New To Online Dating: Tips For Your Safety

By Kristaria Dawson

It used to be that like-minded people from different countries had no way of meeting, unless one or both of the parties had enough money to travel internationally. With the invention of the internet, this method of communication has facilitated an environment where meeting a love interest from other parts of the world is not only possible, but highly likely. Many unions that started through online dating have resulted in marriages and happy families. Though the potential for finding a mate is great, there is also the possibility of dangerous situations- there are stories about online dating that point out negative situations that occurred when meeting someone the first time.

You can avoid being a victim of an online dating calamity by educating yourself with the warning signs that the relationship is going to go sour, or the face to face date is not going to be good. When you realize the red flags early in the process, you can avoid being one of the internet dating disaster stories. You need to know the following online dating tips before you try online dating for the first time.

The first thing that you need to remember is never to fall for an online date that asks you for money. Asking for money is probably one of the most obvious signs that your online partner is out to dupe you. No matter what he or she tells you or how deep you think your online relationship has grown, it is never common or normal to ask money from someone you don't know. And anyone who makes you think otherwise is a scammer that you should stay away from.

You can take another warning sign from your online prospect's eagerness to initiate the contact, or to communicate with you via email. There are reasons for this. A scammer who is looking for a victim rather than a date would want to make contact with as many potential victims as possible. In addition, some online dating services regularly check the email patterns of participants, and instantly block or delete the profiles of those who seem to email people as a scheme. So beware of people who provide you with their email addresses too early in the "relationship" and tells you that they prefer that you communicate by email.

The images that are included in a person's profile or sent to you are also a good indication of a potential scam. Scammers often use photos that are clipped from magazines or other colored media and scanned in to their computer. If all of the photos they give you seem like scans- the person is likely looking for you to be a victim, not a mate! Scam artists also make use of photographs of other real people- so if the photographs seem to be too good to be true, they likely are.

Another good indication that you are going to fall victim to a scam is the potential partner's requests for information. It isn't out of the ordinary for a person to ask for increasingly personal information as you spend more time in the online dating realm together. If the person you are corresponding with asks you for information that they themselves aren't willing to offer in return, then you should back off- this person is likely trying to dupe you.

Finally, one of the most important online dating tips is to watch out for people who are inconsistent in their stories and messages. Scammers often communicate with a lot of people at the same time. As such, they are bound to forget which stories or identities they used for which potential victims. - 31991

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