Online dating is a multi-billion dollar industry with over 40 million users and growing every day. It inspires people meet their spouses and make new connections in a world where people just don’t have time to date the traditional way. Simply put, online dating has become socially acceptable.With any online social sites, there are risks, but do you know the reality of those risks?
Here are 16 scary statistics of online dating to put the world of online dating into perspective when it comes to the reality of the person behind that profile.
1. How annoying! About one-third of online daters do not upload a profile picture to their online dating profile. Sorry, but we don’t judge our potential mates on personality alone.
2. One out of 10 sex offenders use online dating to meet other people – Uh…
3. The book How to Date in a Post-Dating World by Diane Mapes In the online dating world, women are afraid of meeting a serial killer. It’s OK ’cause only about 3% of online dating men are psychopaths!
4. eHarmony mentions that a study found that men who reported incomes higher than $250,000 received 156% more email than those with $50,000. That’s 156% more golddiggers, guys, so think twice about whether you want to post that kind of personal info.
5. On free dating sites, at least 10% of new accounts are from scammers, says Marketdata Enterprise, Inc. Catfish, anyone?
6. In 2005 alone, 25% percent of rapists used online dating sites to find their victims. Let me repeat that: twenty-five percent of rapists used online dating sites to find their victims.
7. Dinner for Six, a matchmaking service in Denver, Colorado says that 51% percent of online dating singles are already in a relationship, yet are putting themselves out there as being single.
8. More than 53% of Americans fabricate parts or all of their dating profile details, according to Huff Post. They go on to say “Most of these are lies their dates can spot in the first few seconds of seeing them. In fact, a third of those surveyed said they falsified their information so much that it prevented them from getting a second date.”
9. More than 40% of men try to swoon women by lying about their jobs, trying to make their career sound more prestigious. Makes sense: “I work in the entertainment industry”…Dude, you sell tickets at the local theater.
10. According to MSNBC, research shows that 11% of people using online dating services are married.
11. In 2011 alone, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center lodged 5,600 complaints from victims of “romance scammers” with collective losses of over fifty million dollars. BUT, it’s suspected that these numbers are much less than actual as many people are too embarrassed to come forward.
12. Each year internet predators commit more than 16,000 abductions, 100 murders and thousands of rapes, according to InternetPredatorStatistics.com
13. Safety First! 33% of women who have sex on the first online dating encounter, of these, 4 out of 5 women did not use protection.
14. An alarming 51% of online daters are already in a relationship of some kind.