Trust in Online Dating - miiCard Survey Results

Online dating safety is a growing concern with increasing reports of fraud and identity theft occuring through dating sites. Late last year we ran a survey to find out how people put trust in online dating.

Of the couple of hundred that took our survey, half had been involved in online dating for more than six months and 90 per cent were aged between 18 and 35.

Complete profiles, pictures and social network profiles build trust

The survey found a complete profile helped build trust in a potential date. Profile pictures and a social network profile also provided a good level of comfort. Read about dating profiles and how to spot the fake ones in our recent post blog post.

2 weeks to chat online before meeting a date

28 per cent of respondents chat online with a potential date for between one to two weeks before meeting up in person, while 24 per cent meet up within the first week.

Progressing to a date is great when you feel a strong connection however dating safety guidelines usually encourage you to take your time to get to know a person online, and through the dating site before meeting up, to reduce the risk of falling victim to fraud.

Honesty in online dating – 30% have had a bad experience

We asked people how comfortable they felt with the following statements:

The results were reflected when we asked if people have had a bad experience online dating and 30 per cent responded ‘yes’.

Conclusion

So while we’re seeing safety on dating sites become a bigger issue and more people are affected, there are still a strong number of people using and putting trust in online dating to find romance. In today’s wired world where the technology has proven sucessful in many dating matches, and when ease and convenience is so important to us, this is to be expected.

But with online fraud and identity theft growing at an alarming rate there is a clear need to do more to protect genuine daters from those who use dating sites to scam innocent people.

More education is needed to remind people of the risks of meeting people online. In the run up to Valentine’s Day we published this series of tips to stay safe online dating. We also believe we can create a system of trust online and be sure we know who we are really talking to online, by using an ID verification service like miiCard.

What else can we do? Please share your ideas in the comments section below.