Posted on Friday, August 25, 2017
At Waplog, we try our best to ensure your safety, so we compiled some of the safety precautions we thought you should read. Once you start creating your profile or later when you decide to go on dates they may come in handy. Online dating has been around for over two decades. There are many online dating success stories and these success stories are all around us. However, there are risks when talking to strangers, it may be online or offline on the streets. Even though the Waplog team works very hard to keep the website clean of these risks there are scammers all around us in our everyday life so we need to keep our eyes open. You have to trust your instincts and practice common sense to be careful. Never think you are being TOO careful, scammers come up with new ideas every day and try different methods to get what they want. So here are some tips you might enjoy;
Don't Put Personal Information
Safe First Date
We have talked about how to be safe on the first date in our previous blog post. but to shorten it – be safe. Meet at a public place and plan an exit strategy, arrange a friend to be your backup, and keep the date short. Have your own transportation or arrange a place where you can walk to the arranged location. If the person lied about what they look like, don't stay there to find out what else they lied about. We mentioned how you should not give out personal information but at the same time, you should know some things about the person you are about to go on a date with. So if both parties exercise the same caution that could be problematic. Be cautious but if you agreed to meet up know that they will expect you to give them some information about yourself, so share what you feel comfortable with. Because in all seriousness who would want to go on a date with someone who is being super private and secretive as if they are a fugitive. When giving out personal information you should be careful and exercise common sense; Keeping both scenarios in mind.
Don't Rush
We all need time when we are getting to know someone, may this be a coworker, a classmate, or a beau you met online. Establishing trust doesn't come easily and it really shouldn't. You may be neutral or even feel the butterflies in your stomach, making you forget that you actually haven't really established trust but if you hurry up just to become something you may find yourself in a mess. Online dating has been becoming the norm for a while now, but the risks are still there. Meeting someone new and getting to trust them should take time and for that you should be spending quality time together; asking questions, doing fun activities, and figuring each other out –Just lay it out and give it time. With more time you will be able to see the discrepancies or any lies that may surface or fall in love naturally. There are great people online wanting the same from their partners but there is also a possibility of lies, so just be careful how fast you trust someone. "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." – Lao Tzu
Meet During Daytime
Meeting during the daytime falls under the category of meeting in public places or just being safer. In college when girls went to frat parties they would have a buddy system and go with friends. Yes, I know the topic is about the meeting during the daytime, and frat parties are always at night but there is a correlation – the correlation is being safe. Girls have established a buddy system at night and especially when they are going to be drinking because they know what can lurk in the darkness. They have heard enough horror stories to know not to go alone; they even go to restrooms in groups to take care of each other and talk. (Also, drunk girls make the best friends so why not amirite). Anyways the main topic is to exercise as much caution as you can and meeting during the daytime with a stranger is the safest bet. You may not have a friend that you brought with you as a part of your buddy system ( which you can totally do depending on your friend) but at least meeting during the daytime and being in a public place can give you additional safety.
Don't be Paranoid
We kept talking about the risks and that we have to be careful, however being too suspicious can be off-putting. You should always exercise common sense but doing so should not mean, being TOO suspicious and not being able to meet anyone. After all, the reason you are on a dating website is that you want to meet people and eventually trust someone enough to date them ( Hopefully that's the reason you are here). If you are being too suspicious of everyone you won't be able to trust anyone and let anyone in your circle. At some point, you just need to trust your instincts with people you are talking to – just don't let your guard down too easily and watch out for the dangers awaiting.
Report any Scammers
In Waplog we do everything to ensure your privacy is intact and we have committed resources to deal with any reports from you. We want to keep our website and app free from scammers by pre-screening, but some may be hard to detect. If you have any concerns or don't feel safe just report the user and let us deal with them. If a date asks for money, loan, or threatens you in any way report them so they cannot do that to you or to anyone else again with that account. We are here to ensure your safety and allow you to date as you would like. By reporting people (may it be some douche bag harassing you) you are making us aware of the problem so we can ban them and send them to the BAN LAND and let them harass each other all day long without a way of getting back into the general population area.
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For more articles, check out our blog posts. If you are ready to find the one for you, sign up or log in to your Waplog profile and date until you drop. Have fun.