| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 12/29/2005 11:24:39 AM | Thank you for taking time to consider my request. I particularly appreciate Markus Frind's assistance in facilitating my investigation into allegations of unethical business practices at True.com. Markus and I both care deeply about the reputation of this industry.
I am James Houran, PhD -- a published psychologist on the psychology of compatibility, compatibility testing, as well as trends within the online dating industry. I am also an industry insider, having served previously as the Chief Psychologist at True.com.
Recently, I have become aware of many reports of alleged unethical and fraudulent business and HR practices at True.com. Similar to the allegations we have all seen in the media directed at Match.com and Yahoo Personals, I have found numerous references on the Internet to claims that True.com has used, or is using, deceitful "bait emails" to encourage paid subscriptions. I have also heard allegations of unethical behavior related to billing and human resource practices.
I am interested in receiving your personal accounts of these and any other business practices that you have experienced at True.com and feel are legally or ethically questionable. Supporting documentation of any kind is especially welcome.
Thanks in advance for sharing your accounts!
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 12/29/2005 5:38:38 PM | | For awhile my mailbox was being flooded by "wink" messages - if I bothered to check out the profile of someone who had supposedly winked at me, I would find he lived far away and had nothing in common with me. | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 12/29/2005 6:42:20 PM | Let me know what you need from my true.com emails or billing fees. I was totally screwed by them to the tune of $120 for two months - I was shocked! I posted a complaint about them here on this site, can find my post and paste here.
I am determined to make everyone aware of the bad practices of true.com., and highly recommend people stick with POF, it's free and it works!
On true.com, they sent winks on my behalf to many men and I was disgusted they'd do that. I am VERY particular on what I am looking for in a mate, and that site made assumptions I did not appreciate.
They billed me without ever sending an email to let me know when billing would begin and for how much. I searched and searched for fees and could not find. When I called their number to complain of the billings, the first day they were so busy, I waited on hold until I gave up. Next time, I got someone by bypassing and going through another option. They told me NO REFUNDS and claimed I could easily find the fees posted on their site. I am NOT stupid and could not find them.
I want everyone to be aware of this site, the billing fees are OUTRAGEOUS, and contacts are very few and far between. I could not keep up in POF with messages and in true.com most of the msgs were 'winks back at me' in responses to winks I NEVER SENT TO ANYONE.
I am disgusted with that site. I'll give you whatever information you need, but have to get you the information from the site that you need soon, as their rip off membership fees only give me access to emails for another week or two - I caught their outrageous billing fees and cancelled. Interestingly enough, since they have been billing me for membership, I've received one and only one email message from true.com members.
When the 'free' membership was on and before I gave my credit card information (DO NOT GIVE YOUR CREDIT CARD INFO TO TRUE.COM!!!!!!), I was getting dozens of winks/emails, yet after I was being billed, only one email msg has come my way, amazing how that happens. | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 12/30/2005 2:12:45 PM | | Hopefully something will be done about these clowns. I just don't like the fact they are trying to force all dating sites to do background checks, but they have an exclusive deal with thier provider. Basically they want to force all other dating sites to shut down by legislating manditory background checks. | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 1/1/2006 10:20:13 PM | I was requesitioned to write an article back in june so I'm here ? true is not a dating site so much but an albiet lure like lava life to get paid subscriptions . stringent rules and practises . Quest Yahoo and American singles are better but still need too much comittment !! Fish is the only site that actually works for people . Women don't have to pay so there is no mystery as to why it works . allow the pursuees free reign and let the mayhem begin .
I would have to think that alot of these other sites like yours ( OP You are easily just spying ) are a bit intimidated by this site . | |
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Ln
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Joined: 11/17/2005
Msg: 9 | |
| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 1/18/2006 7:00:13 PM | I had all kinds of winks come at me in the last two weeks. I went to the site to try and figure out how to stop the stupid things...wasn't interested in the least...not with Plenty of Fish community to hang with!!!
