Online Dating Safety (Added 12/3/07)

Online dating offers great opportunities to meet someone special and since you are communicating from the comfort of your own home, there is a level of safety and security. Because of this laid back approach, you may become too comfortable and give away private information which may come around and cause you harm. This guide designed especially for women, offers tips on how to use online dating service while maintaining your privacy and safety. It’s not intended to be a complete guide so please your instincts and common sense when giving out information about yourself and when talking with other members.
• When you go out on a date, the best approach to establishing a healthy relationship is too go slow and get to know the other person. Similarly in online dating, it’s always better to get to know the person before divulging too much information about yourself.
• Don’t provide any type of personally identifiable information in your dating profile, e-mail messages, or chat room conversations. This information includes your name, address, city where you live, phone number, name of the company where you work, organizations that you are associated with, and so on.
• If the dating service has a chat room, be very careful about the information you share. While you want to have an enjoyable time chatting with other people just be wary of the information you give out.
• Be sure you use the communication/messaging tools provided by the dating service before giving away your email. For instance, you want a dating service that has their own messaging system so you do not have to use your own personal e-mail to talk to other members. Also be very wary of someone asking you for their personal email in the first communication.
• Do not let anyone pressure you into giving information about yourself unless you want to. Follow your common sense and instincts.
• When you are talking to someone for the first time, you may find inconsistencies in the other person’s conversation which will alert you to possibly fake members who have other ulterior motives.
• If the person you are communicating with does not have a photo posted, ask for one and preferably more than one. Do not give out your email, ask them to post on the dating service and tell them politely you will come back and view them.
• Once you are comfortable with someone you met online, you may take it to the next level and exchange phone numbers. Make sure you provide your cell phone for this purpose. Phone conversations, will most definitely tell you more about the other person by their voice, tone and manner of speech. You can then decide whether to meet up with the person.
• Finally, always use common sense and follow your instincts, if you are uncomfortable or uneasy about a situation, don’t feel pressured and politely say to the person you need to go and will contact them later.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 25th, 2009 at 10:04 am and is filed under Online Dating Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.