There are scammers and losers in life wherever you are, not just in the online dating world. But people who are into online dating may be slightly more vulnerable because you can only know what the person you are dating chooses to reveal to you and you can’t know for sure that it is the absolute truth. So how can you protect yourself from those who are scammers and losers?

The website puts into place many security safeguards to protect people to the best of their ability. It is up to you to work with them in abiding by all the rules and regulations. One of the main rules is that you should never give your true email address to anyone. The dating service will provide you with one and hide the true one that you must give them. When you are replying to an email from a date, never do it by hitting the reply button, as this may disclose your real email address. Instead, go to the website and reply from there.

When you are emailing a date, even if they seem really nice, never reveal your home telephone number or your home address. It may be that they are not as nice as you think and they will stalk or harass you if you try to break up with them. Some people can be really nice until you do something they don’t want you to, such as breaking up. Don’t reveal your last name either, until you are sure that the person can be trusted.

Another thing you must not do is reveal your credit card details, or offer to pay them money for anything, no matter how sincere they might sound. If anyone asks you for money or even hints that they need money, be on the alert immediately. If they begin to harass you using your website email address, block contact with them immediately and report them to the website owners. They will be able to blacklist them and remove them from the website.

If you receive an email purporting to be from whatever website dating service you joined up with that asks for money or credit card details, be sure to look at the blue address bar at the top and see if it has the name of the web-host on it. It might be a good idea to contact them separately and ask if they have emailed you. You can copy and paste the email you received and send it to them to check out.

With all these cautions in place, you should be quite as well protected online as you are in the real world.