New Investigation By The Sun Looks At Link Between Online Dating And Crime In UK
In total, 32 police forces in England, Northern Ireland and Wales responded to the investigation.
Of these forces, the Freedom of Information investigation found that between 2011 and 2017, there were 1,795 crimes linked to online dating apps.
However, the police forces who did not respond included The Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police, meaning the actual figure is likely much higher.
In terms of the breakdown of crime attributed to online dating apps, over 18.8% were for offensive or threatening messages, 16.9% were for harassment, 16.4% for rape and 9.5% for theft or robbery.
The Sun also broke down the percentages of the dating services named in this crime data, finding that Plenty of Fish was the service linked to most reported crimes.
The investigation said the dating service was mentioned in 56% of crimes, compared to 26% for Tinder, 10% for Grindr and 7% for Match.com.
Tony Neate, CEO of Get Safe Online, said: “The risks are pretty much the same as in the real world, for example, there’s always a threat that someone might try to burgle your house but that doesn’t mean you never leave it.
“Instead you take precautions like having locks on your doors and putting in alarm systems.
“If you’re looking to find love, you can take sensible precautions too, so you can feel confident when you think you’ve met someone nice via dating site or app – in fact, when dating online you can actually do more checks find out who that person is that you’re talking to.”
Check out the full report here.
