today’s online dating generation

Is it possible for true love to bloom between two people of different backgrounds who met only through the Internet?

Although there is no empirical data on the subject (especially in a local setting), falling in love with someone you met online is not unusual at all. There have been thousands of stories of couples who have done so with some even ending up married. This is the reason the popularity of Internet dating sites continue to rise. Below are findings that researchers have discovered about Internet dating.

One, 94 percent of couples who met online keep seeing each another, but only if they spent a significant amount of time getting to know one another online before meeting the first time.

Two, Internet dating relationships lasted on average, seven months.

Three, men are more committed to online relationships and more dependent on their “e-partner” than women.

Four, couples rarely use webcams because they prefer the anonymity of writing and e-mailing when Internet dating.

Going online to meet someone is not any more dangerous than the more traditional methods of face-to-face contact. To minimize the danger, one should not meet up with a chat mate or disclose personal information until you get to know him thoroughly by asking questions, reading his non-verbal cues and through research (that is what Google is for!).

Internet Dating Scams

There are a great many quite legitimate dating service websites that allow members to establish online relationships. Often, these online friendships blossom into genuine long-term relationships. An increasing number of people have found life-partners via relationships started online.

Sadly however, scammers have managed to effectively exploit this trend to further their own nefarious ends. Many people around the world have been duped into sending money to Internet fraudsters posing as would-be girlfriends or boyfriends.

A typical Internet dating scam goes like this:

1. A person registers at an online dating service and creates a profile. The profile will include information, and possibly a photograph, of the person along with a way for interested people to make contact.
   
   
2. In due course, a scammer contacts the person posing as someone interested in exploring a possible romantic relationship.
   
   
3. The victim responds and the pair begins corresponding regularly. They may soon bypass the dating service contact system and start communicating directly, usually via email.
   
   
4. Over time, the scammer will slowly earn the trust of the victim. He or she may discuss family, jobs and other details designed to make the correspondent seem like a real person who is genuinely interested in the victim. Photographs may be exchanged. However, the "person" that the victim thinks he or she is corresponding with, is likely to be purely an invention of the scammer. Photographs may not even show the real sender. The victim's apparent love interest may look completely different to the person in the photograph and, in reality, may not even be the same gender.
   
   
5. After the scammer has established the illusion of a genuine and meaningful relationship, he or she will begin asking the victim for money. For example. the scammer may claim that he or she wants to meet in person and ask the victim to send money for an airfare so that a meeting can take place. Or the scammer may claim that there has been a family medical emergency and request financial assistance. The scammer may use a variety of excuses to entice the victim to send funds.
   
   
6. If the victim complies and sends money, he or she will probably receive further such requests. With his or her judgement clouded by a burgeoning love for the scammer's imaginary character, he or she may continue to send money.
   
   
7. Finally, the victim will come to realize that he or she has been duped, perhaps after waiting fruitlessly at the airport for a "lover" who, will, of course, never arrive.
   
   
8. Meanwhile, the scammer pockets the money and moves on to the next victim. In fact, the scammer may be stringing along several victims simultaneously.

Online dating 'sad and frustrating'

 ONLINE dating renews women's hope in love and sex but can be just as disappointing as the real-life dating scene, according to new Canadian research.

Susan Frohlick, an anthropology professor at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, says the women she surveyed gained a sense of empowerment from their online dating experiences.

But they still wanted the man to make the first move and expected him pick up the tab.

"Women are finding it as a useful tool to enter into the dating world, they find that it's safe, they find that they can be a little more bold than they would in face-to-face relationships," Ms Frohlick said of her survey, which looks at how women over 30 view online dating.

"But, at the same time, they are experiencing frustration because it does seem that the internet in many ways is just the same old bar scene."

Complaints include a preponderance of men who are looking for much younger women, as well as men who misrepresent their looks, interests or marital status, or who show little interest in moving the relationship offline, she said.

"There's not much of a difference between the virtual world and the real world," said Linda, 33, a Toronto professional who has used an online dating site on and off, three or four times for a few months each time.

"It's sad and equally as frustrating."

Linda says she knows it can work out, noting that a friend met her husband after spending more than two years on different websites, but she admits she's given up on the game.

"At least when you're in the bar, you know what they look like," she said, citing examples of meeting bald men whose profile pictures displayed a full head of hair.

"A lot more successful, attractive women are using these tools – I don't think the men match up."

Lori Miller, a singles and dating expert from Toronto, says dating via the web can mimic the bar scene. But it also gives women the chance to approach and meet dozens of men while knowing a little something about them beforehand.

"You're literally thrown into the largest singles bar," she said.

"It is a lot of work, it is the luck of the draw just like being in that coffee shop and meeting the one."

Ms Frohlick's small survey, to be completed in April, is questioning up to 25 Canadian women about their online dating habits. She hopes it will become a pilot for a far larger survey of women across North America.