True.com’s ads have become a pop-cultural online icon – a symbol of deceptive online advertising.

The mega-budget interactive campaign is heavily plastered across social media networks like Tribe and MySpace and it works quite well: the ads lure in almost 1,000 new member sign ups per hour.

True.com wasn’t always an extortionate scam site.

The company first started off as “True Beginnings,” and was positioned as wholesome, marriage-minded dating service!

That was was slow-going, so they tried the “No Marrieds. No Felons.” safer-dating angle with rigorous background checks. Unfortunately that didn’t sell so well, either.

Now True.com’s founder Herb Vest has hit the jackpot by positioning True.com as a sleazy hook-up site. His patented advertising method consists of scantly clad models and licentious headlines beckoning you to sign up for a “free” trial.

If you fall for the “free” trial offer you have to give over your credit card information. Then they’ve really got you.

Many users report deceptive practices getting fake winks from bogus “date bait” profiles (pictures of models), or messages far away “members” like hot blondes located in Columbia. Some even get hit on by Nigerian scammers posing as hotties!

Folks who try to cancel the service before the “free” trial expires find that it is impossible to do so online: a cancellation feature has deliberately been omitted from the online interface.

Victims report:

• Simon Slade reported having to wait on-hold several hours on the “Customer Care” line before finally getting through to a live person to ask to cancel.
• Being verbally abused by surly collections agents who accuse them of fraud for wanting to cancel so soon.
• Extra charges billed to their credit card for several months afterwards.
• The company keeps your info in their profile database after you cancel and flat-out refuses to delete it.




• Thousands of similar, unpleasant experiences on dating site review forums.

It’s time the True® truth be told. The best way to illustrate it is with this actual, unaltered affiliate program ad from the company: