I've given up on online dating for now until the industry is better regulated.

As well as fraudsters using these sites, the sites themselves are often obviously using fake profiles and other scams to get people to sign up.

There's a site called Cupid.com who were recently exposed by UK TV as using fake profiles - some were even celebrities! They identified them by dragging images into Google image search and getting actor's profiles - some of whom, when contacted, had no idea they were being used on a dating site and having fake messages sent out in their name! And that site is still up and running!! The documentary also showed how people's details were being stored and sold on in databases which makes me wary of the free sites as some of these could be ways of collecting personal data.

My advice, if you leave a site then always ask them to delete your account and not pass on any details to 3rd party companies. Many just suspend it meaning they get to retain all of your personal info on their servers.