photos taken from modeling Agencies. Please address the matter seriously.
Matchmaker would delete the file and indicate that the profile has been deleted because the persons found their matches. They do nothing to protect their clients.
Dr. Sabri Bebawi, Ph.D
It has become obvious to me that Matchmaker is a scam. I was a free member for a while, then started getting all these messages from other "members." Of course you cannot read them unless you pay. Since many of the members were hundreds or even of miles away, it was obvious the profiles were fake and messages were actually sent by employees themselves in order to con me into paying. The messages are all generic "how was your week" so it's obvious.
The moment I became a paying member that's when all the messages started coming in for money. Not a single message from my state?! All the messages are computer generated. The profiles and photos of those are mostly real. Something told me to hit the search bar and landed here thank God I did. This site has saved me a lot of grief and money. Thanks
I had also bad experience on match.com as a member just last November'12. I just wonder why all american men who contacted me they said they lived in Nigeria, Africa, Afghanistan, Syria. In their profile they come from USA. I got impressed with one guy coz he said he was an engineer like me, so I kept writing and made me believed he was the right guy coz as the way he wrote on his emails, he was very passionate, he told me he found his soulmate in me, but in the long run he became suspicious to me coz some of his photos he sent didn't look like him. He told some sad stories and later on asked me money coz he said he got stucked up in a certain country for construction business. I kept asking him where in the world was he many times but he couldn't tell me exactly where he is. OMG, I told him sorry for him. Since then, I stopped communicating with him. I didn't join to look for a scammer on match, but a lover I said! There's one guy, he said he was Italian.I was interested of his background, but was mad at me when I asked about it. What's the purpose of knowing each other when someone is mad when asked? I was just vigilant, coz I might be a victim again. To all dating site subscribers, please be vigilant! We join here to look for the TRUE & RIGHT match not fake and thief!
I read over the T and C. It does state you have to call or email them to cancel your subscription with them, but it also doesn't say they are going to automatically charge you again for the next month's payment. Taken from some of the Terms and Condisions:
We make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or efficacy of any of such Safety Points, and you agree that you are solely responsible for your interactions with other members.
Indemnity by Member
You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Avalanche, LLC, its officers, directors, employees, agents and third parties, for any losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) relating to or arising out of your use of the www.date.com Service, including, but not limited to, any breach by you of the terms of this Agreement.
The last part you agreed not to bad mouth them. So it looks like they have a case against you too if they read your statements here on this web page.
In all due respect guys, read the damn Terms and Conditions to save your butt and money. I learned the hard way!
Best of luck!
Hey Doc, did you happen to read the Terms and Conditions? In there it will clearly state they will charge you again for next month's payment unless you cancel. You can't go by what you see on the face/home page. I can't stress this enough to everyone, you must read the Terms and Conditions.
Some times in there they even have a clause stating their 3rd party vendors will charge so much money also to automatically add you as a paying member to their sites.
I learned the hard way. I now read over the TAC to make sure I know what I am getting into before paying. You should to every time.
I think everyone should stay off dating sites completely because you can never be sure who you are really dealing with. It's freaky. I definitely think people are using dating websites to scam and fraud innocent people. Also, I am very concerned about having my identity misused. Someone I met once told me he saw my profile on match.com but I was never on match.com, ever! I am, however, an attractive woman whose profile photo for other non-dating sites was probably lifted to lure unsuspecting men. Yuck! The idea of someone lifting my picture to pose as a legitimate dater, all the while running a scam, really freaks me out. But I think it probably happens a lot and the girls you think you are meeting online are actually scammers who have stolen pictures from public profiles of nice, attractive women around the world.
Also, I signed up for a dating website a few years back. This is one that charges men alot of money and doesn't charge women. I should have been suspicious at that but they said they were featured on a lot of television shows, etc. and so they seemed legit. I think the name of the website was Selective Search. It was something like that and the supposed owner of the site was Barbie somebody. Even her name might have been a bit of a red flag, but again, the website claimed alot of legitimate media coverage and supposedly did recruiting for the Bachelor tv seires. I filled out a full profile and uploaded several pictures. And I never heard back from them--ever! The website expressly says that women who sign up will be contacted by phone by the company for a personal interview. I wonder if I never got called because it was actually a recruiting site for prostitutes? It was geared at financially successful men but I made it clear in my profile that while I would prefer to date a wealthy man, I would never date a man for his money. The whole gold digger concept disgusts me. I have a very fullfilling life, thank you very much. And perhaps that was the problem.