No way to turn the thing off. So I flagged it as spam. I hope ya'll shut True.com down and all of the others like it. Plenty of Fish has my vote for best site ever!!! | |
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mogrl
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Joined: 5/29/2005
Msg: 10 | |
| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 1/18/2006 7:00:25 PM | | i never paid for true .com but for a while i was getting e-mails that so and so was winking back at me.I never winked at anyone at all.I got so sick of all the e-mails and couldn`t find the option to delete my profile so i finally created a fake yahoo account and thats where all the true.com e-mails are going now . | |
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Ln
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Joined: 11/17/2005
Msg: 11 | |
| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 1/18/2006 7:03:13 PM | | Oh and whoever the Plenty of Fish site owners are... I hope you read these posts. You probably should get ready for a HUGE influx of new users and activity. You probably are gonna get slammed hard and it might be a good idea to prepare for that now! | |
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Ln
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Joined: 11/17/2005
Msg: 12 | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 5/26/2006 2:48:49 AM | yes.
i can tell you stories. plenty of stories.
1) they do background checks.
what a lie.
i had an active paying account. then they started with the winks and russian brides. plus i never got responses from women.
wanting to see this background check in action, In December 2004, I created a FAKE account and sent myself (my real account) an email from the fake account all in under 3 minutes. (you cant do a criminal background check in 3 minutes). Today May 23rd, 2006 that fake account is still active on their system and comes up in the searches. I only used that account once and never since. It is still able to be found in their searches almost 2 years later.
you can see more details here. (plus about 300 photos i have taken)
http://www.curtswebpage.com/ | |
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JWA
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Joined: 5/21/2005
Msg: 15 | |
| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 5/26/2006 3:08:36 AM | During January 2006 I signed up for the Yahoo Personals 7 Day "free trial", gave them my credit card number, etc and reactivated an long-standing profile. Within 3 days I realized nearly the same women from several years ago were still listed and/or active. I resigned according to the "free trial" offer/rules and received a confirmation email that my CC would not be charged.
In April I discovered Yahoo Personals had in fact charged my CC and had continued to do so for three months. I called them only to be told I had NOT resigned, there was no record of my resignation therefore they'd not refund my money. (The confirmation email had long been deleted from my files as I didn't think it would be needed 3+ months later) I contacted my bank and had the funds retrieved from Yahoo electronically. This was NOT an "honest mistake"!!
I also noticed on Match.com as well as Yahoo Personals "baiting" is very, very common---the timing is just too coincidental. Based upon posted profiles these imaginary women and I have NOTHING in commen other than we're seeking each others age range and distance. Like many others my attempts at replying to those messages didn't yield any results.
Sadly I can't produce any supporting documents for your research but perhaps the anecdotal experiences will be useful. | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 5/26/2006 3:29:38 AM | Give me a freekin' break....you get on a personal site to talk trash about other sites..the paid sites to get people to think they are being ripped off...let's get techinical shall we?
1. I have been on those sites and had no problems with them..the only thing I had a problem with is...that EVERYBODY is on ALL sites..so if you can find a free site...why pay????
2. The only unethical practices I have experienced is the misconception of profiles..married men masquerading as handsome, single rich guys...and they are old geezers sitting in the back bedroom while wifey is cooking supper and the kids are watching tv in the living room..
My coworkers are a bit braver than I and have met a few psycho's, married guys, guys w gf's, guys with bf's, drunks, druggies, theives...and a few nice guys...
so if you want to get technical....you can't say ALL paid sites are a rip off..because even the free sites can be just as unethical when it comes to putting hookers online ... | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 5/26/2006 3:33:32 AM | PerfectClass
Let me know what you need from my true.com emails or billing fees. I was totally screwed by them to the tune of $120 for two months - I was shocked! I posted a complaint about them here on this site, can find my post and paste here.
Are you really going to give your personal data to someone that posts here without any reference of contact address where you can check them out..???
