LAWSUITS CHARGE ONLINE DATING FRAUD

NEW YORK (Reuters) Match.com, a unit of IAC/Interactive Corp., is accused in a federal lawsuit of goading members into renewing their subscriptions through bogus romantic e-mails sent out by company employees. In some instances, the suit contends, people on the Match payroll even went on sham dates with subscribers as a marketing ploy.

The company said it does not comment on pending litigation.

In a separate suit, Yahoo Inc's personals service is accused of posting profiles of fictitious potential dating partners on its Web site to make it look as though many more singles subscribe to the service than actually do.

Yahoo spokeswoman Rochelle Adams said the company had no comment on the lawsuit.