Another weird thing apropos of Date.com. In my spam email today I found an email that was supposedly from alert@date.com. It said that my order at intima.com had been filled. Well, I have never been a member of date.com and intima.com, which I never placed an order with purports to sell watches. Seems a little incongruous doesn't it? Honestly, it sounds like something to do with prostitution to me. Anyhow, I've had both my computer and my email hacked before and for all I know someone out there is using my photos, my name, my email as a cover for some very dubious illegal activities. I truly shudder to think. Honestly, after all the hacking and a number of strange experiences that I couldn't fully trace but felt like they pointed to some kind of identity theft, I just don't go online much anymore at all. I don't even give out my email address anymore because it is too easy for someone else to pretend to be me and it pisses me off. So, all that to say: Be careful online! Be very, very careful. And let love find you when the time is right. It's better to wait than to get played for a fool! We all deserve better than this!
What the OP doesn't seem to understand is that these so called "women" aren't women at all. They are men posing as women. And theya ren't just in Nigeria. They are all over the world. I would bet that some of these dudes are even American. They basically go into hacker websites & forums & trade stolen credit card #'s with each other. Then they take out fake personal ads on all the dating sites & wait for someone to bite. Obviously there must be a lot of guys falling for this crap because I see tons of fake ads & complaints from guys who lost their money. I use dating sites too but I just stick to the big ones like Match & POF. They aren't perfect either but there's still alot less fake ads there than some of the no-name ones. Just be careful to watch for poor grammar, broken english, one pic, incomplete profiles, young women looking for guys old enough to be their granddad & women who look like supermodels. I mean if a woman looks that good do u really think she'd be online looking for a date? I don't think so. Also, if they want you to goto a different site or call a phone number, that's the worst thing you could possibly do. Just use common sense & stay with the bigger names & you'll be alright.
I like your idea of a class-action suit. These sites are definitely aware of all the fakes - their main goal is to get your $$. The problem is they will argue how difficult it is (it's not) to verify their users. I know for a fact some of them actually pay women to respond or give them discounted memberships in exchange for flirting with men. Nice huh? I guess we men are just a bunch of suckers waiting to be preyed on. You just paid the price of an education, which many of us have paid for and gotten as well. FWIW Chemistry.com has done a fairly decent job of filtering and removing the phony profiles. You can report a "suspicious" profile. I have done this a few times and they are removed very quickly. I do believe their are legitimate people on dating sites, but it's a lot of work to filter and find them. Better to join a local activity club; check out meetup.com
yes, I agree with most of the comments .
Date.com is filled with scammers. 90% are scammers from Nigeria and similar countries using fake photos and profile data. They sometimes try to chat with you, and they want you to come to websites to sign up so they get affiliate bonus.
One advice - Stay Away!
I am totally dissatisfied with Matchmaker as I see everyone else is. We need someone to start a class action suit so this lonely gal can at least get her money back from these scammers. I was sent totally unqualified men. Of course they say they sent qualified men but I am too picky! That is not what they told me in intake interview... anyway, someone smart in the law, please start this suit so we can all be free from the scamming sites! Matchmaker, date.com, eharmony, have tried them all and none are really honest sites!
Disgruntled
I think this is Sabri Bebawi (53 years old)personal problems is not the 34 or more (he doesn't know the exact number )women he did chat in 8 days.
he doesn't know what he wants and who is the right one? considering his age !why he is going after models and younger women
so old men want to satisfying themselves with young women =young women need to be satisfied too
every body free in the way of satisfying his self or herself
old men with younger women=younger women with money
There has got to be a way of stopping the scam people who are running some of the dating sites. Matchmaker.com has another thing that I haven't seen posted. So here is my story.
I made a truthful profile complete with photos. I very specifically set some of my criteria very tight ie: religion, non smoker.
scam #1 Every day or so I get a notice from "Administration" that they have found me a match. These guys are as far from my "criteria" as you can get.
scam #2 I receive interest notifications from specific men. They have profiles and photos. However, they say things in their profile like I want someone younger. Well I just got an interest notice from a 55 year old guy. I am 66! If he wants someone younger why is he sending me an interest notification.
Here is the rub. I am a "free" member. I have not given them my credit card info. These two methods are nothing more than trying to give me false information that 1. they have a match for me and/or 2. someone wants me. NEITHER IS TRUE. ALL THEY ARE DOING IS PLAYING ON MY LONLINESS TO HOOK ME SO THEY CAN STEEL MONEY.
SO FOLKS, WHAT CAN WE DO? THEY ARE ONLY OUT TO GET YOUR FINANCIAL INFO THEN RIP YOU OFF. THEY COULD CARE LESS ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS. THE OWNERS OF THIS SITE NEED TO BE TAKEN DOWN. I AM JUST A LITTLE OLD LADY WHO LOST HER DEARLY BELOVED TWO YEARS AGO BUT I AM ALSO MADE AS HELL AND WOULD LIKE TO HELP SHUT THEM DOWN AND ANY OTHERS DOING THE SAME THING.
