A court decision has ordered the operator of Red Hot Pie, the dating Web site, to disclose to its users that it created 1,371 fake profiles to send "flirts and messages to members.

A federal court found that Jetplace violated the Trade Practices Act of 1974. The company was said to have engaged in misleading practices by representing that the Web site had benefits it did not have.

Maxwell James McGuire and Mark Semaan, Jetplace's directors, were also aware of the offending conduct, the court declared.

The Web site has been ordered to send users who registered between December 2004 and November 26, 2008 a corrective notice the next time they log on. Red Hot Pie has also been ordered to send an e-mail copy of the notice to every user.

The company has also been ordered to hand out refunds if users can demonstrate that they were misled into paying the membership fees.