PR NEWSWIRE -- Nov 3 -- TRUE filed a lawsuit against convicted sex offender Dr. Robert Wells of Walnut Creek, California who was convicted in 2001 of attempted lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years. Upon becoming a member of TRUE, Dr. Wells claimed he was not a felon. TRUE is seeking a permanent injunction preventing Dr. Wells from accessing the TRUE.com website and contacting its members. In addition, TRUE believes that Dr. Wells violated federal wire fraud laws when he falsely represented himself to TRUE and its members as a non-felon. "When I founded this company, I made a commitment to our members that we would do our best to create a wholesome environment for courtship -- one that includes a safer dating experience," said Herb Vest, TRUE's founder and CEO. "We continue to lead the industry by implementing criminal background and marital screening to help weed out potentially dangerous individuals. Our criminal background screening covers approximately 94% of all U.S. felonies and over 170 million criminal records, but it cannot catch every criminal...Our member safety program also relies heavily on feedback from our members...I challenge the rest of the online relationship and dating industry to follow our lead and show a similar concern for their members' safety."
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Wow, they actually did it, they're suing a user! Your comments please. Which mainstream online dating site is going to introduce background checks next?
As a publicity ploy, this is a doozie and it plays nicely into Herb's unending quest for publicity for his site's niche.
Posted by: BC | Nov 19, 2005 at 10:11 AM
So I guess this guy passed or circumvented the much vaunted background check that True.com runs on every user? The only other explanation would be that True was monitoring the results of background checks in the hopes making a scenario like this come about so they could take advantage of the PR. No...that couldn't be it..could it?
Posted by: Lee Phillips | Nov 20, 2005 at 01:58 PM
I'm surprised it's taken this long for TRUE to publicly go after someone. At some point they needed to let people know they were serious.
Mark Brooks
Onlinepersonalswatch.com
Posted by: Mark Brooks | Nov 20, 2005 at 03:39 PM
The dating of the news leaves no doubt that it was a TRUE's Helloween joke. And Herb said "Boooo!" to TRUE users. I'm just wondering if he was dressed as Dracula or a witch or given to his creativity, created a new holiday character and named him Dr. Wells.
Posted by: Alexander Shetinin www.sweetduet.net | Nov 21, 2005 at 10:54 AM
do they do the background check? i was playing with it and signed up with a bogus name so i'm pretty sure they couldn't have checked on me.
Posted by: sam | Nov 21, 2005 at 07:47 PM
The back bone of True.com was Dr. Jim Houran. He doesn't work for True any more. What happen to Jim? If there isn't an expert at True any more why use that dating site any more.
If they are having money woos and fold, what happens to the users of the dating site?
What ever happen to True trying to get background disclosures required by law? If there isn't any kind of law. How can True sue this Dr. Wells? And why didn't True's "safer dating" detect this guy in the first place? Where is Herb? And, why hasn't he answered any of these questions? I hear he is busy being sued in Dallas, Texas by his former fiancee and worried about her testimony becoming public and ask the court to seal the record. Isn't that called a hypocrite? Hiding his own background while prying into his customers background? I find it strange that Herb got a republican judge to seal the case. Herb claimed it would damage his business and his personal life. Sealing a file is usually for National Security Issues. Maybe all that money Herb donates to republican candidates and the GOP had some influence? If Herb is working so hard to stop the women from talking there is something he is hiding. What is Herb hiding?
Posted by: Matt | Nov 30, 2005 at 10:18 AM