4 Serious Red Flags for Online Dating

If you’ve ever set up a profile to find a romantic partner, you know just how difficult it can be to find someone worth your effort. In a perfect world, everyone would be completely honest and forthcoming. To save you from living a worst case scenario, this article will uncover some of the biggest red flags for online dating.

Every situation is different, but there are common threads between the worst online predators. We’ll be sure to highlight exactly what you need to know to avoid online pitfalls.

Let’s examine some critical online red flags that might be signs to proceed with caution and minimize the risk of having to call Nev and the Catfish crew for reinforcements.

How to Identify Red Flags for Online Dating

The most important thing you need to remember is that not everyone has good intentions. Even if you’re going in with a pure heart, there are plenty of opportunists out there. Some will do everything they can to take advantage of you.

By asking calibrated online dating questions and being mindful of vital warning signs, you can proceed with confidence.

Here are three tips to help you stay alert and on the lookout for any red flags for online dating:

• Don’t be too trusting. When you first meet someone online, you need to be very cautious. You may develop feelings of trust over time, but don’t let this happen at the outset.
• Don’t reveal too much about yourself. Every piece of information you volunteer can help con artists learn to manipulate you. If they are genuine, they should be willing to wait to get to know you.
• Keep personal information private. Let personal and sensitive information be the last thing that ever comes out. They shouldn’t pressure you for highly personal details when you’re meeting online.

With these dating tips in mind, we can now review the online dating red flags.

Our Top 4 Red Flags for Online Dating

Everything listed below will help you stay safe and find a great life partner.

For a quick view of the red flags covered here, this infographic will be helpful:

Keeping a copy of this will be useful in keeping you grounded on your quest for love.

1. They seem too good to be true

Although we all want to find Mr. or Ms. Perfect, it is expected that the one you fall in love with will indeed have a flaw or two. It is easy to become ensnared by someone online who seems to have everything together.

That begs the question, though, why are they online anonymously looking for love? Easy. They are lying.

If someone cannot be honest with you about who they really are, it is time to move on to someone who can.  A person’s flaws and quirks are truly what make them who they are.

Searching for love should never be about finding perfection.  It should be about finding someone who is perfect for you.

2. Their story changes and doesn’t make sense

One of the biggest tells when it comes to a liar, online or offline, is whether they stay consistent. If stories keep shifting like the wind, there might be cause for alarm.

Here are three examples of how someone’s story might change in a bad way:

• Your online crush can never video chat with you because their camera is broken, yet they are consistently uploading new videos to their social media profile. If they won’t show themselves, there’s a good chance they may be hiding something.
• They can’t answer basic questions about the city that they claim to be from.
• Responses change from day to day.

You can easily identify this sort of behavior by asking the same question in different ways on different days. It will make it hard for them to remember a lie, but should be easy if they are being honest.

It’s a big red flag waving if their answers to your questions feel more like quicksand than candor.

3. They ask you to send money

If you feel like you have developed a bond with someone online, it might feel natural to want to help them out if they are in a pinch. However, until you have physically met this person and developed real trust, this is a warning sign that this person could be using you (and others) for money.

If the connection is real they will understand your discomfort in this matter, and likely would not have asked in the first place. If the object of your affection disappears because you won’t provide financial support, you have likely dodged a bullet.

Remember: You’re in this to find love. You aren’t a loan officer.

4. Their social media accounts are basically empty

Everything is social media these days. You would expect someone who is actively engaged with trying to find the love of their lives to have at least a moderately healthy level of activity within various networks.

If what you find is a page with only a few friends and photos, there is an excellent chance it was made for your benefit and is giving you no clue who is actually behind it.

A great way to catch a liar in their tracks is to run a Google search on their social media images. This will scan the web for similar or identical images, potentially finding out if they stole their photos. If this is the case, run the other way.

Final Thoughts on the Red Flags for Online Dating

Looking for love online often feels more like a minefield than a bed of rose petals.

It is often said that red flags simply look like flags when we are wearing rose coloured glassed.  So, it is when we are falling in love that we often miss those tell-tale signs that should warn us of the danger to come.

In retrospect, we wonder how we could have been so blind as they are blatantly obvious to friends and family, but we tend to know better in our relationships—until it is too late. Using the advice we’ve provided in this article, you can save yourself plenty of heartache.