The Fair Trade Commission imposed a penalty surcharge on the operator of the dating apps 'Amanda' and 'You and I' for luring male users with fake accounts that pretended to be real female members.
On the 29th, the Fair Trade Commission stated that TechLabs, which operates the dating apps 'Amanda' and 'You and I', violated the e-commerce law and imposed a penalty surcharge of 52 million won along with a corrective order.
According to the Fair Trade Commission, TechLabs conducted so-called 'male user care' operations on its dating apps, including 'Amanda' and 'You and I', from 2021 to 2022. During two days from October 18 to 19, 2021, a male employee created a fake account appearing as a female to browse male members' profiles and encourage participation in activities such as 'Let's be friends' and 'Profile viewing' by awarding high scores.
From November 1, 2021, to April 14, 2022, a similar method continued on an anonymous bulletin board called 'Secret Square' within Amanda. TechLabs used fake female accounts to write posts and comments, liked the content, or sent 'Secret Matches' to specific male members. A Secret Match is a feature that uses paid cyber money to show interest in opposite-gender members.
TechLabs also approached male members through the 'You and I' app using fake female accounts from October 5 to 28, 2021, in a 'select all' manner.
The problematic accounts were displayed in the app as regular female members, with no indication that they were operator accounts. A Fair Trade Commission official noted, 'Users decide whether to use the service or purchase paid items based on information such as the gender, existence, and profile of other members on the dating app, and such deceptive practices fall under false or exaggerated representations and advertising prohibited by the e-commerce law.'
The Fair Trade Commission official stated, 'We sanctioned the operator who deceived consumers by disguising the active app activities of female members to promote the use of their dating app through unfair means,' and added, 'It is expected to raise awareness in the dating app service industry and contribute to preventing consumer damage.'