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According to several news sources (ABC15.com and AZ Central) the Arizona Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against Great Expectations dating service, alleging they misled their customers.

Great Expectations has said the case has no merit. This service has over 30 years of experience in matchmaking and is one of the few dating services which actually meet their clients face to face at one of their offices. They have more than a couple dozen offices spread across the US.

The suit was filed in Maricopa County Superior Court against Sun West Video, Inc which runs Great Expectations for Singles.

The suit is seeking refunds for consumers and financial penalties against the company.

The Attorney General's office alleged that Great Expectations:

• Misrepresented to consumers the overall number of participating members and members in certain age groups.
• Told consumers that two to three marriages occurred among members every month when it had no credible basis for such statements.
• Misrepresented to consumers that it had conducted a criminal background check on all of its members.
• Used high-pressure sales tactics that included sales representatives urging consumers to contact their credit card companies to get an increased credit limit to pay for a membership.
• Showed potential new members written profiles and photographs of people they said were Great.

These allegations have not been proven in court yet but, we have decided to remove this dating site review from our categories for the time being, just to be safe.

It is now official LoveHappens have closed its doors. I'm still surprised this site has gone out of business. I can understand maybe the existing investors want to get out do to the fact of losing over 60% of your traffic but why didn't they sell it and least gain a little of there money back? A site with a couple hundred thousand visitors every month is still very attractive to the right people.

Related Story: Is LoveHappens Closing Shop?

I probably get close to 200 emails a year from owners of dating and related sites who want me to promote one thing or another. Only a handful ever catch my interest and the website "Why was I Dissed?" is one of them. It is a well designed website that offers 2 services. You can get dating advice by Dr. Craig April, a licensed psychologists in Los Angeles and (this is what caught my eye) you can try to find out why someone who you where talking to online just stopped with no explanation. Receiving advice about dating online is nothing new and their are many websites that offer this service but, finding out why someone stopped answering your emails, this is the first time I have seen this.

How does it work? It is pretty simple. You start an Investigation in which you give a few details about yourself, including your name, age and gender. You also choose the type of relationship you had and explain in more detail on how you know the person. You also include the persons email address and name with whom you where in contact with (they call them the Avoiders). From here WhyWasIDissed.com will attempt to contact the Avoiders through email. Here is a quote from the website:

After beginning your investigation, FREE OF CHARGE, we will contact the communication avoider with your investigation case number. They will be asked a series of personalized questions accompanied with multiple-choice answers and fill in the blank options. Once they’ve responded, we will let you know the results immediately.

If no response is forth coming WhyWasIDissed.com will then send a second email. If no response is heard within two weeks it is then assumed the Avoider will not.

When someone stops responding to your emails you are always left wondering why? Will a third party service work as a mediator to find this answer out? I'm not sure but, it is an interesting idea. The Avoiders may feel more comfortable explaining themselves in a structured manner but then again, they may be horrified that a third party knows about a failed relationship. As mentioned in the quote, Investigation are currently free but the website does say only for a limited time. I'm not sure when they will start charging and how much. IMHO WhyWasIDissed.com should keep it free since they are already charging for dating advice. I think the "Why was I Dissed?" service, could possibly be made into a great web viral marketing tool for the dating advice part of the website.

CNNMoney has an article about the marketing approach one dating site called TeamDating.com took to get free publicity. This was all done without hiring a PR firm or consultant. TeamDating has appeared on many popular national TV shows like The Today Show, Good Morning America and Extra . Print publications include newspapers like USA Today. Every show or news piece TeamDating has appeared in has given them a huge traffic spike like with over 600,000 visitors when TeamDating appeared on the Today Show. The article doesn't mention what their average daily traffic is now but it does say they have 60,000 regular visitors (what does regular mean? Weekly?) and over 20,000 registered dating teams

Ray Doustdar, who owns TeamDating achieved his PR success through his own hard work of reading, researching and contacting media people. He spends over 90% of his work day dealing with marketing his dating service. He knows where his customers are and who to contact to get a story out. He also knows what type of story each media outlet is looking for and who there readers or viewers are.

Now days most internet businesses need a detailed marketing plan, and dating sites are no exception. Gone are the days of "if you build it, they will come"! Competition is huge in the online dating market and any company wanting to create a service needs to realize that marketing is the most important thing to your sites success.

Here's an idea that us Geeks should love, lets find your match based on comparing your DNA with others. The Record has an article about a new dating site called ScientificMatch.com that does just that.

How does it work? ScientificMatch.com helps you find a partner with physical chemistry. According to ScentificMatch.com physical chemistry is based on the immune system. When they analyze your DNA for matching purposes, they are just looking at these genes. The general idea here is we are attracted to people with different immune systems. Nature's primary goal for us is to produce healthy babies with strong immune systems. The best way this is achieved is when a couple has 2 different immune systems. More details about immune system matching can be found here. ScientificMatch.com has identified six specific benefits of physical chemistry (backed by peer-reviewed articles) that if you share with someone increases your chances of falling in love. With your match, some of the benefits of DNA matching is you will be attracted to their natural body fragrance, have a more satisfying sex life and be more fertile as a couple.

So what is involved in this process? You may think you just send in some DNA and in a week you get a bunch of matches back, not quite. First off, Scientificmatch.com basis their matching system not just on DNA, but on the core values and beliefs of a person. So once the DNA process is complete it seems you will have to fill in some additional profile information. Scientificmatch.com also does criminal background checks as well so they need some additional personal information over and beyond just your name and address. This dating service is not available in all areas of America so you have to input your Zip Code to find out if you can join.

When you have signed up, you will receive a DNA collection kit which includes a sterilized packet of cotton swabs. You rub the swabs in your check and then mail them back. It then gets sent to the labratory. ScentificMatch.com stresses that this is all done in complete privacy and only the DNA that deals with their matching system is looked at (your immune system). Once the results are in, your sample is destroyed. None of your DNA information is every posted and it takes up to 2 weeks to process your DNA.

All of this DNA matching comes at a price, $1,995.95 to be exact, for a life time membership. Right now they are having a 50% off special for the rest of the year so a membership will cost you only $995. It seems like a lot to me but I am sure DNA testing isn't cheap. Does it work? I don't know and I would be hard pressed to pay there membership fee to find out. The scientific evidence behind it seems sound but I am not sure if we understand enough about DNA to gather the type of information we need to make this type of matching possible.

Oops, I missed this one, sorry UK Daters! According to Netimpreative, yesterday (Sept. 24) was National Dating Day. To celebrate this, DatingDirect.com setup a booth at Waterloo Station, under the clock. This location is apparently a famous place for daters to meet in the UK. This clear booth had Celebrities, single models and DatingDirect.com members inside. The idea is singles who saw the booth can then login to DatingDirect.com to enter in a competition to win a date with anyone in they saw in the booth.

The target audience for this publicity campaign was for male and female singles aged 25 to 35. Will it work? Who knows, I just feel sorry for the people in the booth!