I don’t have much experience with long term dating or relationships, but I do have extensive experience in 1st dates, internet hook-ups and being Catfished. I don’t like dating, I much prefer sex. I suppose it is the small talk that I could do with out. It has always been like this, since high school, only I wasn’t even having sex then. In college, I preferred to hang out with friends rather than go on a date with someone I wasn’t totally into. I did try Internet dating a few years ago when I thought I wanted a tradition a relationship. I have to say, for the most part I liked the men on CraigsList Casual Encounters better. And I got catfished more on POF, Match.com and Ok Cupid than I did on CL.
So here are some online dating safety tips. Many may know these, but if you don’t, I hope they help.
- Trust your gut. Our intuition as women is a true indicator. I have never heard anyone say, “I trusted my gut and I was wrong.” It is always, “I should have trusted my gut.”
- Get an email and a phone number. Get a last name if possible- there are sites like zabasearch.com and whowhere.com and other reverse look up search engines – use them, every time. Search on Facebook if you have a last name. Many times you can find out things that you may not be told– like the person is married and has a family!
- Google them- their email, their full name, their phone number.
- Verify their location via a ip address locator, such as use whatismyipaddress to see their location
- Invest in Intellus or Instacheckmate.com. It is a small monthly fee to get full background information. If you are meeting many people, this is a small price to pay.
- Reverse Google image them. Go to google images and click the camera icon to the right side of the navigation bar. This will allow you to upload a photo and it will show you where else the picture is on the internet. You may find other dating profiles and that are the same or completely different, Facebook, etc to verify identity. For example, the picture may be on in a foreign country or if it is on foreign dating sites, someone is using the picture illegally.
- Meet in a public place, you are familiar with .
- Get this awesome app GWEN! It shares your location with 5 contacts at a push of a discreet button on your phone.
- Give at least 1 friend all the contact info you have on the person, where you are going and a “if you haven’t heard from me by” time.
- Share your location with at least one additional person… you can do this on iphone 6, for an hour, a day or indefinitely.
- Wear heels- they can be a great asset for self-defense. Stepping hard onto the top of the foot with a heel will break the arch and cause A LOT of pain.
- Always follow these rules, no exception, because when you don’t, that will be the time you needed to.
