Weapons of Mass DistractionDating Sites in trouble

According to an article I read on Yahoo, Match.com is being taken to court.  Apparently they sent an employee on a date with a customer to convince them not to cancel their membership.  "Hey, look, there are real women on this site! Here's one, and there are probably more.  You should keep your membership!"  The company denies it had anything to do with it, but that doesn't change the fact that it happened.

It seems to me that this kind of behavior could never have a noticable impact on subscription rates.  Match.com has a lot of members I'm sure, so keeping one guy signed up, and maybe added a few of his friends would never be worth the risk of people finding out about their fake date.  Nice job Match.  Here's a helpful hint for next time: If you're going to pull these kinds of stunts, make sure the person you send out there doesn't admit to being an employee. 

Yahoo has also found themselves in trouble over their dating service.  According to the article, Yahoo is accused of posting profiles of imaginary people to give the appearance that they have more subscribers than they actually do.

Are online dating sites hurting so badly that they need to resort to tactics like this?

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