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You control what you say, and who you say it to. Don't give out personal information!
DO NOT SEND MONEY TO ANYONE YOU'VE MET ONLINE! NO MATTER HOW BELIEVEABLE THEY MAY SEEM!
RECOMMENDATIONS
Do not give out ANY personal information online, specifically your last name, address, email or phone number. (See Search Engines section below)
Try sending an email to yourself, and when it arrives, look at the name in the 'From' field. Some
people set up their email with their real name as the 'Sender', and then forget that that information
is being sent with every email message.
If you decide to give out your phone number, do not give out a listed number (because it
may be used to help identify your location). If possible, only use a cell phone when interacting
with people you meet online.
If you decide to call someone you have met online, do not call from your home phone, unless you
can block someone with caller ID from seeing your number. If possible, only use a cell phone when
interacting with people you meet online.
Do not agree to meet someone alone in a non-public place.
Do not send money to someone you meet online (for any reason).
Do not send money to a friend of someone you meet online (for any reason).
Do not send money to anyone after they send you a check to cover it. (See SCAMS section below)
If someone asks you to help them move their money, they are attempting to scam you. Report them to us.
If someone you are interacting with does something that makes you suspicious, stop! Listen to your instincts.
WARNINGS
Be wary of someone who expresses their love for you, based on your profile.
Be wary of someone who expresses interest in moving to your location, before they know you.
Be wary of someone who works their financial difficulties into the conversation.
Be wary of someone who gives you contradictory information about themselves.
Be wary of someone who sends you an internal message in our system, with practically nothing in it but their email address, or maybe just
their email address and a brief message to contact them. They could be trying to get you to send them an actual email message, instead of you continuing to
use our internal email system. Many 'scammers/spammers' do this to obtain real email addresses which they can then resell to people running scams.
SEARCH ENGINES
Do not provide your last name to someone you do not know.
If someone has your last name and the city where you live, they may
be able to search for you on Google, or Yahoo, or MSN (or others)
and see a map of the location of your home.
Do not provide your last name to someone you do not know.
If someone has your last name and the city where you live, they may
be able to search for you,
and find your phone number (if it is listed).
Do not provide your website information to someone you do not know.
If you have a personal website, and you provide the URL to someone, they may be able to look
up your personal information within the Internet's WHOIS directory. In many cases, your registration
information is publically available, including your name, address & phone number.
