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                TOGETHER VOTED "DATING SERVICE FROM HELL"

    NEW HAVEN, Connecticut -- Together Dating Service has been voted
the "Dating Service from Hell," and has won the dubious distinction
of being named the "worst dating service in the English-speaking
world," in an internet contest cosponsored over the last 60 days by
the Association of Ethical Matchmakers, a trade association, and by
Victims Together, an advocacy group for dating service customers.

     In addition to charges of fraud, "high pressure" sales tactics
and other unfair business practices brought against the Together 
chain by New York, California, Arkansas, New Mexico and Connecti-
cut, information generated by the competition also identified To-
gether's "junk mail" advertising and "boiler room" telemarketing 
practices luring women in for its "hard sell" methods by use of the
false claim that Together does not charge its female customers (in 
Washington and Idaho), despite Together radio advertising averring
to women in terms of "flea collars" and "leashes" (in Connecticut).

     The internet contest also brought to light fraudulent telemar-
keting claims not thus far identified in states' repeated fraud ac-
tions against the chain:  namely, that its high-end dating program,
which is sold for as much as $4,995, is in fact an "investment" that
can be resold for an actual "profit," with the chain's confidential
Operations Manual's "scripts" explicitly insisting that "you can
sell it for a lot more than your original investment" (sic), that
"you stand to make ___ profit if you sell it for the current rate,"
and that "even if you sell it for less or even just to recoup your
investment[,] there's money in your pocket that you wouldn't have
had and you've met the love of your life!  You can't go wrong!"

     In addition to Together customers who apparently did not com-
pletely agree -- naming it as the "Dating Service from Hell" over
seven times more often than the next closest competitor -- numerous
former employees also provided further information, including the
irony of Together having originated a "Blind Dates from Hell" con-
test, as a promotion, along with its references to women as "dogs."

     Also identified were consent decrees and administrative orders
signed by the Together chain in the second half of 1996 with New
Mexico, Connecticut and Florida agencies (without admitting fraud). 
     
     "While every national dating service received complaints from
some unhappy customers, Together Dating Service received nearly
three times as many complaints as every other company combined,"
reported Joan Bowman, Association of Ethical Matchmakers president.

     "If every state's Attorney General would do what three states
have done within the last six months," said Roger Keeling, pres-
ident of Victims Together, "then Together 's frauds would stop."

     Further data is available at http://www.cupidnet.com/aem, and
additional information about dating services is welcome either at
that web address, or at AEM, Box 99, Kirkland, Washington 98083.