Six Safety Tips for Dating Online

It is always good to be safe when dating online. You really don’t know with whom you are talking in your virtual communications—you in front of your computer and someone, somewhere in the world, in front of another.

Scammers are usually really easy for an experienced Internet user to spot. After exchanging messages for a while, chances are that you are talking with a good person, but you can’t know for sure unless you meet him or her and enjoy a real-time relationship.

Here are a few tips to keep your identity safe and help you stay out of trouble when dating online.

1. Don’t reveal your last name. You can tell the other person your first name if you like, but do not give both first name and last name. It is almost impossible to find someone with the first name only, but if you give both, then chances are you could be tracked down.

2. Do not give information about your work. Don’t tell too many details about what you do for a living, and certainly not about where you are or for what company you are working.

3. When corresponding with someone online, ask a lot of questions and see if there is any kind of discrepancy in what they are telling you. You can ask the same questions differently each time to see if someone is really telling the truth.

4. Follow your instinct. If you have a bad feeling about someone online, you do not have to pursue a further relationship with that person. Most websites give you tools to block communication with certain people. If you have not given out any personal information, then that person will never be able to track you down.

5. Remember that you can always say no. If someone is insistent about getting personal information from you, even if you have repeatedly said no, you should be wondering about what kind of relationship you would end up having with this person in the future, and you should also question his or her intentions. Good people with good intentions understand why someone can be reluctant about sharing personal information online.

6. Make sure that the photos you are sending to your correspondent do not show some information about where you are or where you hang out. I have seen some young people in their profile photos wearing T-shirts of the universities they attend. I once saw a photo of a person beside the back of his car, where I could clearly see the license plate number. Someone can easily find you with that type of information.

My thinking is that dating online is safer than dating in a bar. You are in front of your computer and nothing can really happen to you, but it is always good to follow a minimum of safety precautions.

When you have an online profile, you are exposed to thousands, if not millions, of people, and you never know who you can come across.