Two in five adults in Great Britain who have used a dating website have discovered fake profiles, and one in five have been asked for money by someone they are in contact with.
These are amongst the findings of a report published by consumer champion 'Which?', who surveyed 2,052 British adults online in May about their dating website experiences. One in four adults has used an online dating site at some stage in their lives.
Romance fraud is becoming increasingly commonplace as online dating grows in popularity. Dating websites usually have various mechanisms to report abusive behaviour and fake profiles, but everybody contacting people online should take some sensible and simple precautions. Not all such websites, says Which?, vet profiles or moderate content. Nor are dating sites liable for any losses incurred whilst using them unless you can argue that the service was not provided using reasonable care or skill, or the checks you were told would be carried out, were not.
