How to lose your heart — not your money

7. Protect your personal e-mail address. For safety and privacy reasons, avoid sharing your personal e-mail address with anyone you meet over the Internet. Ideally the online dating service you use will offer on-site messaging and e-mail services. If that’s not the case, you can take a moment to create a separate — and free — e-mail address through Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo! and then use that address to manage your online dating life.

8. Never cave in when confronted with high-pressure sales tactics. Whether you’re dealing with a salesperson face-to-face at a matchmaking company or visiting a slew of online dating sites, don’t sign up for anything too quickly. Read contracts over with care in the privacy of your own home before you agree to spend a dime. With matchmaking services, don’t be afraid to change terms in the contract that make you uncomfortable or to haggle over price. If you encounter high-pressure tactics or pie-in-the-sky promises, walk away.

9. Think about your safety. Reflect on ways to stay safe with the people you meet — and with people you never meet. For example, your online dating profile may remain posted on a Web site for quite a while after your membership has ended. All sorts of people could continue reading up about you and contacting you at that point. If you don’t want this to happen, keep pestering the service until your profile is removed. As far as dating safety is concerned, find out exactly what the service does to screen for criminals and married people. This information may not be as easy to get as you might think. New Jersey just passed the Internet Dating Safety Act, the first law of its kind in the entire country. The law requires online dating services to let consumers know whether or not they conduct criminal background screenings. Other safety tips: Avoid sharing your personal information, such as your last name, home phone number and address, too quickly with anyone you date, and always meet in a public place for your first date. Be sure to let a close friend know where you’ll be and who you’ll be meeting.

10. Think about your privacy. Tip #4 mentioned the importance of reading a company’s privacy policy. Here’s a little bit more food for thought in that vein: Even if a company says it won’t sell your personal information to anyone, it still may share your information with its “cobranded companies,” partners and advertisers. Clarify whether or not that’s the case. If it is, and if you don’t feel comfortable with that approach, don’t sign up.

Sources

• Better Business Bureau
• Consumer Reports
• “Online Dating Safety Tips” from Online Dating Magazine
• State of New Jersey’s 212^th Legislature (PDF file)

MORE FROM 10 TIPS

10 Tips Section Front

Your shopping type: Black Friday? Cyber Monday? 10 tips to find seasonal work this year 10 tricks for swapping your way to free stuff 10 ways to keep a clunker running on a budget Money 101: How to avoid going broke in college 10 ways to avoid sneaky work-at-home scams 10 ways to get a grip on sports costs for kids Save now! 10 tips to be a better coupon sleuth 10 ways to avoid heartbreak with dating services Go glamping! 10 tips for a budget adventure 10 Tips Section Front   Add 10 Tips headlines to your news reader: