Online Safety Tips

Online dating offers you the ability to meet and get to know lots of available singles quickly and easily.  You can find out a great deal about them before you even commit to a face to face meeting.  It can be a safe way to find a new partner, provided you follow a few simple rules.

Take Your Time

There's no rush.  When someone contacts you or vise- versa take time to get to know them.  Exchange messages and get to know them over a period.  Don't be afraid to ask questions, and be prepared to open up a bit. At this stage everything is totally safe.  Use that to your advantage.

Moving Forwards

When you are ready to move forwards don't be afraid to exchange e-mail addresses, and photographs.  Online chat facilities like MSN and Yahoo Messenger allow interactive instant chat, and with a headset and microphone (about £5 from your local computer shop) you can talk to each other and even use a webcam to see each other.  When you are ready to give out a phone number then your mobile number is a safer bet at first.

Unwanted Attention

If a user gives you too much attention, or doesn't take 'no' for an answer, then you can always block them from contacting you via our services.  Just log into Your Profile, then visit their profile and click the "Block This User" link.

If this doesn't work and you are feeling harrassed then please contact our admin. staff.  If you consider their behaviour offensive then please report the user for the sake of others on this site.

Exchanging Contact Details

Try and avoid exchanging any contact details whatsoever until you have met up at least once, and better still until your third or fourth meeting.  The mail system on this site allows you to block irksome contact, whereas its harder to do with emails and phone numbers.  Further more emails and phone numbers can be tracked through Google and other search engines to identify you as an individual.

Beware accounts that publish email addresses up front on their profile or in contact emails.  Scammers use this technique to "extract" targets from the system as soon as possible and gain direct contact.  Any mail messages or profile description containing up front emails should be considered suspect. See the section of spammers and scammers below.

Meeting Up

At first it is best not to exchange addresses until you have met up face to face.

For the first meeting choose a public place, such as a pub or restaurant.  Don't be afraid to cut the meeting short and walk away if things aren't right for you.  Ask a friend to tag along if possible, and if not leave details of where you are going.

Finally trust your instincts.  If you are uncetain and things don't feel right then walk away.  There are plenty more singles waiting for you online.

Spammers and Scammers

It is an unfortunate fact of the growth of the internet that criminal elements have jumped on board, and social media in general and singles sites in particular are targets for their activity.  Scammers aim to befriend people through the site and then "extract" something from their target - generally money.  Examples may include a hot date who desperately wants to meet up but can't afford the train/plane fair, and a request is made to help.  Money is sent.  Excuses are made. The scammer never turns up.  Sob stories about paying bills for schooling, health care and so on are often designed to play on the relationship they have built up with their target and their target's good nature. 

As a general rule NEVER send money to someone you haven't met.