Study determines most, least safe states for online dating

Dating is hard no matter where you live, but researchers at High Speed Internet say online dating in Alaska can be dangerous.

HSI, whose mission statement is to use proprietary data to make sense of the internet, crunched government statistics on cybercrimes, sexually transmitted diseases and funds lost to digital fraud, then ranked each the 10 most and least safe states for online dating.

Researchers analyzed data from the FBI that showed The Last Frontier was home to the most “romance scams” in 2018.

For example, a profile with extremely attractive photos might message you with a sob story about being stranded somewhere and needing money.

Alaskans lost about $3.6 million in cases such as this, the study said.

As for the safest states for online dating, Maine sits at the top. The Pine Tree State dethroned Vermont, who had been the safest state in 2018 and 2019.

Vermont fell to No. 3, behind West Virginia.

Most safe states for online dating:

1. Maine
2. West Virginia
3. Vermont
4. Kentucky
5. New Hampshire
6. South Dakota
7. North Dakota
8. Idaho
9. Nebraska
10. Iowa

Least safe states for online dating:

1. Alaska
2. Nevada
3. California
4. North Carolina
5. Maryland
6. Colorado
7. Virginia
8. Washington
9. New York
10. Florida

This story was reported from Atlanta.