A friend of mine works in a firm where one of her colleagues is a middle-aged administrative assistant. Recently, this colleague, with whom she is friendly, shared increasingly alarming stories about her dating life. The colleague, who has never been married, met a man on an online dating site. After a couple of days, the man professed his love; after two weeks, he claimed to be on a business trip abroad and asked her for money, saying he needed it for business and would set up a foreign bank account in her name and return the funds when his trip concluded.

This woman obliged and wired the man hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Are you so obsessed with online dating that you’re checking Tinder even when you’re on a date?

I remember the day after, when my flatmate asked me how it went. I beamed at her over my cup of tea. I met that man about 10 years ago. Millions of other people. Our lonely little hearts are very big business. Online dating may appear to be the swiftest route to love, or something like it. But until you win the grand prize — never having to do it again — it always feels a last resort, the sign that you possess a fatal flaw that has prevented the achievement of true love through one of the more classic routes: pulling a stranger in a bar, meeting someone at a house party, sleeping with your employer.

In real life? Tell us again about how he talked to you on the tube!