Be Safe, ten tips for surviving online dating
Social friends online have designed a dating services and social community site with many features and
services to enhance our members online experience, to help SFO members come
together and form fruitful and trusting friendships or intimate relationships.
In order to achieve this, www.socialfriendsonline.com
continues to strive to create a healthy and secure environment where all our
members could interact and feel at ease.
However, all our
efforts will go to waste if you, our members, do not take the necessary
precautions in your interactions with other members on this website. SFO cannot be responsible for relationships,
romance, friendships, or sporting activity partners you meet with through the
use of this website, if you yourself do not take care. It is a caveat that we
all must live by.
In order for you to
have a safe, fun and worthwhile experience with social friends online, we have
compiled ten tips that you can use in order to safeguard yourself and survive
the labyrinth that is online dating, social friendships and other activities
1. Get
to know your match. If you find someone here who interests you,
take the time to get to know your match more by exchanging messages with him or
her. Watch out for inconsistencies and
beware of people who seem too good to be true; chances are, they are too good
to be true. Do not hesitate to drop
contact with the match if he or she makes you uncomfortable.
2. Safeguard
your own anonymity. In SFO, all interactions between you and
other members of the website are masked through a double-blind system. This is
done to protect your anonymity until you yourself decide to reveal it to other
members of the website, do not include
your real last name, email address and contact details (telephone, home
address, etc.). If you email another
member and you have a signature file that lists your contact details, turn your
signature file off first. Drop contact
from anyone who pressures you into giving up your name and contact details, and
do report it to our administration team as these issues will be dealt with
swiftly.
3.
Use your head. Do not fancy yourself falling in love with another member
with just one click of the mouse. Use your common sense and get to know the
person first. Save the intimacy for
when you have already met up with your match, feel comfortable with him/her,
and trust him/her enough to share some moments of intimacy with him/her. Be sure that your match is clean and
healthy; after all, catching sexually transmitted diseases is not something
that you can shrug off.
4. Ask
for pictures. A picture of
your match will give you a good idea of your match’s appearance and what he or
she may be like. Ask for pictures of him/her in different settings. If he/she refuses to give pictures or always
comes up with excuses, better drop with him/her and try your luck elsewhere.
5. Phone
your match. The sound of your match’s voice will tell
you a lot about him/her. It will also help
in determining if your match is who he/she says he/she is. If you do not make this phone call, you
cannot be sure if you are just the unfortunate victim of an online prank.
Remember to protect your anonymity by getting in touch with your phone company
and seeing how caller ID machines can be blocked from identifying your number.
6. Take
your time. Collect as much information as you can about your match. Do not be in a hurry to meet him/her, and do
not give in to the pressure of meeting him/her. No matter how intimate you have become online, you can still
refuse to meet him/her offline if your gut feeling tells you that you should
not do it.
7. Pay
attention to danger signals. When your instinct tells you that something
is wrong, chances are that something is indeed wrong. You can tell that something is not right with your match if
he/she displays at least one of the following behaviours:
a) Giving you inconsistent information about
himself/herself, like age, employment or marital status;
b) Continually rejects your requests to talk on
the phone;
c) Does not give you direct answers when you ask
him/her direct questions about himself/herself.
d) Seems different in person than the online
persona he/she has shown you.
e) Does not want to introduce you to his/her
friends and family.
When this happens, it is better to just walk away
from the relationship and start anew.
8. Meet
at a safe, neutral place. Should you decide to meet up with your
match, always insist on meeting at a public place, like a restaurant, a park or
a bar. If the two of you decide to go
somewhere else, it would be best for you to go there separately, in your own
cars.
9. Make
your own arrangements. When
meeting someone in another city and you are going to have to fly in order to
get there, make your own arrangements.
Book your own flight, make your own hotel reservations and hire your own
rental car. And even with that, do not tell your match about your arrangements
and meet him/her at a public, neutral place.
Make sure someone back home, like a friend or a family member, knows
where you are going and the purpose of your trip.
Walk away. If your match makes you feel uncomfortable or you feel that the situation is not what is should be, feel free to take your leave and just walk away. It is better to be safe than to be sorry
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