The Illusion of Safety

The online dating market is rapidly developing and attracting new customers regularly. Therefore, lots of new dating venues emerge and it becomes harder to understand which of them are reliable.

Apparently, all the dating websites claim they are safe and protected on many levels: you are guaranteed to get an access to a virus-free environment that is protected by well-known security software vendors. Also, you are being told that all the information you share would never leak and only the site itself and its visitors have an access to the personal information you disclosed in your profile. In addition, you expect that your private data such as email address and some other details would not be shared with third-parties. But the truth is that you never know 100% which sites truly do what they promise and take care of your safety and which sites just claim to be secure.

Moreover, you are usually told that all the users of the website are real and that their personalities have been verified. Unfortunately, a site that really checks all of its clients is rather an exception than a standard. Hence, you should beware a fraud.

The Main Dangers Threatening You

When you make a decision to register on an online dating portal you have to be ready to take all the concomitant risks. Some of them are minor and hardly harmful while other might cause a serious damage and affect your life significantly:

Disappointment and Broken Heart

When you fall in love with someone who you talk to exclusively online, you should always be cautious. It might happen that you are sure that you talk to a certain person but, in reality, this person simply does not exist: behind the photo you see in a profile there is a totally different person who responds to your messages.

Fraud

The fact that your “partner” broke your heart is not the worst outcome. In the most disastrous case, you could have been silly enough to share some private information (e.g., your bank account information). Be sure, scammers would not miss a chance to steal your money! Anyway, you might spend a considerable amount of money on chatting with a user that turned out to be fooling around to keep you interested.

Extortion

Sometimes a person you chat with starts asking you for money, expensive presents, tickets, etc. Usually, when you refuse to fulfill such a request, your fake “partner” stops talking to you and disappears.

Money Loss

You might lose your money not only because you spent them rashly on an appealing person or because you disclosed your bank account information. It might happen that when you register on the site and enter your data for payments, the information you share leaks and is misused by fraudsters.

Spam

Your email address and personal characteristics (age, gender, marital status, etc.) might be shared with third parties. So, you might expect to get loads of useless emails from retail companies, tour firms, etc.

Addiction

It is easy to get addicted to the attention you get from all the attractive users you meet online. If you have never been successful in romantic relations you might get too fascinated with the online dating atmosphere: multiple messages every day, interesting topics, passion, the feeling of being significant and desired.

Your Safety Is Your Business

It would be silly to deny that online dating is connected with certain risks. But it does not mean that you should be paranoid – the healthy level of critical thinking and caution would be enough to avoid the majority of troubles. Follow our tips and you would be out of any troubles:

• When chatting with someone try to make sure the person is real – ask for new photos, video calls, personal meetings;
• Do not send money, presents, tickets, etc.;
• Do not share any of your private personal data – bank account information, credit card details, address, etc.;
• Monitor how much money you spend and set up a limit which you are not allowed to exceed;
• Limit the time you spend on the site in order to avoid addiction.