In the late 1800s, a U.K. scheme lured lonely bachelors with newspaper advertisements supposedly placed by wealthy women.
By Livia Gershon
The potential for fraud casts a constant shadow on online dating, from deceptive profiles to outright catfishing. But, as historian Angus McLaren writes, fraudulent matchmaking efforts are nothing new. In nineteenth-century Britain, one bold scheme ripped off bachelors for over a decade.
According to McLaren, from 1884 to 1895, the Matrimonial Herald and Fashionable Marriage Gazette promised to provide “HIGH CLASS MATCHES” to U.K. men and women looking for wives and husbands. Prospective spouses could place ads in the paper or work directly with staff of the associated Word’s Great Marriage Association to privately make a connection.