Good luck to you....... | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 5/27/2006 12:52:03 PM | Though I never paid for an account with True, I did sign up with them. In fact, it kept my old account that I had established about a year back, but I never did anything with it. Never paid for it then, either. Of course, all the winks and emails that I sent out didn't start happening until when I reactivated the account. So maybe all of this naughtiness is just something that they've started doing over the last few months. Maybe True is getting scared and they're beefing up their idiocy to a whole new level. Nonetheless, I thought I'd mess with them by changing my profile on that site to express my displeasure with them:
"Okay, this website is really starting to grate on my nerves. This junk of automatically sending out winks to random people without me knowing about it just ain't cool. Dangit, True.com, if you think this is going to get me to subscribe any quicker, you are damn wrong. For one thing, I ain't paying for anything that I don't have the money for. Simple as that. And putting me in touch with folks when I never asked you to is just plain underhanded. So chill the hell out. Anyway, if you're one of those unlucky few that got a wink from me that I DIDN'T send, then I probably wouldn't mind talking to you anyway, if you want. Heck, there's only so much you can learn about someone from these sites anyway, right? So if you are interested in talking, you're just going to have to contact me through some other means. I'll give you a hint...my screen name here is a pretty common one for me, and I don't use AIM that much lately, so that narrows it down to two other choices in my book. Pick one. And if that's not common sense enough for you, then we probably wouldn't work out anyway, so just move on down the line. Also, if you got a wink from me and don't want to have anything to do with me, then just ignore it. I didn't send it, I promise. So I probably wouldn't be any wiser to it if you just went about your business and pretended that I didn't exist. I'm sorry this is blunt, but that's the kind of person I am. I'm open, and I get straight to the point. Deal wit' it. "
Maybe that sums it all up. Hasn't worked for me yet, though. Maybe they're hiding my profile or something. | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 5/28/2006 2:49:39 PM | Please also be aware of if you are not that there seems to be a link with American Singles and the Nigerian, Russian web for money scams. Many of the oversea subscribers are paid internet cafe junkies that start slowly and build toward bilking money from those that they have contacted.
Happy fishing and beware of the water, sharks lurk everywhere. | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 5/29/2006 9:42:31 AM | I set up a profile on their "7 day free trial" when I was just about complete, they requested a credit card number. I'm no fool and so I quit right then and there, however, I believe that True is the one that requires you to phone in your cancellation. I'm not gonna waste my time and money on cancelling a registration I never would have started had I known from the start I was going to have to provide my credit card number on a FREE trial, so I'm still there, but never active cause I never finished the registration process.
LOL, POF is WAY better!! And the price is Just Right!! Thanks Admin!! | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 5/30/2006 6:55:17 PM | | I've never sent a wink on true, but am getting emails regarding winks I've supposedly sent, and winks back, all from guys outside my age criteria. I can't cancel my profile by email, and have spent hours on the phone racking up huge bills trying to call and cancel it. Any mail I get from them gets deleted straight away now, I don't even bother reading it. And for australian users, all you can put down for your location is australia, not state or city. We have a pretty large country, and I'm not wasting my time with people on the other side or interstate. The sooner you shut these idiots down the better. | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 5/30/2006 7:48:13 PM | My experience with True.com was the mis-conception of who can actually open or reply to my emails. They said I could send all the emails I wanted for free. What they didnt tell you was that the only way the recipient could read my email, let alone reply to it, was THEY had to pay. That was curiously left out...lol. So, I am sending emails to people that couldnt either open it or reply to it. Well, whats the point in that??? LOL. I also didnt like the fact that they sent winks to people I had no intention of sending winks too. And it was a bi*ch to delete my profile too, so its just spam now. I wrote them and called them on it. They of course had no reply.....lol. Spread the word......True.com is a scam.
POF Rules! Wish I had found it much sooner.......Glad I am here........:)  | |
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| Reports of unethical or fraudulent experiences w/ True.com?
Posted: 5/30/2006 9:57:53 PM | Guess I'm lucky!! I've been doing online Personals for 3 yrs and have never even heard of True.com.
I've met a lot of guys on a lot of sites but so far nothing serious. .....and have probably emailed a couple of hundred at least..... counting the "short term" ones.
Most of the well-known sites like Yahoo, Match.com, Senior Friend Finders and American Singles try to play stupid games with people to get us to renew like not letting us see more than a sentence of new emails we receive or shrinking photos to thumbnails. I find it rather amusing that they don't give us credit for enough intelligence to see thru all that foolishness. | |
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