Everything in life used to come with a price tag, but this no longer true considering the number of products and services offered for free to increase sales. The latest to join the bandwagon of freebies are free dating services. Yet, like any other marketing strategies, there is a catch.

Search the net and you will come across innumerable sites offering free dating services. Log on to any of these sites, and you will be inundated with text tempting you to find your soul mate by surfing through the various links on its pages. The bold caption reads, Free to join. As you read on, you are given instructions to enter your name, age and other vital personal information, along with your contact number and email address.

Once you log in with your user id and password, you are shown an array of attractive people, who immediately fuel your fancy. You start dreaming about finding the ideal date. You keep clicking, following various links; until you are finally taken to a page that requests a payment before you can go further on to discover the love of your life. Youre offered options that have fancy descriptive adjectives-classic/gold membership or diamond/platinum membership- each with a price attached.

If you are gullible enough and click on the yes option, you are taken to another page where you are asked to provide your credit card number that you, of course, provide. After all, youre about to meet your soul mate. You send your love message and wait for a response. Days pass by and the endless wait for a reply never comes leaving you angry and frustrated and probably short a few hundred dollars.