In the past decade, sites such as Yahoo Personals, Match.com and eHarmony helped make Web-based courtship mainstream for 10 million current daters. But some seasoned veterans say the thrill of using the Internet's power to find soul mates has given way to caution. Singles now draw on a growing arsenal of security and research tools -- from services that verify identity and background to companies that provide temporary phone numbers as a barrier to stalkers. Sites like DontDateHimGirl.com allow scorned lovers to warn others away from their bad dates.

The growth of the dating-security industry is part of the evolution of the Internet, where every powerful tool such as online banking or e-mail comes with a dark side of data theft and spam messages.

Dating site True.com is the only major Web firm that conducts criminal and marital background checks on all of its members -- a practice that keeps 2 percent of applicants from joining because they are convicted felons. Three percent flunk because they are married, the company said.

Labels: background checks, online dating, safety