Be Safe While Dating Online

Like the offline dating world, dating online has its ups and downs – Many people successfully find love, romance and companionship with the help of online dating services, but at the same time, many online dating-service users experience the heartbreak of spending a whole lot of money for a whole lot of nothing. While the majority of people can be trusted in online dating world, we must all be aware of the dating scammers and protect ourselves.  Below you will find 8 ways to avoid heartbreak with online dating services:

1. Avoid giving out personal information:

The first tip in regards to safety is that you must completely avoid giving any sort of personal contact information on the dating site. Make sure that even in your conversations you do not divulge any contact details such as home or work address, telephone number etc. The Internet is also a place where you may find someone really creepy and it would not be right for him/her to have your personal information. There are also chances that the person takes to stalking. It is imperative to make sure that your profile contains only as much as information that is necessary.

2. Do not lie:

If you are on the Internet to find yourself a perfect match, it would pay to be completely honest. There are bright chances that you find the special someone in one of your searches. Therefore you should keep your profile picture and other facts of your profile as genuine as possible. Don’t claim to be someone you are not. Be honest right from the first day unless you want your image to be tainted by the tag of a liar.

3. Try and do a background check:

There is no harm in doing a background check of a prospective candidate, if it is possible to do so. However, make sure your attempts are not discovered lest you come across as someone unwilling to trust. If you think that the two of you might know someone in common or may have the same social hangout spot, you can always try to find out something about him/ her. Run a check on Facebook or Twitter. Not only would it help you verify whether the person is right or not, it would also help you reassessing your judgments about him/her. This is a good way to know more about a person.

4. Avoid giving out your opinions on sex:

This is one of the golden rules of online dating. At no given point of time should you be talking about sex. In case of online dating your opinions about sex, your sexual interests and preferences and most importantly your sexual escapades are best left to yourself. If you mention sex to someone, you might be giving them wrong ideas about yourself. The effect of this will be that when the two of you meet on a date, they might have wrong expectations from you leading to an embarrassing situation.

5. Do not get into financial agreements:

Please remember that your objective to be online on a site is only to date and nothing else. Please restrict yourself from making any financial agreements over the Internet. One disadvantage of the online dating process is that it becomes very difficult for us to verify the authenticity of a person. There are chances for you to get cheated and robbed of your money.

6. Intuitions:

When you meet new people you get some intuition about them telling you about who is good and who might be a problem. However much we are taught to ignore our gut feeling, it gives us a clear image of a person in our minds. Thus, trusting your instincts or gut feelings is one of the important steps that we should follow in order to be safe while dating online. If we feel alarm bells ringing inside our head, it would be advisable to leave the scene politely but as soon as possible.

7. Avoid assumptions:

Online dating has no place for assumptions. As such when the two persons talk on the net with each other the chances of miscommunication are high. While assessing your future partner do not assume anything about the other person. If you have a question, it is always a good idea to get your doubts cleared right then and there rather than assume something that is wrong. One such mistake can ruin the chance of a prospective relationship.

8. Do not believe everything:

Please do not believe everything that you are told online. Not everything somebody tells you will be the absolute truth and believing everything that is being said is inviting unpleasant feelings later. This is one negative aspect of online dating that seldom you will be sure about when you are being told the truth and when you are being lied to. When there is no other way to verify the truth, try not to believe everything blindly as it might cause you future disappointments.

These rules might seem like overkill, but the reality is that you are introducing yourself to complete strangers and should definitely take precautions. Just like a saying goes, "Better safe than sorry". By creating a safe environment to know the person, you're creating a better situation for yourself.