Yes folks, you too can get approached by a ‘stunner’ or a ‘hunk’, simply by going online and paying a small fee to a dating site.
In fact, you don’t even have to go online to a dating site, you can miraculously find a young lady who is willing and able to do virtually anything to become your partner in an email.
I have just received an email from ‘WhatsFlirt’ informing me that no less than 21 women just had to meet me and they all lived in Sydney. Their ages ranged from 22 to 52 and so I wrote to every one asking them what suburb they lived in or what was their phone number?
Not one wrote back with an answer containing any facts. I had been scammed. The web site also said 73 women had visited my profile. Apparently by visiting another site and signing up, WhatsFlirt received my details.
This story all came about because I was writing a story on Online Dating for Mature Traveller magazine on finding a travelling partner online.
Apparently thousands of Australians, mostly males, fall for online scam sites and dish out their hard earned cash because they genuinely believe they are conversing with a real lady.
Sometimes they are actually talking to a real person, but even that can be a massive scam.
According to the Federal Government’s Scamwatch service, scammers take advantage of people looking for romantic partners, often via dating websites, apps or social media by pretending to be prospective companions. “They play on emotional triggers to get you to provide money, gifts or personal details.”
These criminal lovers often use real dating romance to gain your trust.
Scamwatch says their profile on the internet dating website or their Facebook page is not consistent with what they tell you. “For example, their profile picture looks different to their description of themselves, or they say they are university educated but their English is poor.”
This is not to say there aren’t many genuine dating web sites where you can meet someone and they end up being your life partner. It Sseems the algorithm has replaced the dance rhythm when it comes to dating in 2022.
According to a report by Stanford University more couples now meet online then socially. “Meeting a significant other online has replaced meeting through friends. People trust the new dating technology more and more and the stigma of meeting online seems to have worn off,” the report said.
So how do you find a genuine dating site?
The better known mainstream sites like eHarmony, Seniorfriendfinder, Adultfriendfinder, Tinder and Biaustralia are your best bet to find a partner to suit your personal preference.
However most will attempt to charge you a monthly or annual fee to upgrade to level where you can check profiles and send messages.
According to Google, Tinder has two males for every female. And dating app revenue was $5.61B in 2021, even though Tinder — the most popular app — has a free version.
Nearly 280m online users of dating services were forecast for 2024, with 113m users of matchmaking services and 70m casual daters
According to a December 2021 survey by Statista, 3.2m people from Australia were actively seeking partners online. However, out of these, only 0.6m pay for online dating services, while the remaining 2.6m are classified as non-paying users
