With people’s lives being busier now than they were fifty years ago, many young people do not have the opportunity to get out and date in the more traditional ways. Dating services have become increasingly more and more popular, especially Internet sites that have taken the place of traditional matchmakers. The funny thing here is that many people would never have thought about going out on a blind date with their best friend’s cousin’s best friend is that their doing the same thing by going out with someone they met on the Internet.
There are stories all over the place about sexual predators surfing the Internet for innocent and naïve individuals. There are also the horror stories about the aftermath. While Internet dating could be the future of courting and lasting relationships in the world, people need to take care to protect themselves before jumping into a relationship with someone they’ve met online. They should be sure that the person on the other end is not misrepresenting themselves and, if possible, conduct a background check on the person to see if there are any legal issues hiding in the shadows.
When using an Internet dating service, people should be aware of some of the problems that have cropped up and been reported by previous members. Some of the sites force people to sign up without seeing a preview of the services they are going to be using or paying for. A good case of ‘caveat emptor’ (buyer beware) is eHarmony.com, one of the largest Internet dating services available. Potential users also need to be on the lookout for sites that do not have real people in some of the profiles, baiting people to sign up, or ‘fake’ profiles that lead to other websites, usually adult sites. There are also sites out there that are simply harvesting potential user information simply to sell them to spam e-mail sites. Good sites will allow a person to see what they are getting, allow them to test the site out for a short period of time, and also sort the potential ‘matches’ by their activity or lack thereof.
If someone is interested in one of the many sites that offer free trials, they should be aware that many of the features the whole site offers may not be available. If a credit card is needed to even qualify for the trial period, potential members will want to make sure that they cancel their membership will before the end of the trial period if the site is not for them. Otherwise, they may be billed for a membership to a dating site that isn’t right. The use of a ‘virtual credit card’, which is offered by some banks, may be a good idea to avoid having cancellation problems later. PlentyofFish.com is one of the few sites that are free and allow members to correspond with each other without any sort of fee being involved. There are also hobby and specialty dating sites available catering to people who, for example, practice certain religions, are sports fans, or have logistics such as farm communities in common. Once again, care should be taken when using these sites.
Before meeting someone in person, it is best to ask them for a current picture so that people can be assured they are not being misled. This is a big problem with casual dating sites. Sites where people are interested in meeting for a true, romantic, relationship that could lead to marriage have less of a problem with misrepresentation as both parties are trying to establish a long term relationship. If someone refuses to send a current picture, the member may want to think about skipping them and moving on.