Relationships

Valentine's Day brings a mix of emotions. For loved up couples, it's a time of warm feelings and sappy Facebook posts. For some singles, it's a time of proud independence. For others, it's a season of heartbreak. And for some, Valentine's Day brings a heartbreak of a different kind.

Online dating websites typically see a surge around Cupid's big day – one that isn't just about finding a mate. The love-centric holiday is the perfect time for scammers to tug on the heartstrings (and purse strings) of naïve victims.

"Especially right before Valentine's Day people start to get a little more antsy trying to find a date,” Emily Bartz told Fox59. “There's kind of a rush and that makes it really easy for scammers to get a hold on victims and try to get money or their information.”

With Valentine's Day 2016 in the recent past, the subject of online dating scams has been big in the news. Bartz published an article on NextAdvisor that details three kinds of online dating scammers and the red flags you should watch for.

Up first are the survey scammers, who typically match with as many people as possible and begin coversations by inquiring about their match's experience using that particular dating service. “Once they’ve convinced their match that they are simply a fellow dater who is curious about other’s experiences with the service or are an employee of that service,” writes Bartz, “they are able to establish a level of trust that leads to victims unknowing giving out personal information, like their phone number, home address or payment information.”

Bartz cautions daters to be wary of anyone who asks them to participate in some type of survey. The word “survey” itself may appear, or the scammer may ask questions more subtly. Ignore queries about your opinion of the dating service and other users, as well as requests for account or personal info.

Up next are identity thieves. This type of scam is often discussed, particularly by critics of online dating, and is one of the most difficult to recognize. An identity thief can invest months in a victim before completing their scam.

An honest dater and an identity thief can sound confusingly alike. To tell them apart, Bartz recommends watching out for affection that comes on too strong, too early – especially if it's followed by personal questions. The scammer is trying to build a false sense of romance and rapport as quickly as possible. “Identity thieves residing on online dating sites are often very charming and know just what to say to their matches to get them to hand over everything they need to steal their identity,” Bartz warns.

Your best bet to unmask an identity thief is to suggest meeting offline (if, assuming it isn't a scammer, you're ready to take your relationship to that level). A scammer will usually refuse or avoid an in-person meeting, while a real suitor will be thrilled at the prospect.

Dating is a peculiar thing. Most of us hate doing it, because it feels like a waste of time when you go through the motions and still don’t meet anyone worth pursuing. It might feel pointless to join online dating sites or download apps, spend time messaging, and then when you meet potential dates, realize the match isn’t right less than ten minutes into your drinks.

But here’s the thing: dating is the process by which you get to the actual relationship. There’s just no other way.

Of course not everyone is going to be a good match, compatible, or even someone you find attractive. But this doesn’t mean you quit the process and then hope love stumbles on to your doorstep.

In fact, the opposite is true. The more time you put into dating, the more likely you are to develop a relationship. And I don’t just mean because you will be meeting a lot of people, but because you will be taking time out of your schedule to make finding a relationship a priority.

When you invest your time and effort into something, it might not yield results right away, but it creates an environment for success to happen. Take for instance, another type of life goal you have. Say you want to lose twenty pounds. Do you wait around, thinking that eventually you will lose this twenty pounds because fate will step in and help? Or do you join a gym, or a running group, or start an exercise regime?

You won’t yield results right away. As with any goal worth achieving, it will take time, effort, and some determination on your part. It won’t be easy.

It’s the same thing with work – you can’t expect a promotion without putting the time and effort into your job. When you focus your intentions on what you want, and you make time for it in your life, then you see real progress. Even if you don’t get that coveted promotion, you’ve gained skills that you can take to another, higher-paying or more prestigious job – because you have put in the time and effort. It’s never wasted.

Dating is the same. If you put in the time and effort, you will start to see results. But this means challenging yourself – going on more dates, giving more people a chance who you wouldn’t normally consider, thinking outside of your comfort zone. You have to stretch yourself to see what you are capable of.

As I say in my book Date Expectations, dating is a process to get to really know yourself and what you want. But you have to make the time for it.

From the first date, to the first kiss, to your first time between the sheets, every new relationship is marked by a series of milestones. Every one you reach is thrilling and nerve-racking, and daters have wondered since the beginning of time how to hack the system.

A new survey from Match.com attempts to answer the question of when it's the 'right' time to cross each milestone. More than 2,000 men and women in the UK were surveyed in attempt to map out the journey of the average (as much as any relationship can be 'average') long-term relationship. Here's what they found.

Within Two Weeks

The Match.com chart starts at the logical beginning: the first date. According to Match's research, the first kiss happens immediately. In the next one to two weeks, a budding couple will hold hands for the first time. They will also sleep together for the first time in that period, although they won't stay the night.

Within A Month

After the two-week point, things take a slightly more serious turn. A new couple will get undressed in front of each other – but only with the lights off – within a month. They will also introduce each other to their respective best friends.

Within Six Months

The relationship solidifies over the first six months together. Couples buy each other their first birthday presents and begin to call each other boyfriend and girlfriend. At five months comes one of the biggest milestones of all: saying 'I love you.' After that, the realities of a life together begin to sink in. Couples have their first argument around 170 days, reveal imperfections around 173 days, and introduce each other to parents before six months are up.

