(Find sex offenders in your area for free by clicking the link above)
You control what you say, and who you say it to. Don't give out personal information!
DO NOT SEND MONEY TO ANYONE YOU'VE MET ONLINE! NO MATTER HOW BELIEVEABLE THEY MAY SEEM!
RECOMMENDATIONS
Create a unique email address for use on each dating site you use, instead of your primary email address. This protects against website breaches and sites selling information.
If you are using your primary email address on this site, create a unique one (we recommend Gmail) and change it in your account area. No company is 100% safe from hackers, so this protects your preferred personal email.
Do not give out ANY personal information online, specifically your last name, address, email or phone number. (See Search Engines section below)
Try sending an email to yourself, and when it arrives, look at the name in the 'From' field. Some
people set up their email with their real name as the 'Sender', and then forget that that information
is being sent with every email message.
If you decide to give out your phone number, do not give out a listed number (because it
may be used to help identify your location). If possible, only use a cell phone when interacting
with people you meet online.
If you decide to call someone you have met online, do not call from your home phone, unless you
can block someone with caller ID from seeing your number. If possible, only use a cell phone when
interacting with people you meet online.
Do not agree to meet someone alone in a non-public place.
Do not send money to someone you meet online (for any reason).
Do not send money to a friend of someone you meet online (for any reason).
Do not send money to anyone after they send you a check to cover it. (See SCAMS section below)
If someone asks you to help them move their money, they are attempting to scam you. Report them to us.
If someone you are interacting with does something that makes you suspicious, stop! Listen to your instincts.
WARNINGS
Be wary of someone who expresses their love for you, based on your profile.
Be wary of someone who expresses interest in moving to your location, before they know you.
Be wary of someone who works their financial difficulties into the conversation.
Be wary of someone who gives you contradictory information about themselves.
Be wary of someone who sends you an internal message in our system, with practically nothing in it but their email address, or maybe just
their email address and a brief message to contact them. They could be trying to get you to send them an actual email message, instead of you continuing to
use our internal email system. Many 'scammers/spammers' do this to obtain real email addresses which they can then resell to people running scams.
SEARCH ENGINES
Do not provide your last name to someone you do not know.
If someone has your last name and the city where you live, they may
be able to search for you on Google, or Yahoo, or MSN (or others)
and see a map of the location of your home.
Do not provide your last name to someone you do not know.
If someone has your last name and the city where you live, they may
be able to search for you,
and find your phone number (if it is listed).
Do not provide your website information to someone you do not know.
If you have a personal website, and you provide the URL to someone, they may be able to look
up your personal information within the Internet's WHOIS directory. In many cases, your registration
information is publically available, including your name, address & phone number.
SCAMS
Do not send money to anyone you meet online...or to their 'friends'.
A popular scam is to offer to send you a check for a certain amount. You would then be asked
to pay someone else an amount less than the first check, and told that you can keep the difference
for your trouble. The idea is that you deposit the 'scammers' check, and send your own check to
the 'scammers' friend. Since the check sent to you by the 'scammer' is a check drawn on a foreign
bank, it will seem to take longer to clear. What happens in this scam is that the 'scammers' friend
will cash your check immediately, and then your bank will inform you that the 'scammers' check did
not clear.
Do not send money to someone claiming to be in the military.
A relatively new scam is for someone to claim to be in the military and based overseas. They come up with
some reason for why they need money wired to them. DO NOT fall for this. The scammers are attempting to play
on the trust and integrity that most people associate with military personel. A video related to this scam can
be seen below.
Do not agree to cash money orders for someone.
Another popular scam is to try and get people to cash money orders, that turn out to either be
counterfeit, or 'already cashed'. There is NO REASON to be involved in ANY financial activity with
or for someone you do not know!
Do not post personal information online, or give it to anyone you do not know.
(Also, do not join a website that you are not comfortable being associated with.)
A relatively new scam involves gathering someone's personal contact information, and then using it to try
and blackmail them. This scam is especially effective if someone is doing something online that they might be ashamed of, or if they are a
member of a site they wouldn't want people to know about. If you give out your personal contact information
(email, cellphone, etc.), you are asking for trouble.
Do you know of another online dating scam? Let us know.