iDates Coin System Pushed Me to Spend 100 Euros on Fake Profiles
I recently registered on the dating website iDates.com and within less than a week I realised that the platform is highly misleading and, in my opinion, operating in a fraudulent way. The site uses a coin-based payment system that is extremely expensive, and you need to spend coins for almost every message you send. During my use of the site, I noticed that many of the profiles I interacted with appeared to be fake. The people behind these profiles could not answer simple, real questions, and their replies were clearly scripted and designed only to keep the conversation going so that I would be forced to buy and spend more coins. I have also learnt that men are the only ones who have to pay to send messages, while women can use the messaging system without paying, which makes men the clear target of this system. Because of this setup, I spent around 100 euros on coins, and I feel I was manipulated into paying for interactions that were not genuine. In my view, the website is not a real dating service but a structure built to make users, especially men, spend as much money as possible through fake or incentivised profiles. I have already submitted an official complaint through the website and requested a full refund of the approximately 100 euros I spent. However, I have serious doubts that they will respond fairly to my request. I believe this platform is preying on users and that its owners should be investigated and held accountable. With this complaint, I request that my full payments be refunded and that the relevant authorities examine iDates.com for fraudulent practices. I also ask that necessary legal and regulatory steps be taken against the owners and operators of this site so that this platform is either forced to operate transparently and fairly or removed completely to protect other users.