NEW YORK : A U.S. judge on Wednesday ordered the roommate matching service Roomster to face a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission and six states claiming it used fake listings and reviews to take millions of dollars from people struggling to find affordable housing.
She also said the plaintiffs demonstrated"a realistic likelihood of recurrence given defendants' pattern of willful and deliberate behavior over the course of several years." The complaint said many victims were lower-income renters and students, with many lured into paying even more money to fraudsters who flooded New York-based Roomster's platform with fake listings.In seeking a dismissal, the defendants said they had ceased the alleged improper conduct in 2018, that the FTC lacked power to sue, and the user reviews were not deceptive under state laws.
McMahon, however, said that law"does not immunize defendants from liability for their own unlawful conduct."