An increasing number of people are now turning to the internet to find true love and happiness through online dating.

In the US, for instance, over 40 per cent of people are now attempting to find their perfect match online.

If the results of a recent census relating to single Americans are to be believed, that's a whopping 40 million people.

However, there is no doubt it represents something of a leap of faith when it comes to that first meeting with someone who appears to tick all the right boxes on their profile.

With that in mind, Switched.com has outlined five major pitfalls that daters should be aware of before they arrange a rendez-vous.

The first of those is to be mindful of the possibility of people lying on their profiles, with research last year showing that 52.6 per cent of men and 39 per cent of women lie about their height.

In addition, 64.1 per cent of women and 60.5 per cent of men are economical with the truth about their weight, while 24.3 per cent of men and 13.1 per cent of women lie about their age.

The website has the following advice: "While you don't want to ask too many questions and scare the person away, it's perfectly fair to verify the big things: age, weight, height, and - most of all - whether or not that person is, in fact, single."

Dating site traffic also shows that profiles with pictures receive twice as many hits as those which don't.

This, of course, brings the obvious risk that people "post misleading pictures that can trap you into thinking you're meeting your dreamboat, only to find a shipwreck waiting for you".

The general advice is to be suspicious if there is only one photo or if it is taken at a peculiar angle that could be hiding something - and that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

So called 'fixer-uppers' are also ever-present on dating websites, and can be recognised by profile headlines that indicate resentment or previous heartbreak, such as 'Please don't be a liar' or 'Cheaters need not apply'.

Quite simply, these people are to be avoided. As Switched explain: "What we have here are jilted lovers. Run. Run away. They're not ready, and you don't want to be their fixer-upper."

Membership fishing is also now commonplace in the online dating world, with rival sites cannily posing as singles and enticing people to meet them 'over here' at their own site.

Avoid the disappointment of finding out that hot new potential date actually doesn't exist and that you have just given your credit card details to another dating website by joining up.

Finally, and perhaps unsurprisingly, people should be on the look out for daters who aren't actually single and are just looking for a bit on the side.

The advice is to be wise enough to avoid being completely overwhelmed by a seemingly wonderful new person and being left heartbroken when the truth emerges.

As Switched point out, people who only talk during the day, will only communicate online or via text message or who fall off the radar in the evenings and at weekends should be viewed with suspicion.

These are all useful guidelines, but to sum up, the best advice must surely be for people to use their common sense and keep expectations to realistic levels.

That way, given time and persistence, something long-lasting and fulfilling can undoubtedly arise from online dating.