Why men pretend to be women on dating sites

But now, in this peculiar year of in this strange world we live in, ghosting is a brutal dating move. It could be on a dating app after just a few messages, after moving to WhatsApp or even after meeting up in person. But what is the etiquette these days? James: I'm admitting it because I'm an unrepentant ghoster. I do it a few times every week and I genuinely don't feel guilty about it.

I don't care if men lie about their age on dating apps anymore. Seriously, guys, go for it! You just turned 50? You could pretend to be 35 online. I couldn't care less. There are plenty of ways to 'kittenfish', or present yourself unrealistically online. You can fudge the facts about your height, your marital status, your lifestyle.

Offer me something original if you want to grab my attention. I am learning to spot the men who are new to online dating. They arrive with a shiny new membership, expecting to find an order number alongside each of us. Above all, he said, women should only contact him if they had managed to overcome the urge to criticise.

Fraud officers are investigating 30 cases where people looking for partners have been scammed, often pawning jewellery and taking out loans as a result of the elaborate hoaxes. In a typical scam, the fraudster identifies potential victims through a dating site. He then tailors his personality to suit what the victim is looking for, for example a man in the army, and then finds a picture of someone in the military from the internet, which he will use in his profile. Compliments are usually offered and questions asked of the woman so that the fraudster can ascertain how much money the woman has and whether the scam is worth pursuing. In the vast majority of cases it is women who are the victims, although there has the been the occasional male.