In life, humans draw strength from personal relationships with family and friends. Some people are only in your life for a time, and others will be with you for a lifetime. The quality of these relationships helps you feel secure, loved, and needed.

If you want to make a new friend or fall in love, then you might consider the advantages of online dating. This convenient social activity uses matching technology to help you find people nearby for new conversations. Some online chats lead to telephone calls, video chats, face-to-face meetings, more dates, and committed relationships.

 However, online dating also gives strangers access to your private information. Despite the fact that this is a real opportunity to find someone here, you should be really careful. Therefore, it’s important to spend your time using dating sites safely! Don’t trust anyone with information you wouldn’t disclose while waiting in line at the deli counter.

The Scoop on Scammers

Don’t spend too much time thinking about it, but you share your personal information such as your username, email address, or mobile phone number multiple times each day to access services from merchants and online communities. From New Words With Friends to Tinder, people use social networks and online dating platforms to scam others. When going online to find a date, it’s best to use an offensive strategy, assuming everyone has an ulterior motive for messaging you and manipulating your personal data. A strong offense makes you proactive. Only you care about preserving your identity and personal information. 

Set Your Mindset First

Using online dating apps means making yourself vulnerable to strangers. This is no different than getting in your car and going to public places where strangers can observe your actions or follow you around. They could steal your purse or capture the code you type in at the gas station pay terminal. It may be highly unlikely, yet still, you need to maintain a sense of awareness. Be aware of your surroundings and question everyone’s intentions. Ask yourself why you want to use online dating sites and what you hope to result from online interactions. Don’t let people scam you or mistreat you. Go into online dating once you’re in a good frame of mind, not right after a recent rejection or breakup.

How to Protect Yourself

Here is how to safeguard your online activities and filter what you share with strangers: 

1. Use only verified online sites. It’s easy to check the reputation of an online dating site. You can read reviews and ask your friends if they have tried it. You can also sign up for a free membership and browse around or purchase a limited subscription. Only verified sites will help you protect your personal data.

2. Don’t follow unknown links if you received them in private chat messages. Let’s say that you join a dating site and go to instant messaging with a new person. He might be complimentary and persistent in these communications, hoping you will let down your guard and trust him faster. That kind of approach makes you more vulnerable, especially if you’re caught up in naughty chats. If you do have a naughty chat, do not click a link that another user shares with you. That link could take you to a different site where all your activity will be recorded. 

3. Use a passcode. Every legit site should ask you to create your own credentials to log on and use the service. If you have a passcode, don’t save it to your cache. Some sites offer two-factor authentication, such as requiring a username and passcode and asking you to provide a combination of numbers and letters that is texted to your mobile phone, which offers more peace of mind when accessing the site.

4. Always take a moment to log out of a dating site. By this, we mean logging out of your user profile and closing all open programs on your computer. It is also best not to store your passwords in one place or use any service that involves disclosing your private information on the public Wi-Fi.

5. Use face verification if possible. If a service has a face-verification implemented, it is most likely quite trustable. Just take some time to check if it may be fooled with the picture of your face! By the way, sites like this often offer video chats that help you see a person’s nonverbal communication and compare that visual feedback with their profile. 
Building a new friendship through online dating can be fun. There is the initial thrill of finding a match and starting a conversation. As the dialogue heats up, you make plans to meet in person. But remember that any potential boyfriend or girlfriend whom you message online might be playing you from the outset, continuing from online to in-person exchanges. Therefore, remain detached when receiving compliments that are too sweet to be true. Wait to know a person before making plans to meet in a public place, becoming physically involved with a new person, and taking him or her to your residence. All these interactions make you vulnerable, so ensure you don’t trust any random stranger, only the one who’s proven that they are real and acts in goodwill.