Both. My initial reaction was based on a couple of scandals that shut down some of Match.com’s competitors several years back, ie paid female employees posing as potential dates. Then just a couple hours worth of research turned up similarities to striking to ignore:
Pay to contact
Pay to receive messages
Pay to chat
Pay to send virtual baubles
Pay to send flirts (whatever those are)
Pay to see who sent you a flirt
Pay to send winks
Pay to see who winked at you
Then AM takes it a step further by owning/running pseudo sites like ashleymadisonscam.net. that leads the searcher into believing he’s reading third party information, but it’s really a commercial for AM.
Same for Ashleymadison.org, ashleymadisonsucks.com, ashleymadisonreviews.net, ashleymadisoncheating.com, ashleymadisonsucks.info, etc etc.
All use varying methods of deception, from guys who said the site doesn’t work, only to find out they still had credits and SCORE...to wives lamenting that they lost their husbands to AM...and just when you’re ready to shed that tear tell you how they got themselves back into shape and now they’re looking for hot married guys on AM too.
In short, they bought the first 6 or so search engine pages to keep the poor saps from uncovering the truth. I had to search with some legalese to find the following disclaimer which exists as their legal protection against fraud. It also confirms my theory my satisfaction.
From time to time this service may include, offer, or initiate winks, collect messages or instant chat from Market Researchers (Online Hosts) simulating attached or single men or women. These efforts are conducted for market research and/or customer experience and/or quality control and/or compliance purposes.
So, they’re admitting it in the fine print hoping that no one will ever notice.
I think Melas just proved why Freepers are smarter and better investigative reporters than professional journalists!
Great job, Melas!