A lot of positive things can be said about online dating. It has made dating more accessible and literally opened the whole world for potential partner matches. However, as with any online social media with a level of anonymity involved, there are things you should look out for including lying, dating scams and fraud.

Lying

Several studies conducted on online dating have concluded that almost 20% of dating sites users has admitted to lying. But when these people are asked how many others they think do the lying, the figure rose to as much as 90%.

What do people usually lie about?

• Men usually take 3-5 kg off their weight and add at least two inches to their height
• Women take even more off their weight and usually add an inch or more to their height. Women also tend to change their appearance in their profile picture. One common technique is “air brushing” which can take out imperfections of a normal photo. Some even post picture’s of someone else on their profile.
• Studies have shown that the shorter and bigger the member is, the more they lie to better their image.
• Women who lie about their age usually reduce their years by five to as much as 20 years.
• Men are generally more confident about their age and typically alter it by up to five years.
• Men also lie more about their educational level, their income and their marital status whilst women seldom do this. In fact, they might undersell their success in fear of alienating less successful men.

Why dating site users lie

The answer to this is not complicated. With the wide choice on online dating sites you have to make yourself stand out and make an impression on others. Of course the level of anonymity an online dating site can offer you makes it a lot easier to lie as well. Creating a perfect virtual you is easy: Some studies have even concluded that online daters find it harder to tell the truth which would put them in a bad light than to create an ideal person.

There are also practical reasons for lying on the dating sites. The most obvious of which is that the larger number of people you have impressed, the higher the chances of finding the perfect person. Since it is easy to impress other people with achievements such as educational background and income, people tend to amplify their own accomplishments in order to have more people view their profiles.

Lying comes with a word of warning though – if you are looking for real love, lying is not recommendable. Imagine the amount of explaining you will have to do when you meet your prospective partners on your first date ,when it turns out that the photo you put up on your profile was you 20 years and 5 kgs ago!

Dating Scams & Fraud

Sadly, there has been cases where unsuspecting online dating users has been scammed for money. In most cases this will be a woman (or someone posing as a woman) targeting lonely men. Would you give away your money to anyone you didn’t know?

As with any new relationship, make sure you follow your gut feeling. An honest person would like you because of you and not your money. Many of the dating scams go to great extent to con you. Some will pledge for money after getting to know you that they can reason to anything from paying for their tickets, medical aid, economical hardship or funerals for a family member.

Some will even marry and come back to their new husbands home country only to divorce after a short while for the purpose of a Visa or sucking your wallet dry.

If you do however have a good feeling about the person you are communicating with, make sure you spend a great deal of time getting to know the person before meeting in person. If you do get to that stage, watch out for any signs that could make your alarm bells ring such as the woman demanding expensive gifts or focusing mostly on money. Make sure you see your prospective partner more than once before deciding if you want to take the relationship further.

Fake Dating Sites

There have been reported cases of fake dating sites posing as real sites, existing only for the purpose of taking your money via credit card

To steer clear of fake dating sites, simply use the well-established and respected dating sites. Our dating reviews have all been verified to be genuine dating sites