Protect Your Identity When Online Dating

Online dating can be hard – and it can be scary. I know of too many people who have fallen into the traps of giving someone their home address, or their email or phone number when in an online dating situation and finding out that the person they thought they were giving it too was someone else. It may as minor as someone using your email for spam, or sending you unsolicited emails, but there is a growing amount of identity theft that has started creeping into the dating world. To keep yourself safe when using an online dating site, here are a few tips to make sure you aren’t one of those statistics. If it happens to you, don’t fret – there are many services which can help you, just make sure you don’t go into another dodgy one!

Rule number 1: Only use online dating sites that are reputable. Ollie S from Dating Dragons has written a review of 3 of the best dating sites for 2010. These sites have been personally used by all members of the Dating Dragons team, and we can vouch for their safety. Read his post here. Its not hard to start an online dating site so don’t get sucked into false promises. The dating sites that we review on Dating Dragons are only ones that we deem are safe, and cheap. Afterall, we don’t want to have to pay huge amounts of money just to meet new people!

Rule number 2: Start a new email address. When you are online dating, I wouldn’t use your normal home or work email address. This can lead to more problems, and its much harder to break free of it if that email address is widely distributed, and if you use it for other things. Additionally, if you use a separate email address, there is no chance that other people might stumble across it at work – which can be difficult to explain at times! Just go to Gmail or Yahoo or Hotmail and signup for a free email address there. Keep it JUST for your online dating sites, and make sure you don’t use the same password that you use on other things like your normal email.

Rule number 3: Watch out for red flags. We’ve already touched on red flags in online dating so you should be mindful of these things. A few important aspects of this are when meeting people who just seem to good to be true. Remember, often people online will not divulge everyting about themselves initially, but when they tell you that they love long walks on the beach, and look like Jessica Alba, you have to start wondering that maybe they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Don’t get caught out. Keep your guard up at all times. If you have a situation that you need some advice on, just let me know. I can give you some help there. Its happened to me!

Rule number 4: Never give out financial information or information that is overly personal. Remember what they ask you when you sign up for credit cards, and bank accounts: Your mothers maiden name, your first pets name, your first school, your favorite food etc. Its all things that can be used in identity theft.

Rule number 5: If someone tries to send you a file that doesn’t look like a picture file or something you know, then get rid of it. There are many other ways that people can show you their profile picture or additional photos. Such as facebook, or on their own website. If someone is trying to send you a file, make sure you know a little about antivirus software, and how to spot faked files. People who are trying to steal your identity can send you a file that actually loads a small trojan or keylogger on your computer and sends them information about your bank logins and personal details. Obviously, sometimes its totally innocent – all I am saying, is be careful.

If you follow these 5 basic rules, you should be safe. Overall, people can be safe doing most things online if they are sensible. Online dating is one of those things where identity theft is starting to really creep in because its so popular and easily accessible.

If you find that you need more help ascertaining whether or not you need help protecting your identity, I suggest you take a look at Identity Lookout. It has a free trial offer (Only for US users) which allows you to check out what they have to offer. We all use it here at Dating Dragons, as identity theft is one of those things you can’t ignore. Its like insurance against the most important thing in your life! YOU! Protect yourself against identity theft now.

Happy Hunting

Harry Laurent

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One Comments

Terrance34 says:
January 4, 2010 at 00:11

Identify theft is scary. this article is fantastic – thanks for looking into this for us online daters – i never thought it was really that important for dating sites, but i guess it really is!