Nowadays, many people find online dating as a convenient and easy way to find your potential partner. Online dating is a good way of meeting new people and making them your friends or a life partner. Always trust your instincts. If you are not comfortable with dating, end that. Tap to see five online dating safety tips.
In spite of the huge popularity of online dating sites, you may still wonder if this is safe or not. Connecting people online may have some risks, but it is an easy and low-pressure way of finding your potential matches if you keep in mind the online dating cautions. Here we are sharing five ways to help you to practice online dating safely.
1. Use a Trustworthy Site
There are a huge number of Asian dating sites or any other sites in the U.S, so it is essential to use trustworthy ones. Moreover, it is mandatory to choose a good website but still take note even if you are living in a safer place.
Take Action: To avoid a bad experience, you can choose a reputable and larger website for this purpose, such as eHarmony, Tinder, Christian Mingle, Bumble, OkCupid, and Match.com. This way, you decrease the chances of having a bad online dating experience because these sites will protect your private information. And some of the reputable and big dating websites require a premium membership, so select the site wisely. When you have decided to stop using these sites, make sure you delete your profile.
2. Keep your Contact Information Private
According to Michael Kaiser, the former executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, there is a difference between cyber security and cyber-savvy. Your profile can appear on a potential date through detailed internet research. People can find your address tagged in an Instagram post, your office location through LinkedIn, and your contact number, attached to an online ad.
Take Action: Do not post your identifying details on your profile, such as your phone number, address, office location, or personal email. Also, do not display all your personal information on other platforms and also set security settings to private on all social media sites. Never allow any app to share your location.
3. Play Detective on Potential Suitors
Be smart and verify your suitor before going deep into the conversation. Check where they are from by keeping an eye on their photos, where they are going, etc. Also, their dating profile app is the same as on other social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Another benefit you get by checking their social media profiles is that people use less filtered images on other sites, such as Twitter, and you can discover some unsavory personality traits. So, you will get an idea if the person is fake or not.
Take Action: In order to verify the person you are chatting with, copy the image of the person and search in the Google images search bar on your laptop or you can either use a reverse search image on your mobile. Google will show results for that image using landmark, facial recognition, identification, and also photo binary data to verify the source of the image.
4. Be Smart about Face-to-face Meetings
If you are ready to date someone on a dating website and now ready for the meetup, choose the meeting location wisely. Never meet in your home or office where the person can easily find you again and also not select a secluded location. Always meet in a public place and we recommend you to end the date if the person pressures you to do otherwise.
Take Action: Before leaving for a virtual date, tell someone about the date, like your friend or a roommate. Consider a “safe call” option, for example, you can ask your friend to call during a date to check if you feel comfortable.
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Report Someone
Well, the best dating sites allow people to report any shady activity. These sites do not tolerate illegal and aggressive behavior. Most dating websites have a block option. If someone is making you feel uneasy, you can block them.
Take Action: If someone on the dating site is harassing or threatening you, contact the customer service of the website immediately.
