OkCupid has been hit with a $5m class action lawsuit by a former user who claims to have paid money to be set up with “dead” profiles on the dating service.
The complaint, which was filed on 20th April in Chicago federal court, alleges that he paid for the OkCupid premium service to be connected with “A-list” OkCupid customers.
Perkins said he bought the A-List access for $44.99, in order to reveal the identities of 25 users who had liked his profile.
But according to his complaint, after paying, he discovered most of the names were linked to inactive accounts, according to the Cook County Record.
He then complained to Match Group via email, who responded saying the dead profiles were the result of a software bug, writing: “It does look like the reported Likes number was a bug on our end, that included Likes from accounts that have subsequently been removed from OkCupid.
“Our developers are aware of the issue, and are working on a fix so this doesn’t happen going forward. It’s definitely not something we did on purpose, and I’m sorry to hear that this bug affected you at all.”
The complaint says the email “was not so much an explanation as an effort to conceal the fraud.”
Perkins alleges that after paying for the premium service, users “routinely learn that most if not all of the users who like them have inactive accounts or “dead” accounts and, thus, are not viable dating options.”
His complaint argues that this practice breaches the Illinois Dating Referral Services Act, the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, along with breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
Chicago firm Sweetnam LLC is representing Perkins in the matter.