Staying Safe When Meeting Someone Online – Guide to Meeting Someone New
Staying Safe When Meeting Someone Online is something you should be thinking about, especially if you are meeting people online. Using the internet to find a date is almost second nature in our society today.
According to a survey done by pewresearch.org in 2016 15% of the United States, Adults reported the use of using online dating sites or a mobile dating app. That’s a lot of people.
With more people turning to online dating tools to find a match you should be aware of potential dangers that come with meeting someone for the first time. Especially when that someone is from online, and you don’t know much about them.
In 2016 15% of the Adult U.S. Population has used an online dating tool – pewresearch.org
Popular Online Dating Sites
There are many popular online dating sites that someone could use to find love or friendship. Below are some of the ones that are currently being used every day by millions of people:
Pof.com (Plenty Of Fish)
Don’t Reveal too Much in Your Profile
Never reveal too much personal information within your profile page on your dating app or web page. You shouldn’t have your place of business or reveal your current location.
Even after you make a connection this information shouldn’t be known until you actually meet and feel comfortable with that person.
The last thing you need is for someone to stalk you or look for you at work or home.
You would think this would be a no-brainer, but we have heard of people actually having this data open for anyone to see. Not a good idea.
Try and gather information on the person you’re going to meet, before meeting them in person
The saying follows your gut is true here. If you feel like something is off and just not right, it probably isn’t. You should spend time gathering information on the person you’re going to meet by doing a few basic steps:
Scan Social profile
Google his or her name.
See what information comes up when you google them. This is one of the easiest and quickest steps someone could take when trying to validate someone. All though you may not find information like criminal records, it will give you a baseline to start from.
Google Image Can Be Your Friend
Try searching the person name but use google image instead. This can bring back different results than a normal Google search. This could also check to see if the profile picture is the person who they say they are. This may not always bring back a result, but it’s free and quick to run an image search.
Search Social Profiles
Searching social profiles can reveal a lot of information about a person, not to mention if they are lying about who they are. This is a huge red flag in people from other countries trying to scam others out of money. We will go over this more below.
If you confirm that the person’s profile is real you next step you should do is scan for their relationship intentions. Meaning that if you see something that reflects there not really interested in anything serious. Not a deal breaker, but something to keep an eye out for.
Turning back to social profiles after a first date
After you have had a first date you should also go back to social sites to try and verify some of this information. There are great tools out there that could help like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Skype
will allow you to actually video chat with a person. If you want to verify the person you’re actually talking to with photos they have provided this is a way of doing so directly from your phone or PC.
Not finding Any Data is Not a Great Sign
In today’s day and age, you can find almost anything online and this includes information on people. Staying safe when meeting someone Online is getting easier because of technology.
If you can’t find any information on the person your meeting this is a big red flag and you should be cautious.
Do keep in mind that some people may not like or even have social profiles so do not overreact if you don’t have any data, but do keep in mind that it’s not the norm.
Remember, the other person is probably searching for you as well.
There is a good chance that the other person is running the same types of searches on you as well. And for good reason, they are staying safe when meeting someone Online as well.
If you are not hiding anything and being truthful when communicating with the person, then you do not have much to worry about.
This doesn’t mean that a connection is going to automatically happen or sparks will fly if and when you meet that person. It just means you will be starting off on the right foot.
Meet at The Place of Your Choice
You should be the one to set up where and when you will meet. Do not get picked up, but meet him or her at the location.
Until you learn more about the person do not get into a car with them if you feel uncomfortable.
Pick a place that you can talk, but is still active with people.
Now with more people ride sharing it is possible to share an Uber or Lyft ride if you do want to ride together.
Tell a Family Member or Friend Your Entire Plans
Your family member or friend should know your exact plans and even know when to expect you home. There are other forms of technology that you can also set up and use like Apps that can show where you are at all times.
Know Your Exit Plan.
It would be wise to have an exit plan if you feel something is not right. You could have a friend or family member get you directly from the place you are in case of an emergency. There is nothing wrong with having a plan in place.
Run a Background Check Before You meet
This method will get you more information on someone than just a google search. There is a fee for these searches, however, it is wise to perform a search before meeting your potential date in person.
These services are all web-based so you can run them directly from home on any device, even a smartphone.
Not only can you search from the comfort of your own home, but all searches would be private so your search subject would never know.
It would be wiser to find out beforehand that the person your meeting has a criminal record or warrant before you get involved.
Remember that Staying Safe When Meeting Someone Online is not difficult to do as long as you follow some basic rules.
Technology is even faster than finding the potential date in the first place. If your gut is telling you that something isn’t right then it probably is not.
Follow some basic steps to keep yourself safe when meeting someone new from the internet.
