By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Roomster was sued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and six states on Tuesday, accusing the roommate-matching service of using fake listings and procuring it from Often people who are struggling to find a place to live take over million dollars in reviews.
According to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, Roomster and its co-founders 2016 “have flooded the Internet with tens of thousands of false positive reviews to Support their false claims that the properties listed on the Roomster platform are real, available and verified.”
People who are harmed are often students, low-income people and people in dire need of safety, Low-cost housing people, and many are tricked into paying more to fraudsters who flood Roomster with their own fakes
California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois , Massachusetts and New York joined the lawsuit against Roomster, co-founders John Shriber and Roman Zaks, and Jonathan Martinez, who runs the AppWinn business.
Complaint that Martinez’s sales exceeded 20, 000, New York-based Roomster’s Fake reviews, Shriber instructed him to make “a lot of 5-star iOS app reviews” and said he “wanted to be number one in finding roommates.”
Martinez reached a settlement of $100, and agreed to cooperate with regulators, Court documents show.
Attorneys for Roomster, Shriber and Zaks did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Martinez’s attorney did not immediately respond to a similar request. The FTC had no immediate comment.
Tuesday’s lawsuit seeks civil penalties and injunctions for violations of federal and state unfair trade laws.
