Businesses be warned, Harold Hoffman has a new shtick. A few years ago, New Jersey Attorney Harold Hoffman made headlines when the court ruled that he could not bring a New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act suit against a company selling a penis enhancement product without actually trying the product. Now he is in the news again, this time for suing the popular Jewish dating website JDate for emailing him.

 

 

The New Jersey Law Journal is reporting that Hoffman “has filed a class action lawsuit against [JDate] alleging that it is engaged in a ‘deliberate, calculated, fraudulent scheme and conspiracy’ through its electronic marketing… To date, he said, he has received almost a dozen spam email solicitations and he has incurred ‘substantial international postage costs’ in attempting to opt out by sending letters.”

 

Just like in MANY of the previous lawsuits Hoffman has filed alleging violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, he is serving as both the class council and the class representative. Hoffman’s double role in the suits he files raises some questions about his motives. Are the suits he files truly in the interest of New Jersey consumers? Or is he filing them simply to shake settlement dollars from deep pockets?