Online Dating Safety for Women

Mar 12, 2010 by Karen · Leave a Comment

If you are female and a member of an online dating site, you should take a few minutes to reflect upon the following story:

An Oregon man was recently sentenced to 15 years for raping an Orange County, Ca. woman he met in an online dating service. The attack occurred in May 2007, but was not reported by the victim until October 2008 after she filed a restraining order against the man for stalking.

While online dating in the past has traditionally been geared towards the 20 and 30 something crowd, more and more Baby Boomers and women above the age of 40 are giving it a shot. In fact, the “above 35″ demographic is one of the highest growing segment of online daters in this day and age. With social acceptance of online dating at an all time high (as compared to the early days and stigma that online dating “was only for losers who lived in their moms basement”) more and more single females above the age of 35 are joining the online dating sites.

Online dating requires the same care and caution that you would give to going out on a date with someone you met in real life. Women above the age of 35 can be especially vulnerable for several reasons:

1. They might be seen as “desperate” to find someone, and the pool of available (and quality) singles decreases as one gets older.
2. Scammers see these women and will spend days/weeks even months trying to establish an emotional connection online. Over time some women will drop their guard and that’s when they strike.
3. They are somewhat new to the social interaction side of the internet and don’t realize that certain online tools (chat messengers/etc) can be used against them.
4. Some people have reported that if you are a female above the age of 35, you should NOT engage in communication with guys who live hundreds of miles away from you (like the victim in the above news story did).

It isn’t my intention to scare women over 35 away from the online dating sites, but rather to open their eyes as to what could potentially happen. It’s nothing that couldn’t happen from the guy who you met at a bar, or going out on a date with a co-worker.

I’m going to purposely cut this post short as I will be bringing an expert onto this website in the coming weeks to discuss in great detail how women over 35 can protect themselves from the various scammers/etc that could be out there in any given online dating site. In the meantime, I would like to hear some of your stories and experiences (any age) regarding online dating safety.

I am currently collaborating with an expert in online safety for women and will have more to report on this subject in the future.

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