8 Safety Precautions To Take When Online Dating

When you are dating online you have to take some precautions. Don't let this scare you away from online dating because you have to be safe no matter how you date. Dating online just has some necessary safety precautions that are a little different. Here are 8 safety precautions to take when online dating.

Use An Untraceable Email Address

This may sound kind of cloak-and-dagger but you're just being careful. You want to be able to correspond with potential mates in a way that they won't learn anything about you that will let them find you in the real world until you are ready. A tasteful email address with a name that has little to nothing to do with who you really are is a sensible precaution.

Keep Your Profile Clean

You don't want anyone to get the wrong impression so keep your profile including your username, your pictures, and everything else clean. You won't attract the good ones by making up an oversexed profile. If you do have this kind of profile then you are more likely to attract the ones who will view you as a sexual object, which is just unsafe.

Don't Share Any Personal Information

The type of personal information being referred to here is everything from your last name to the places you like to hang out. You don't want someone to be able to arrange a chance meeting before you're ready. Don't tell them anything you wouldn't want any stranger online to know.

Take It Slowly

The best thing you can do to stay safe when online dating is to take it slowly. This alone will weed out most of the people online with bad intentions. You want someone who is willing to take the time to get to know you online because they know that if you both turn out to be a good match then you will have plenty of time in person down the line.

Look For Inconsistencies

Pay attention to what someone says online. If there are any inconsistencies then pay attention to those. Some people pretend to be something they are not and will give you clues that this is what they are doing. Don't dismiss it when someone says things that don't line up with who they say they are.

Pay Attention When You Get A Bad Feeling About Someone

If you get a bad feeling about someone then ask yourself why. Even online you can trust your gut to warn you that someone is bad news. If your gut tells you to stay away from someone then do it.

Google The Person

At some point you want to Google the person. You may even want to do a more thorough background check. This will help you to find out anything you should know about someone before you think about meeting them.

Meet In Public And Tell Your Friends

When you finally do meet then meet in public and let your friends know all about it. You want someone to know where you are and who you're with just in case. You may even want to call your friend a little bit into the meeting to tell them everything is going well and that you are safe.

Tomas H. Rheinecker gives advice about Catholic Dating Sites.