Within A Year

Couples become increasingly permanent fixtures in each other's lives during the first year. After six months have gone by, they are comfortable leaving toothbrushes at each other's bathrooms and having a drawer in each other's homes. Then comes the travel. At 204 days, they'll go away for a night together and at 298 days they'll take an entire vacation. Within a year, it's time to have a serious conversation about the future.

Over A Year

The biggest life milestones come after the one-year mark is reached. The average couple gets engaged at 743 days (around 2 years), gets a pet at 813 days, and buys a home together just before they reach three years. The average marriage comes at 1190 days, just over three years. Finally, the average couple has their first child together at 1422 days, after three years and 11 months together.

View the full flowchart from Match.com here and check our our Match.com review.

eHarmony has setup a free communication trial which starts Wednesday morning on February 10th and runs for 5 days until the evening of Monday February the 15th. This event is for both the United States and Canada.

To be able to participate in the trial an eHarmony account is required. So if you haven't done it already, all you need to do is create a free eHarmony membership and fill out the profile questionnaire. No credit card is required. When you do fill out the profile make sure you have 30 to 40 minutes as there are a number of multiple choice questions. You can save a partially answered questionnaire and continue on later, but I always find it is better to finish it in one sitting. Also, make sure you have a few photos picked out for your profile before hand. A head shot for your main profile photo is good along with a few more photo's showing yourself having fun.

Once your profile and questionnaire is complete, eHarmony will then send you about 5 matches right away. These matches are created by the eHarmony matching algorithm which is based on years of research by eHarmony Labs. The information from your profile and questionnaire about what you want in a partner along with what best matches with your personality traits is used to figure out what eHarmony members, when matched to you, have the best chance of creating a long-term and happy relationship.

eHarmony free communication trials happen about once a month. The dating site and app (which is available both for the iPhone and Android devices) is always extra busy during this time especially in February when Valentine's Day is fast approaching. Features not included during the trial include skipping the guided communication process and going straight to email. The guided communication process is where you and your match each answer a couple of questions about yourself. These questions are picked out by you and your match and are designed to help break the ice before you start writing to each other via email. Viewing of profile photos is also only available to paying members during this event.

For more details about this popular dating matchmaking service, you can read our eHarmony review.

We talk about heartache when love is lost. We talk about hearts fluttering when love is found. We send heart emojis and heart-shaped Valentine's and make hand hearts on Instagram. We're heart-obsessed.

It was only a matter of time before someone harnessed that obsession, added a little science, and tied it to another popular obsession: health and fitness. That someone is Once, a new dating app that uses your heart rate to determine your heart's mate.

Once, which can now be integrated with Fitbit and Android Wear, shows users a single potential suitor each day. The matches are curated by actual human matchmakers, who work their magic by reviewing your profile and the profiles of people you've liked in the past. When you're given your daily match, you have 24 hours to make a move before the match expires.

Friends Reunited won’t be available to message, post and keep in touch anymore. The once-popular social site, founded in 2000, was left in the dust by rivals such as MySpace and later, to a larger extent, Facebook.

Friends Reunited has a turbulent history. At one point a tech darling after quickly gaining three million subscribers in 2003, it was sold to ITV in 2005 for 125 million pounds, or about $208 million US. At its peak, 23 million users were on Friends Reunited.

But what the company didn’t intend was that employers would begin to use the service to check on potential and current employees, gauging what they said on social media as opposed to how they conducted themselves at work. It led to businesses using the site as a way to spy on employees, gathering information such as whether an employee was looking for another job, what they were saying about co-workers, or what interviewees and potential employees were saying online that could be potentially harmful.

At one stage, according to UK newspaper The Telegraph, Friends Reunited was blamed for a spike in the divorce rate on the grounds it encouraged classroom sweethearts to rekindle romances.

Instead of a positive, uplifting social experience where people felt secure to engage and share, the company found its platform being used as a way to spy on people for bad behavior. Naturally, users over time stopped posting and using the service. Membership dropped, especially when Facebook entered the picture a couple of years later. While Facebook continued to gain users, Friends Reunited found itself floundering.

The company was sold yet again in 2009 to DC Thompson for only 25 million pounds, and had only a fraction of its user base still active on the site. In 2012, the company decided to do a reboot and rebrand itself “Memory Box,” hoping to take on Facebook’s rapid growth. Memory Box did not succeed.

In 2014, DC Thompson offered the platform back to the original founder of Friends Reunited Steve Pankhurst, who thought he could restart the fledgling website. But in an announcement made on self-publishing platform Medium, Pankhurst announced its closure in January.

He wrote on Medium: "The first part of our plan was to put Friends Reunited back to make it more like the original site  --  that is, listing your schools and memories of your school days." However, this didn't really happen.

Pankhurst is now working on a new social media site called Liife, which allows you to upload photos and mark and share them with friends to identify significant “moments,” like trips, awards ceremonies or graduations. He said the new site would in no way replace Friends Reunited.

The related service Friends Reunited Dating still appears to be in operation and is not affected by the closing of the social service Friends Reunited. For more information on dating site please read our review of Friends Reunited Dating.