Disillusioned online daters turn to matchmakers

LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) Online daters, disappointed by potential partners lying about their age, weight or marital status, are turning to professional matchmakers to find love.

Rather than risk taking pot luck online, chief executives, entertainers and politicians are among those paying thousands of dollars to matchmakers to discreetly ''headhunt'' and vet the perfect partner.

''In the old days you had your extended family, or in some societies an actual matchmaker, trying to find someone for you,'' said dating expert Mary Balfour.

''Nowadays people have a personal matchmaker in the same way they would have a personal trainer,'' she said at her Drawing Down the Moon agency in London's Adam and Eve Mews.

The stigma of online dating has waned since Internet dating sites sent thunderbolts flying in the world of romance and revolutionised the way people found partners.

Websites now abound for straight, gay, Jewish, Christian, disabled or millionaire daters, but figures show a large chunk of those looking for love in cyberspace are disillusioned.

''So many people have had nightmare experiences with people misrepresenting themselves,'' said Christie Nightingale, principal of New York-based Premier Match LLC.

Nightingale said about 80 percent of her clients had tried online dating before coming to her with horror stories.

The online dating industry is lucrative, reeling in about 500 million dollar in the United States and about 203 million dollar in Europe last year, said Jupiter Research.

A survey earlier this year by Pew Internet and American Life Project found that about 16 million Americans had used an online dating website.

But while 52 per cent said they had mostly positive experiences, 29 per cent reported negative experiences.

''A percentage of men I met online were absolute freaks. I don't think any of them were the mad axe man type, but if you'd met them anywhere else you wouldn't touch them with a barge pole,'' said London nursing manager Joanna Haworth, 36.

''Some might have used photos from three years ago when they were three stone lighter. One man spent all the time talking about his ex-wife. He was still desperately in love with her''.

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