After all, most dates that start online end up in either a love connection or with the two of you going your separate ways. Right, online dating is now so widely accepted that personal safety sometimes gets overlooked.We asked Stewart and Tony Neate, CEO of Get Safe Online, for their tips for enjoying dating sites while making sure you stay safe. If you’ve never used a dating site or app before, you might not know which one to pick.According to Stewart, you should always “stick to mainstream websites and be cognizant that anyone can join most any site and pose as any person.” One way to tell if a website is trustworthy is the extent to which it lets you protect your information.Here are seven tips to keep in mind as you look for love online:“Tell your friends where you’re going and when you’ll be home,” said Helen Fisher, a senior research fellow with the famed Kinsey Institute and chief scientific advisor to

Some 3,889 online dating-related fraud incidents were reported, resulting in a record loss of £39m.The anonymity of the internet allows people to hide facets of their personality, from a relatively harmless lie about weight, to lies about financial problems and even creating a fake persona – this is called catfishing.If you aren’t careful, you may be out of pocket and broken-hearted.(Consider the fake Nigerian prince email scams so many of us have received.) Listen to the experts. " says Julie Spira, a leading online dating expert, bestselling author of , and creator of profiles for singles via Cyber Dating "Dating sites (usually) take their members' safety issues very seriously and make it easy for you to report any suspicious profiles or serious problems right away.Whether you are 20, 40 or 60, the internet has changed the way we form romantic relationships.In the past you met your partner through friends, at work or from socialising, now we meet people using apps, social media and dating websites.(Sonaiya Kelley)But it is easy to let your guard down or find yourself in an unsafe situation — especially if Grey Goose swoops in.That’s why it’s important to have a few common-sense strategies that keep you safe, according to law enforcement experts and others.Commander Chris Greany, the Police National Coordinator for Economic Crime at City of London Police, said criminals target those who they consider vulnerable and more likely to fall for scams: “Our intelligence tells us that people aged 50-59 are the most likely to become a victim of dating fraud and therefore need to be especially careful when going online in search of a partner.” Follow our tips to discover the danger of online dating and how to protect yourself.If something goes wrong, you might feel too ashamed or embarrassed to act, but you must. It’s not just the financial loss, it’s also the emotional turmoil. The process varies between websites, for instance has a ‘Report this profile’ option.Among independent sites, Stewart cites Hinge, Coffee Meets Bagel, How About We, e Harmony, Zoosk and Plenty Of Fish as being “large enough to have good policies in place.” Although these larger websites don’t necessarily have more trustworthy users, you can at least rely on the sites to keep your information safe.“Any time you're giving out personal information or credit card information, you want to be able to trust the site/company,” Stewart says.Dating sites and apps have gotten increasingly popular among college students like us over the last few years.Maybe you’ve found yourself creating an Ok Cupid account or taking Tinder more seriously when you had originally got the app just for fun. After all, you never really know whom you’re talking to.