Dr sabri did you cancel it? Have you had any more problems?
want answer your writing below
Date.Com/Matchmaker.Com
Posted: 2009-04-06 by Dr. Sabri Bebawi, Ph.D
Scam, Prostitution, Fraud & Live Sex
Complaint Rating:
Company information:
Matchmaker.Com
California
United States
I hope that this situation interests you in the interest of all the victims Matchmaker.COM, Fraud, Scam and Negligence
It has been only eight days since I have joined Matchmaker.COM, the date.com site. In the eight days, I communicated with thirteen or more girls who had shown interest in my profile. All girls had posted false profile and false photos taken mostly from model agencies including, Hawaii Modeling Agency. Once I communicated with those young ladies, they immediately had a story to tell and asked for financial assistance. While most of the stories are similar, some were quite unique. One needed money for a birthday party; another needed money to help her sick mother; another needed money to see a doctor as she suddenly had gotten ill; another needed money, and top open a Pay-Pal for her, so that she could pay for her Internet access to chat with me.
After the first seven scammers, I contacted Matcchmaker.Com to complain and explain. I sent them t pages of chats; they ignored it and did not respond. Here is the message I had sent:
“These girls are Scammers from Africa – Their profiles are not the truth--They all have the same story and ask for money after the second communication. They also have false photos taken from modeling Agencies. Please address the matter seriously.
Matchmaker would delete the file and indicate that the profile has been deleted because the persons found their matches. They do nothing to protect their clients.
Dr. Sabri Bebawi, Ph.D
sorry you had the bad experience with those women wanting money, are you still using there online site? in response to your comments below.
matchmaker stole money from me, i am interested in a class action lawsuit, or some form of justice. the deal clearly stated:
Subscription Plan: 1 month for $34.95 USD
so you think, "ok i will try a month, its only 34.95", and then when the month was over they took another 34.95 from my bank account without notifying me, there was no authorization, no notification. i wouldnt have even known if i hadnt had been browsing my bank account online.
i am attaching a screen shot of what the page looks like where you pay. i dont know if there is a trick using fine print somewhere, it shouldnt matter whether there is any fine print anywhere because using fine print to trick people and make money by tricking people is a crime. they are pigs making money from unsuspecting people.
not to go off the subject but yes i also received emails from a girl who first claimed to be in Ohio, but she gave me turned out to be a number from nigeria. they use the Ohio claim because the ohio area code happens to be the same as the first 3 numbers of the international code for nigeria.
(edit) i just tried to upload the screenshot and it sent me an error message "document not found."
sorry you had the bad experience with those women wanting money, are you still using there online site?
matchmaker stole money from me, i am interested in a class action lawsuit, or some form of justice. the deal clearly stated:
Subscription Plan: 1 month for $34.95 USD
so you think, "ok i will try a month, its only 34.95", and then when the month was over they took another 34.95 from my bank account without notifying me, there was no authorization, no notification. i wouldnt have even known if i hadnt had been browsing my bank account online.
i am attaching a screen shot of what the page looks like where you pay. i dont know if there is a trick using fine print somewhere, it shouldnt matter whether there is any fine print anywhere because using fine print to trick people and make money by tricking people is a crime. they are pigs making money from unsuspecting people.
not to go off the subject but yes i also received emails from a girl who first claimed to be in Ohio, but she gave me turned out to be a number from nigeria. they use the Ohio claim because the ohio area code happens to be the same as the first 3 numbers of the international code for nigeria.
(edit) i just tried to upload the screenshot and it sent me an error message "document not found."
Not only date.com or matchmaker.com I have had similar experiences with eHarmony too. On two occasions I canceled my account with eHarmony and within 24 hours two or three members showed interest in my profile. Since both times I had to ride out my membership, because once you've paid if you cancel early you still are entitled to the remainder of your subscription, I replied to all of the interest notifications and got nothing back.
Another annoying aspect of eHarmony and Match is that they invite people to create free profiles and have a free three day membership. What unfortunately happens is that those member profiles are kept on file and come up in the search criteria for your matches. Since they don't have a current subscription they can't respond to you unless they pay. eHarmony was better about this in screening out non-current users but Match really doesn't care.
The best sollution I have found is PlentOfFish.com, firstly its free! They don't want your credit card info unless you want to add personality matching and even then their price is minimal compared to the big dating sites. The site was actually created by a guy that was fed up with eHarmony and even has a forum where you can strike up conversations with other members you may be interested in, I think that's awesome because you have more than just e-mails and winks in your icebraking toolbox.