CBC MARKETPLACE: SERVICES » ONLINE DATING
Love and little white lies
Broadcast: Mar 16, 2004

Dating services - they've been around for generations. But, increasingly, single men and women are turning to online personal ads in their search for a mate.

But can you trust those ads? Marketplace checked out the claims some people are making. Does truth in advertising apply to the world of online dating?

Danielle's a professional head hunter. Marc's a deep sea diver. They've

Sometimes Danielle can spend a few hours catching up on messages

never met in person - but they have met online.

Danielle's been using an internet dating service to meet guys. They're about to go on their first date.

In the world of online dating, you're the product - in charge of selling yourself. But there are times when the sales pitch doesn't always live up to its claims. She remembers one whose ad was a little short of reality.

"In this conversation of, you know, what do you like and what colour, he’s saying to me 'now what would you do if I was only five-three and I was bald and I had a big belly?' I said, 'well, I’d say nice to meet you and that would be the end of it.'"

That was the end of it for Danielle. She never did find out the truth about him. She moved on.

Can Danielle and Marc expect better? Or will it be a case of false advertising?

We went to Bruce Croxon, co-founder of one of the most successul dating sites on the internet, Toronto-based Lavalife. It was recently sold to U.S. interests for $150 million.

"As males search for women online with a picture, your profile’s going to pop up," Croxon explained. "What is it that you want them to know about you? It’s very important that you put your best foot forward and be authentic, we tell everybody. There’s no point in telling somebody you are someone different than you really are."

Relationship expert Josey Vogels writes an online column. She often gets questions from readers about deceoption in online dating.

"It seems so strange to me," Vogels said. 'You’re describing yourself as

Relationship commentator Josey Vogels

one way and you’re hoping to meet people. Do you think you’re going to be able to transform yourself into that person by the time you meet them?"

"I thought I was talking to this individual who to me was 25, blonde, like really good-looking," one customer told us. "But when she turned up, she was - um - I don’t want to sound really crass and shallow. She was a big girl, how’s that? She was big!"

"I’ve spoken to a lot of people who have actually been completely turned off internet dating for that very reason," Vogels said. "They said 'I did it, I met people but then every time I’d actually meet them in person it was like your interpretation of tall, dark and handsome certainly looks like short, squat and bald-headed.'"

You meet someone in a bar and you have a physical sense of who they

Lavalife co-founder Bruce Croxon

are. The one thing that internet dating has never been able to do is decide whether the chemistry is there.

Lavalife's Bruce Croxon says he hasn't received a lot of complaints from people who went on dates with people who looked nothing like the pictures in their online profiles.

"We would rely on somebody calling us, ‘You know what? I had a date with somebody that was nowhere close to looking like the picture that, the person it was.’ That rarely happens."

Is deception all that rare? Perhaps it's just human natures to stretch the truth. To get a better idea of truth in online advertising, we set up - The Marketplace Dating Challenge.

NEXT: The Marketplace Dating Challenge »