Artilcle by Rachel Wells, February 14, 2012, Sydney Morning Herald
THOUSANDS of lovelorn Australians are enlisting private investigators to do background checks on potential partners they meet online.
Julia Robson, from DateScreen - which specialises in investigating online Romeos - says she receives about 20 calls a day to the service she launched in June last year.
Similarly, Lachlan Jarvis, from Lyonswood Investigations and Forensic Group, says investigating cyber love rats now makes up about 10 per cent of the group's investigations business.
The inquiries come from men and women wanting to check would-be lovers are not already married or lying about their wealth or, more seriously, aren't crooks with criminal records.
''There's a whole list of reasons why people use our service,'' says Ms Robson, who also receives calls from concerned family members. ''But often they just want to find out that everything this person is saying about themselves is true.''
Ms Robson says the checks are not only saving people from a broken heart, but in many cases, tens of thousands of dollars.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says Australians were scammed of more than $21 million while trying to find love online last year. The average loss reported to the consumer watchdog was $20,000.
The real cost of online love scams - in which a scammer woos a genuine dating site user to get them to provide money or personal details - could be much higher, given many people are often too embarrassed to report it.
And Ms Robson says it can happen to anyone. ''I had a client last year who was a very smart, professional woman who lost thousands to a man claiming to be a successful businessman who needed money for his business … I see it all the time.''
She applauded the commission's announcement yesterday it has introduced voluntary guidelines for dating sites to better protect consumers.
She says historically dating sites have been ''too slow'' to act on concerns reported by users.
The guidelines call on sites to display prominent scam warnings on their websites; implement internal checking procedures to better detect scammers; and introduce effective complaint handling procedures.
There is a more natural way to do it. That is by your heart or using your sense as a judge of character.
If you are young or inexperienced, not sure it is safe to do it your own;
or you have heavy loads of other commitment which tends to make it too difficult to shift your focus;
or you have had unsuccessful experience in the past of falling in love with a right person.
Welcome to consider me as your assistant. It is my full time job and I have interviewed and interacted with a few thousands people, I am sure I can come up with some practical tips for you. By the way, it is also my genuine passion to assist you to your success.
My great pleasure is to hear my clients telling me that they are happy, or engaged to have a future together.