November 20th, 2006 by 
brett
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:
November 24th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Hey, Thanks for the link. And thanks for this thorough accounting of True.com’s chicanery.
November 27th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
Amen! I am obsessed with this. Just filed a BBB fraud complaint and a fraud report with my credit card (not to mention asking them to change my CC # and send me a new card). Has anyone gotten resolution on any similar complaints? Am I really going to have to suck it up and lose $50.98, or will I eventually get it refunded?
February 3rd, 2007 at 2:12 pm
How do I get these jerks to stop spamming me? I dont have an account with them and never will. Ive made 3 phonecalls and left MANY response emails to their complaint department. The more i complain the more crap I get for Christian only and Black only true.com sites. I wonder if theres a white only true.com site?
How can they claim to be safe when they buy email lists and spam everyone 3 times per day? How do they know Im Christian - w/ Im not! How do they know Im not married or a pedophile?
February 3rd, 2007 at 4:38 pm
N Alba,
An affiliate is probably the one doing the spamming, someone that is working for them. Configure your e-mail spam filter not to deliver messages with the suspect keywords into your inbox. In the worst case scenario, start over with a clean e-mail address and be extremely discriminating about whom you give it to.
There is a website called 2prong that you can use to register for websites without giving over your e-mail address.
Sorry to hear about your troubles, but I’m not the least bit surprised to hear they are spamming you.
Good luck!
February 8th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
How can I get the picture of the affiliate program ad with the guy handing over the money? It isn’t on your web page anymore.
February 8th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Never mind - the picture is on this page.
February 9th, 2007 at 9:09 am
The old fart married a girl half his age. that is a big number 30+ years. She didn’t have breast, so he bought her some. He has bought them for other girlfriends.
Gold digger and cradle robbing perv.
The guy is full of crap. He is on his third marriage. Has a history of sexual harrassment, cheating, hookers, threesomes, being sued by his ex-fiance. Vest faked an engagement by running off with another woman to Vegas and Hawaii bought the girl one hundred thousand dollars in jewelry. All this to hurt this woman he dated/cheated on for over 6 years. He cheated on her and has been stalking her by hiring a detective to follow her and had as many as 7 people tracking her at the same time. Had this detective and two others follow her to Vegas on her birthday with her sister because he thought she was a lesbian hooker. having her videotyped, photograph, steel trash, and possible break into her computer and wire tap her phone, had her friends followed. The woman fears for her life and is afraid to leave her home or put out her trash to this day. That is why she is suing Vest. Vest has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars even after he got married. Vest contunied having her followed. She also has proof of peejury by Vest and his attornys to the courts. Vest is tying to claim that she is stalking him and his wife now and is a gold digger. Vest claimed that gave her 2 million dollars.
Vest has defrauded his two sons and his mother of millions. Never has seen his grandson. Vest broke the settlement agreement by talking about the case in the media with the Doctor he sued and had to make a settlement with the doctor. Vest is suing the dectective that helped discover the truth about is father’s death and use to stalk the ex-fiancee. Vest thinks the detective sent the Mrs. Smith letters. He thinks the CIA murdered his father now. Vest has no friends and keeps his wife away from her family and friends. Young, dumb, with boobs that is how he likes them. Vest’ words to the ex ” I want to own and control you?” May have saved her life
Vest claims his site is wholesome and the safest. The protection people need is from Vest and True.com running date bait and billing scams.
March 11th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Every negative point you make happened to me. When the class action occurs, maybe I’ll get $1 of the $50 they scammed out of me. The fake winks, messages, etc. The whole website is a scam if you ask me. I thought the owner was based out of nigeria!
April 18th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Ever think its your fault for not reading the fine print?
May 24th, 2007 at 10:32 am
I would like mail to be stopped from coming to my house from b.b62 you can email me at skeeter200618@yahoo.com
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:54 am
I have visited your site 476-times
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:54 am
I could not find this site in the Search Engines index
October 14th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I like this post. I like the slogan about the class action lawsuit. Creative.
January 15th, 2008 at 8:31 am
The affiliates that True.com and Herb Vest owe money to may need to filed a class action lawsuit. They better file it pretty quick too! There is another lawsuit against Herb Vest and the detective business he started and used to stalk the ex-fiancee. Teresa Koehlar vs Herb Vest and H.D. Vest Investigations,LLC, the 192nd District Court, Dallas Texas. Case# 07-10005. I wonder if all the legal problems and bills are behind the reason True.com won’t/can’t paid their bills? Vest’s 2 sons that bailed him out of trouble with 7.5 millions have tried for several years to get their money back, but Vest refuses and basically disowned them. My investigations have discovered Vest and his wife chartering a yacht that cost around $250,000 a week as long as a month. Yet can’t paid his bills! The IRS should check True.com’s taxes for personal travel, personal legal fees and personal employees to start with on the company dime. Vest has stalked his ex-fiancee for years and there are documents, photos, videos, bills, invoices, and depositions to prove it. Beginning in July 2001. The documents show over 5 years of Vest stalking her even after Vest got married. The lead detective goes on in the depo to say Vest loved her and not his now wife. Vest has had as many as 7 people following at one time and as long as 3 months. Vest’s personal history of womanizing, threesomes with lesbians, and hookers are reflected in his ads. Can’t hide your spots! Vest and his attorney have flat out lied to the courts and sent a letter to the court that it was “untrue.” Vest and his attorney claimed in the courts that Vest gave the fiancee 2 million beginning in 1996. Now Vest can decide who he lied and defrauded the IRS and SEC or the fiancee and the courts? Something tells me either way Vest is going to having more and bigger legal fees. I also suspect by the end of the year Vest will be in prison. He has to decide if it will be Federal or State prison now. Vest’s two sons loaned Vest 7.5 million when he was in financial trouble. Now Vest has disowned his sons and refused to repay. Vest has even gone as far as telling them to “prove it” and “sue me” Vest was the trustee on his oldest son’s account and without permission or knowledge that account was cleaned out by Vest. Vest’s own mother accused him of fraud and forgery by signing her name to a note issued to her when she helped her son start his business. More tax fraud on a publicly traded company? If Vest does this to the people that love him and he claimed to love. Is it that hard to believe that he would lie and deceive his customers and affiliates? Vest is living large in Dallas with a new 300K+ Maybanc car and new home in the works of millions. He hasn’t paid a dime to his sons and in fact left one holding the bag for his current home. They are broke and he is riding around in a 300K car. I wonder if the car is titled to True.com or Vest There is a class action lawsuit against True.com filed in Dallas. If you have been ripped off by True.com contact: filed by Washington D.C. based Tycko & Zavareei LLP along with Dallas, Texas based Crews, Shepherd & McCarty LLP. District Court of Dallas County, Texas, and is titled “Wong v. True Beginnings, LLC.” True Beginnings, LLC. Vest also goes by HDVE. It is time for the FBI, IRS, SEC, DTP, Dallas DA and Texas DA to investigate Mr. Vest.
Posted by Mark from Russia of from Russia pm December. Pricey cars, clothes and homes owned by CEOs motivate workers, says Herb Vest, founder and CEO of dating site True.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:19 am
Thanks boysc29b76190f2a7ce4a89cd8c81d5e4f46