Single men and women are looking to premium sites to ensure security as dating fraud reaches an all time high, according to new studies.
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has reported that nearly 4,000 fraud cases in the last year led to losses totaling around £39 million.
As sites and dating apps have been growing in popularity as the mobile base continues to explode, so too do the security risks.
This comes along with reports of dating site Adult Friend Finder could have exposed the personal and intimate details of over 3.5 million users.
Among the attacks, more users are preparing to pay more for guaranteed safety, according to premium matchmaking company, Gray and Farrar, who has seen an unexpected surge in popularity they have described as ‘meteoric’.
“Our business was founded on security and human interaction; algorithms have no place in our clients’ lives and we personally speak to our entire 2000-strong member base at least once a week,” explained Claire Sweetingham, managing partner of Gray and Farrar, who claims the company has never experienced a single identity issue in the last 25 years of matchmaking.
Believing many clients turn to the exclusive site, on which a year’s membership costs upwards of £15,000, have “been burnt” by other dating sites. “Sadly with many of these sites, it is impossible to know who you are talking to and these ‘romance fraudsters’ are very good at what they do.”
We only ever accept clients whose authenticity we can verify and so far from being our competition, online dating websites are actually causing an increase in our client numbers.”
