News

Porn Star Withdraws Name From Match Suit

Screen-Shot-2014-02-10-at-10.49.35

The porn star who was the face of a billion dollar lawsuit against Match.com has withdrawn her name from the case.

“Melissa Midwest” Harrington replaced model Yuliana Avalos in January as the public face of the $1.5bn lawsuit, which accused Match of allowing fake profiles on the site.

Avalos sued Match for the unauthorised use of her photos, which she said had been used “hundreds if not thousands of times” on Match and other IAC sites.

The Manhattan class-action suit accused Match of “knowingly and intentionally conspiring with criminals” from Nigeria, Ghana and Russia, who create fake profiles and try to coax money out of members.

However it was recently discovered that Avalos was removed from the case after lawyer Evan Spencer received complaints centred around claims that Avalos and her boyfriend sold her modelling shots to the same Nigerian scammers the lawsuit accused of exploiting her.

Evan Spencer, who called the case “one of the biggest conspiracies ever executed on the internet”, then replaced Avalos with Harrington, a porn star from Omaha, Nebraska, who was once among the top 10 most searched names on internet.

And now court papers filed on Thursday show that Harrington, 31, “demanded that she be withdrawn as a plaintiff” in the case, claiming she never agreed to be part of it.

Spencer said: “Melissa hasn’t been in the [porn] business for five years and decided she just didn’t want the attention.”

He told the New York Post that he will present a watered-down version of the suit, on behalf of Harrington’s ex-husband Shane, who owned the photos of Melissa which were allegedly used. 

Simon Edmunds

Simon is the former editor of Global Dating Insights. Born in Newcastle, he has an English degree from Queen Mary, London and after working for the NHS, trained as a journalist with the Press Association. Passionate about music, journalism and Newcastle United.

Global Dating Insights is part of the Industry Insights Group. Registered in the UK. Company No: 14395769