Dating site deceit

READINg about dating websites (Letters), I thought I might dip my toe in the waters.

I googled ‘free dating service’, found one and registered, but gave only my age, hair colour and eye colour. To allow me to get further, the site wanted my credit card details and money up front. I’m not tight, but I felt duped.

Since then, I’ve had about 40 emails from the site telling me that lots of eligible men are desperate to meet me — which I find strange as I hadn’t completed my registration or paid any money. I clicked on one man’s profile and, of course, up popped the page asking me to enter my credit card details.

So I answered one of the emails I was sent, asking how all these men had accessed my brief and incomplete profile, and whether they would mysteriously disappear once I paid for the service (which was advertised as free).

The reply I received said I’d contacted the wrong branch of the business and that, anyway, it couldn’t find my email address. It didn’t offer to point me in the right direction or tell me why these men were able to see my profile.

I have a good idea that if I did complete my registration and pay, these men would disappear — or is that just me being far too cynical?

Name and address supplied. AS A widower of 92, I never ‘date’ by email — with one exception. I saw a letter by a lady who mentioned that she’d served in the Royal Navy during World War II (Mail) and, as I also had, I managed to get in touch with her, via the local paper in her area.

She replied and, surprisingly, it turned out that like me she’d served in the Fleet Air Arm.

After numerous questions to check me out, we met at a garden centre and she must have liked the cut of my jib because we met again, when she came to my town.

She lived a fair distance away, but we exchanged emails etc and had arranged to meet at her home when, unfortunately, she was taken ill and passed away shortly afterwards. Though I’d only known her for just under a year, the pleasure I derived from our short friendship certainly helped brighten my days and still does.

alF BeTTS, Bridgwater, Somerset.