When the Federal Trade Commission began investigating problems related to romance scams five years ago, the consumer watchdog agency’s analysts gained access to internal data from one of the biggest players in the online dating space — Match.com.
“It was incredibly troubling,” a former FTC analyst told CBS News, speaking on the condition of anonymity because portions of the case are still pending.
The agency’s findings made their way into the government’s 2019 lawsuit against the website’s parent company, Match Group. “Between 2013 and at least mid-2018,” the lawsuit alleged, “consumers who were considering purchasing a Match.com subscription were generally not aware that as many as 25-30 percent of Match.com members who registered each day were using Match.com to perpetrate scams.”
Match Group told CBS News that it “believes the FTC allegations have no merit.” But that allegation, online security experts say, pulls back a curtain on an intractable challenge that has …