Tinder parent company Match Group has found itself in deep water after the Federal Trade Commission accused the company of conning its customers into buying subscriptions.

“The Federal Trade Commission sued online dating service Match Group Inc. (Match), the owner of Match.com, Tinder, OKCupid, PlentyOfFish, and other dating sites, alleging that the company used fake love interest advertisements to trick hundreds of thousands of consumers into purchasing paid subscriptions on Match.com,” said the FTC.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, it was stated that hundreds of thousands of customers had been duped. “Online dating services obviously shouldn’t be using romance scammers as a way to fatten their bottom line,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

According to that lawsuit, 499,691 people had been conned when Match Group knowingly notified users of messages even though the company knew those messages were fraudulent. Some of those messages would notify users that someone liked them, although that someone was not a legitimate user.

Once people had subscribed to the app, the FTC alleges, they were told the account had been banned for fraud. If those customers then demanded a refund, Match allegedly refused to pay up.

And that was not the only wrongdoing, according to the lawsuit. Until recently Match.com gave people a free six-month subscription if they had not yet hooked up. From 2013 to 2016, the FTC said, Match turned 2.5 million people from free users into subscribers, yet only 32,438 got the free six months. It was also said that once the people were in the system, they’d be billed and Match failed to “provide simple subscription cancellation practices.”

Match responded that it has always fought hard to prevent scammers taking advantage of its users. “The FTC has misrepresented internal emails and relied on cherry-picked data to make outrageous claims and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these claims in court,” the company said.

The company denied all wrongdoing, saying allowing such practices is bad for business sense and counterproductive. “I believe the FTC has fundamentally misunderstood our work here, and we intend to fight any allegations,” said Match Chief Executive Hesam Hosseini.

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