Meeting online...
I believe it is safe to say most of us log onto a dating site to meet someone special who shares our interest and will enhance our lives.

For a relationship to develop, I should think there would be a point we would start visiting on the phone. We are all here to mingle and maybe find that special someone so is there any safe guidelines to follow?

Keeping that in mind, I have a couple of questions. How long should we chat online before taking the next step of visiting on the phone? And what are the risk in exchanging phone numbers or email addresses?

Follow your heart when you feel relaxed and secure in the situation, then go forward.

sure online dating is risky but so is leaving your house.you could get ran over,ate by a bear,or get attacked by a zombie,that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it though

First of all the chances of me giving my phone number to anyone on line are very slim. If I do that then that is a very big act of trust.

As someone else said on another thread. The risk of giving out your email address is having it sold to some company that will then send you loads of spam. That being worthless emails.

The same could go for your phone number. Plus if the companies are foreign then there isn't to much your local government can do to them. If you start getting unwanted phone calls then the best you can do is change your number and hope it wasn't owned by someone who was getting phone calls they didn't want.

My bigger suggestion to you though is to pay attention to where the person says they are from and then how well they speak English. If they say they are from and English speaking country and can't get through a sentence without half of it being wrong then it's most likely so jerk from South Africa trying to steal money. But then the suggestion would be never send anyone you don't know in real life money. At least when you know them in real life you know where they live and you can kick their butts when they haven't paid you back.

I am always hesitant to meet anyone from the site (not from the forums so much but from the messaging locally) because it has never gone well in 5 years. So I don;t give it much hope. I tell all messengers that I am only here for the forums and I have turned down the last 2 requests to meet. I put effort and care into these meetups and I am not wasting my time with hair, make up etc...not to mention the polite "at least 2 hours" for the date... any more just so I can say I have a date. If I am going to waste time on grooming for a date it will have to be someone who I know ahead of time is worth it.

so no I don;t like meeting strangers off the internet for the purpose of dating

now meeting up with forum friends - that would be fine -at some point I might do soemthing like that

Always meet during day in public places for a while. Not just the first meeting. I like to give as much info to a family member or friend about who im meeting and what I'm doing and I set a curfew for myself and stick to it. Safety checks I call it.

You can always buy a phone card to talk until you trust the person enough to give out your phone number.

Ya know, this is a really good idea :-)
(Nice to see you Winterblue!)

I've had a few dates that would have been inproved by being eaten by a bear

that's not a bad outlook

I have never online dated..so new to me.. but datin in general is risky so why not try all areas of meeting new people

That's true.you cud try speed dating as well

If you really want ed to try something high risk though. Try dating people in prison or maybe insane asylums.

I use an app called text me. It's free and they give you a designated phone # that you can text ppl for free with and you can purchase minutes for phone calls if you want. Tho I'd probably Skype before spending any money.

I'll remember to check the mental asylum's. I was always quite in my own little world. . The younger guys always think I'm quite motherly towards them. I like that :). I may meet him after a few months of talking to him. I have to be certain I want to.

The problem with phone cards is it is a way to buy phone time, if you use one you still need to use your phone and it does show up on caller ID. I've tried this before.

You can also get those at Alco and various other places.

Personally....I see online as less risky than local real world dating.

Online...You are forced to have real conversations and thereby a lot more opportunity to figure out if the other person is really who they claim to be before jumping in bed with them......cause once you hump a lunatic...ya gotta deal with them in the vain notion that y'all are supposed to make it work out.

In real life...You meet someone,date once or twice,have sex...THEN figure out they are friggin crazy...and have to deal with them.

One thing I know for sure....I have zero online ex lovers. Just the one good woman I met,grew to love...then devoted my life to.

In the real world of my old home town,I got more exes from failed quicky relationships than I care to admit.

This is some really good advise. It is important that we are safe. Too bad that even in the privacy of our own home we need to be on guard.

I've learned if you call on your personal landline or cell phone you have opened the door for scammers, they can use it to learn where you live and much more. I like the idea of getting a pay as you go phone to use.

I even have concerns about scammers getting our IP address when we start emailing! Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I don't know how hard it is to get an IP address from web-mail addresses. But as far as I know it's possible from just about anything you do online. It's just a matter of how to do it.