Online dating is gaining momentum, but at the same time, as you hear stories of fairytale romances found on these sites, you also hear of dates gone horribly wrong. How can you really be sure of the other person in cyberspace? Are they who they say they are and can you trust them enough to meet them in person?
It would be nice to find the man or woman of your dreams as easily as a mouse click away, but perhaps that’s also something for the storybooks. If you think you’ve found a perfect match on a dating site, check out these tips to help you stay safe until you are sure they can be trusted.
Google Is a Good Beginning
You can always check the facts by Googling someone’s name. However, how can you be sure that the person you are looking at on the screen in front of you is really the person you’ve been communicating with? It’s altogether too easy to steal someone’s identity. Bear in mind that as easily as you found that person through a search engine, your prospective date could have found the same results.
Leave Nothing to Chance
If you are a high net worth individual with a lot to lose, it would be in your best interest to hire a team of private investigators from Secure Forensics. You’ve been having a great time chatting with the person you intend to finally meet up with but leave nothing to chance. Are you willing to risk your life meeting someone who may or may not be who they said they were?
Let the team of experts do the deeper digging for you. Google is probably not enough and you know this only too well. You’ve invested this much to meet your match, what’s a few more dollars when your safety is at risk?
Take Your Time
As your mother probably told you countless times in your younger years, “Don’t jump from the frying pan into the fire.” It isn’t always a matter of loneliness that prompts you to visit those dating portals. Maybe you live in an area with few available members of the opposite sex or perhaps you’ve just gotten out of a bad relationship. You’ve been burned once. Why leave yourself open to being burned again? Take your time to get into the other person’s head. Remember another old cliché, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!”
Leaving You with One Last Cliché
This final hyperbolic proverb, this oft used cliché, is usually attributed to the late Edgar Allen Poe, however, some literary buffs dispute the origin. In any case, when meeting people online remember that you should, “Believe only half of what you hear and nothing of what you see.” That face on your monitor may not even closely resemble the face you’ll meet in an out-of-the-way café. The words they’ve been typing may be a ploy to win your affection. You’ve researched a name and found that you like the sound of who they are and what they stand for but is it truly them? Until you’ve documented proof from your cybersecurity forensic team, believe nothing.
