Dating Online Safely: With the advent of the digital age, the opportunities to find love and romance are boundless but so are the opportunities to cheat- how to protect yourself.
If you want to find a partner in the digital age, there is only one place to look – online. While dating apps and sites have certainly increased your options, it isn’t all good news. See, many people you will meet online are complete strangers. Therefore, you would have no idea what they are really like until you meet them in person.
As a result, first dates have become scarier than ever before. The good news, though, is there are lots of ways to stay safe while you are checking out the singles in your area. Here is how you can manage this.
Choose Your Pictures Carefully
If you are like most people today, then you probably take dozens of pictures of yourself on a regular basis. It could be selfies while moving in, at your favorite restaurant, or some other location you patronise. Now, on the surface, such pictures can seem rather harmless. When you look at them more closely, though, you will realize otherwise.
Whether you are aware of it or not, your pictures can offer a lot of clues about where you live, work, or hang out. So, before you put them on your dating profile for strangers to see, scan them carefully. Leave out any images that may reveal personal information.
Analyze Profiles Well
It isn’t enough to just monitor your own profile, however. You also need to get into the habit of looking at potential matches with a more critical eye as well. It is astonishing just how many fake profiles there are out there. Now, some of these profiles are because people don’t want to reveal who they are or what they look like for personal reasons.
At the same time, there are plenty of individuals running scams on such sites as well. These individuals will post fake pictures and a profile and lure you in. After this, they will either steal your identity or your money, defrauding you. So, if a profile either looks fake or too good to be true, it probably is.
Don’t Give Out Personal Information
This goes without saying but you really shouldn’t offer information to someone you just met online. In fact, put off telling people your last name, where you live, your place of work, and more. There is no real need for someone to know this information before they have had a chance to meet you. If a match keeps pressuring you for these details, then it is probably a red flag and you should quit while you still can.
Vet Before a Date
Before agreeing to meet someone in real life, you need to make sure that they are trustworthy. As you can imagine, most people aren’t going to volunteer information about domestic disputes or jail time that they might have done. Therefore, you are going to have to do this research for yourself.
Fortunately, all you need to do is visit a website that allows you to look through public records, arrest records, and more. This way, you will have an idea of what an individual is really like before you meet face to face. You can save yourself a world of trouble by doing this.
It can be a scary world out there so you should take whatever steps you need to keep yourself safe. The tips above will prove to be the perfect starting point, so do keep them in mind.
