Editorial:
A True Disaster
by Joe Tracy, Publisher of Online Dating Magazine
(November 2005) Our past coverage of True's
exploitation of women has generated quite a few
responses from readers and, amazingly enough, not
one single opposing opinion
as of press time for this editorial. Readers are getting
fed up with True's tactics
and expressing that frustration to us. Here's a couple
of excerpts from emails we've
received about True that show how deep their practice
of deception goes:
One
reader, Kevin, related his experience to us whereas
he was a member of True and got a message from someone
he thought had an interest in him, only to find out
it was a staff member of True! Several readers have
informed us that they have received emails from True staff, deceitfully disguised as someone truly interested
in them. Here's the email that Kevin received:
"Hey,
how are you? I'm interested in getting to know you
better, so if you want let me know and we can catch
up on line (sic) sometime, or send me something about
yourself. Hope to here (sic) from you soon."
The
person's username appeared under the message along
with the letters TC. It turns out that the person
who sent that message is part of the staff at True.
True tries to get away with it by having TC added
to the end so that if they are ever revealed, they
can claim they disclosed their association because
TC means "True
Crew". Tell me, does this ad look like someone
who works for True? (username and image blurred):

The picture and More Photos are very
nice. So, if you were a guy, what would you think when
you received an email from an attractive 21-year old
like Kevin did from a service that professes to be
about relationships and is called True?
Kevin writes:
"None
of the other major sites I've been with (Match.com, MatchMaker.com,
DreamMates.com, and eHarmony.com)
engages in any of these practices, or in anything
remotely resembling any of these practices... So
why does True.com? Why does a site that names itself
after the truth (a very high-minded goal) engage
in such misleading or
deceptive practices?"
Another reader takes issue with True's screening
process:
"They
don't screen like they claim. Like most Web daters,
I don't bother reading fine print, so it wasn't
until long after joining I read that I must be
single... since I'm separated in a state that has
no legal separation (i.e I'm still by law married)
I expected some type of warning and ban once I
learned about the screens.
Never
got one."
True
doesn't have to worry about screening for him now
as he left the service this month with the only emails
received being from the "True Crew".
But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Continuing
down the path of destruction, True has introduced
a hot "Sexploration" quiz you can take.
It goes great with their sleazy ad campaign we wrote
about several months ago (click
here). Take a look for yourself and be the judge:

Perhaps you'll be interested in True's 20
Winks feature where you click one button and it sends
20
winks to people it thinks you might
be interested in. True is the only service I know
where you can
show interest in people whose profile or picture
you've never seen. And how would you like to be on
the receiving end of winks of interest from people
who have never viewed your profile?
But perhaps worse of all comes from a press release
that True put out itself! The press release begins
as follows:
"Earlier
today, the leading online relationship service
TRUE(R) filed a lawsuit in United States District
Court against convicted sex offender Dr. Robert Wells
of Walnut Creek, California."
Buried further down in the press release is how
True found out about the guy:
"TRUE
became aware of Dr. Wells' sex offender status
when a TRUE.com member directly contacted the company."
What happened to True's screening
process? It's obvious from the release that this
convicted sex
offender was an active member and only discovered
when someone else brought it to True's attention!
True should
be embarrassed about this. Oh wait, according to
the CEO of True,
California "maintains laws
that actually protect the privacy of criminals." Ok
and is this fact prominently displayed in True's promotion
that they weed out felons and married people? I couldn't
find it. And how many other states have similar laws
that True "can't" screen?
While we applaud True for
prosecuting this person, we have to wonder if True ever
stopped to think that
their sleazy ads may be attracting these type
of people to their service? True has
become an embarrassment to the online dating community.
Now the question becomes how well has True's deceptive
practices worked since they started majorly overhauling
the service late last year?
According to Comscore Media Metrix, from July 2004
to July 2005, out of the top 10 online dating
services, True is the only one that had declines in
visits. Meanwhile, eHarmony.com (which
doesn't court controversial advertising) saw an increase
of 41%!
True needs a major overhaul to keep from permanently
damaging its name. The branding of the site is being
run into the ground through sleazy methods that
devalue the service and devalue its members.
We
once had great hope for True that it would turn
into an amazing online dating service rivaling
the big guns like Match.com and eHarmony.com . They
started out with a great service. It's too
bad that True has chosen a direction that is awash
in sleaze and deception. If anything good comes
out of this, it will be a case study for other
online
dating services on what NOT to do. And that's very
true.
Joe Tracy
jtracy@onlinedatingmagazine.com
Related
Links:
» True's
Exploitation of Women Goes Too Far
» Class
Action Lawsuit Filed Against True.com
» Lawsuit
Against True.com Exposes Problems with Service
> Perfectmatch.com - The best approach to find the one.
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