24 tips: Things to remember while dating online through dating sites.

1. Make use of your common sense. If you don’t have any, keep on reading the article. We all have instincts though, so don’t try to convince yourself that at the end everything will be okay if you feel that someone is lying or unsafe, because most of the time your instincts are really proves right.
2. Create an email account with Yahoo or Hotmail and use this email address exclusively only for online dating sites. Privacy is key necessity while dating online.
3. Should you be tempted to use your real email account (don’t), turn your signature file off if you use your real email.
4. Do NOT put any personal information in your profile or embedded in a photo. This includes last name, primary email addresses, home phone number, cell phone number, work phone number, your address, or your place where you work. Basically, anything that someone could use to find you (until and unless you want to be found.) Remember, in all likelihood, they will have pictures of you.
5. Do not post photos of yourself which would give some clues to someone to identify your home or your vehicle.
6. Do not say that you are going to be somewhere specific on a certain date and time unless it’s a major sporting event, etc while chatting to strangers on these free dating sites. It might be tempting for them to go in search for you. (Like a child’s sports game in the only complex in your city.)
7. Make yourself a set of rules on what you won’t tolerate, and don’t compromise with at any cost. If someone breaks your rules, just cut your losses and depart even when it seems your rule is broken by mistake.
8. Don’t get in a hurry no matter what are the situations. Wait several weeks or even months in some cases before moving on with each phase.
9. After you’ve decided that you’re comfortable enough to talk by phone, call from a public phone, disable caller id (*67?) before calling from a home phone, or buy a separate phone card, call the phone card from your cell phone or home phone and then call their number. If you’re really paranoid, try using the phone card with post payments facilities.
10. When you’re ready to meet in person, ALWAYS meet in a public place only. Meet only after you feel that you confident enough to say Match Me Happy. Always use your own transportation to and from the meeting place and anywhere else you go before you end the date. Coffee shops are the number one meeting spot for first time daters.
11. be careful about meeting in parks – even some most popular parks have secluded spots and times when there are few people about.
12. Don’t go to their house for the first meeting no matter how great of a cook they say they are or how nice his house is.
13. Always carry a mobile phone with you.
14. Tell someone where you are going, when, who you are going to meet (as much as you know about them), and when you expect to be come back. Check in with that person before you go and after you get back to your place.
15. If you drive your own car, don’t let them get a look at your driving license plate if you can help it. In some cases, you might be able to be tracked down from the license plate. If you have a personalized license plate, that’s easy to spot and remember. If you’re worried and money is not an issue, rent a car or book a cab.
16. You should keep the first meeting to about an hour or less.
17. You might even have a friend go separately to the same place working as a spy for you. Follow your date mate to the bathroom – see if they stop and call their wife, etc.
18. Do not leave your food or drink unattended at any time at any cost. Have the waiter bring your drinks or get them by yourself.
19. Don’t be afraid to just get up and leave the place if you are uncomfortable – go out the back door if you must.
20. Check to make sure you are not being followed by him/her when you leave – you might want to make another stop before going straight home.
21. Always keep in mind that you could be recorded when you call someone; also, voice mails can be kept indefinitely or recorded.
22. If you call someone, your number will end up on their phone bill.
23. Limit personal contact to a handshake only at the first meeting.
24. Don’t drink alcohol enough to get tipsy – you will say or do something you shouldn’t! Better to stay with something non-alcoholic.

Out of Town Dates

1) All of the above and….

2) If you fly, rent a car or book cabs. If they want to meet you at the airport, spend some time with them in the airport cafeteria or bar, then take your rental car or cab to your hotel by yourself and meet them at some other place later. We all know when you are on date you get really excited its human nature, after all WeLoveDates, all of us, Don’t we?

3) You may not want to reveal which hotel you’re staying at and what your room number is.

4) Mobile phone is a must.

5) Make sure friends know where you are and check in regularly also call them on regular interval.

6) Do not bring your friend to your hotel room at all!

If all of this seems just too much, it may very well be too much 95% of the time. Just be aware of what can happen, and keep these tips in the back of your mind forever.

Joyce Laroche