How to Protect Yourself in Online Dating
A Canadian man was recently arrested and accused of setting up and scamming the members of a fake online dating network he owned. Barrie Turner owned such sites as Executive Gay Dating, Executive Seattle Dating, Executive Catholic dating and other “Executive” dating sites.
Members of these sites allege that the matches they received on the site were fake. In some cases, the same “matches” and photographs were being sent to different people, with the geographical information being changed to reflect their preferences. Over 100 complaints were filed from California to New York. With an estimated 10,000 member database, police are now looking for other potential victims. Turner was arrested while trying to cross the US/Canadian border and is now being held at a Seattle Jail.
This is really a shame as it gives online dating sites a black eye. I’m not going to link to any of the sites, but in looking at them you can see that these sites are professionally set up and look like they really are a executive matchmaking service. People in this day and age are more conscious than ever about their online safety and security and the scammers are well aware of it and are starting to step up their game. It used to be that if you went to a website you could reasonably pick out if it was a safe site to visit or not. Nowadays, scammers are hiring outside individuals who have a perfect command of the English language, and are in turn setting up the sites in such a way that there really is no way to tell if it is legit. One of the things you can do to protect yourself is to Google the websites name and see what pops up. In this case, I Googled “Executive Catholic Dating” and a story about this mans arrest popped up.
Another way to protect yourself is to purchase a one-time use credit card. These can be purchased at any given drugstore or grocery store. Some credit card companies will allow you to create a 1 time use card via their website.
I would advise people to stay away from any unfamiliar online dating sites out there, unless you have heard about them in the news. “Turnkey” online dating sites can be bought on eBay for as little as $100, and it wouldn’t take a scammer that long to get a fake site up and running. If you are a member of one of the bigger online dating sites and are disappointed with your experience, try one of the other online dating sites. eHarmony, Match.com, Plenty of Fish, Jdate, Singlesnet, Chemistry.com, PerfectMatch.com…..the list goes on and on. You might be taking a bigger risk if you avoid one of the previous online dating sites and instead sign up for a smaller niche dating site.
Legit online dating sites (usually) will have a link to their corporate home page or other identifiable information at the bottom of the screen. In short, keep your eyes peeled and look for anything that seems out of place. Your first instincts are usually correct.
Good Luck !
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