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Porn Star Is New Face of $1.5bn Match Suit

A porn star has become the public face of the billion dollar lawsuit accusing Match of allowing fake profiles on their site.

“Melissa Midwest” Harrington, 31, has taken the lead from model Yuliana Avalos, who originally headed the suit when it was announced last November.

Avalos was suing Match for $1.5bn 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 suit also claimed that these sites knowingly allow fake profiles to be used, as it drives profit.

It 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.

This is part of what the suit describes as “one of the biggest conspiracies ever executed on the internet.”

And now Harrington – a porn star whose claim to fame is to have been among the top 10 most searched names on the internet –  has taken the lead, saying her photos have also been used countless times on Match and other IAC sites.

She said she has received: “thousands of complaints from American romance-scam victims over the past six-plus years, including hundreds of victims who were defrauded out of millions of dollars.”

Harrington was also number 4 on the Scamalytics top 10 celebrity scammer profiles.

The suit was amended on the 27th January in New York.

Harrington’s lawyer, Evan Spencer, says that despite the fact that anti-scammer technology is available, Match fail to use such things as face-recognition software — which would have discovered that her pictures were being used hundreds of times.

They also claim that Match could stop fraud on their site if they implemented software that blocked international ISP addresses from posting domestic profiles in the US.

“While Ms. Harrington is the most famous of all men or women whose photographs have been used consistently in fake Match dating profiles, she is the only one of thousands of men and women whose likeness and images have been hijacked by defendants and used as avatars in fake profiles,” the suit says.

Last year, Match responded with a statement, which said: 

“The real scam here is this meritless lawsuit, which is filled with outlandish conspiracy theories and clumsy fabrications in lieu of factual or legal basis.

“We’re confident that our legal system is as adept as we are at detecting scammers and will dismiss this case in short order.”

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.

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