Online dating, their main reasons and the dangers they pose. Rules of communication on the Internet, how to protect yourself. Online dating is communication that not only promises positive emotions, but also conceals truly dangerous threats that lie in wait for fans of social networks. When making friends on the Internet, you need to know certain rules, have an idea of what can be expected on dating sites and how to avoid problems.
Top Reasons for Online Dating
There are a number of reasons why people start dating online. They are usually due to personality traits, lifestyle, and psychological problems. For example, these can be factors such as:
- Shyness … If a man or woman suffers from an inferiority complex, self-doubt, phobias associated with communication, and because of this is not able to meet in person, he or she prefers online dating. You can always be a “star” in the network, it’s easy to embellish something, hide something, it helps to relax and feel more confident.
- Loneliness and narrowness of the real circle of communication … Unfortunately, many have a very narrow real circle of contacts: colleagues, a few friends-girlfriends, a few relatives - and that's all. Also, the lifestyle itself limits a person ("home-work-home"). In such conditions, there is simply no place to meet, and as a result, a person begins to register on dating sites in order to find a soul mate there.
- Excessive romanticization … Typical for some older adolescent girls. For example, a girl is not delighted with her classmates or classmates and believes that on the Internet she can find a real prince, oligarch, genius, movie star - in a word, someone really worthy of her, she just needs to find contacts and start a correspondence. And there she will quickly charm the "object", and the happy ending is ready. This is definitely a very childish approach.
- Dissatisfaction with life, poor relationship between spouses … This is another reason why both men and women start dating online. Often, after many years of family life, people no longer feel passion for each other, sexual attraction and, accordingly, do not receive emotional and sexual satisfaction. It also happens that spouses live in an atmosphere of constant quarrels, for some reason being unable to divorce. All of the above leads some to the idea of finding partners on the Internet. The goal of the search is usually an easy relationship with no commitment.
What else can be attracted to online dating in general is the simplicity and complete control of communication, a sense of security. If you get bored of communicating, one movement of the mouse can end the contact. Nothing compromises your comfort. But, in fact, spending time on the Internet can just turn out to be an unsafe thing, especially for girls who want to find a mate in this way.
What are the dangers of online dating
While communicating on the network, you can, alas, meet with rather unpleasant phenomena. Let's try to divide the main hazards into categories. First of all, on the way of a girl looking for a romantic acquaintance on the Internet, scammers of all stripes can get caught, perfectly mastering manipulation techniques.
Social media scammers
Fraudsters on the Internet are a special type of people who are capable of wringing themselves into the confidence of women, charming them in order to take possession of their money and property. They are usually characterized by a deep knowledge of psychology, the ability to build communication in such a way that the victims themselves, voluntarily give them material values. Fraudsters skillfully select a "key" to a girl's heart, "signaling" to her that she is loved, beautiful, desirable, and fall in love with her.
There are several types of such personalities:
- "Generous fans" … It may look like this: for example, an Internet boyfriend tells his passion that he is sending her a gift "straight from Paris", but then it turns out that the girl has to pay for delivery through an international service, the website of which is actually a fake, and the money goes directly to a swindler. Another "pen pal" can invite a girl to visit him in another city, or even abroad. Carefully throws off the link to the airline's website. A gullible girl leaves her credit card information there, not suspecting that this is also a bogus site. The risk group is usually middle-aged women and inexperienced girls, often from the provinces.
- "Trapped in a difficult situation" … These "specialists" fall in love with a girl in the already mentioned way (compliments, confessions, etc.), and then seem to find themselves in a difficult situation - an accident, illness, loss of cards, threats of bandits … In general, what is enough imagination for. A lady in love, already mentally trying to figure out the style of a wedding dress, receives a message that her beloved "is in trouble, dies, is arrested, needs urgent surgery" and the like. It is not difficult to understand that a frightened and psychologically traumatized woman immediately gives the right amount of money. This is exactly what the fraudster wanted. Again, you can improve the situation, at least return the money, with the help of law enforcement agencies. Who is at risk: women over 30, single, divorced.
- Love extortionists … At times, when a virtual romance flares up, an Internet fan asks for private photos or videos. You should think ten times before sending them. The fact is that they can at any time find themselves on public display! The owner or the owner of the photo receives a letter from a recent "online heart friend" stating that if she (he) does not pay such and such a sum, all the pranks in front of the camera will end up with the husband (wife), boss or just on YouTube, for example. Unhappy selfie lovers run to transfer money. But, as a rule, scammers are not limited to one time only. This is a very serious situation that is almost impossible to stop without the intervention of law enforcement agencies. You will have to choose: eternal monetary "donation" or "confession", in which the police, and, most likely, the family and the boss will become aware of your hobby, but there is a chance to catch the intruder. Risk group: both women, especially married and successful, and men.
Important! These are not all the dangers of online dating. There are much bigger threats for girls meeting guys on the Internet.
Online dating and sex slavery
In pursuit of romantic love, girls who make acquaintances with guys on the Internet can fall into real sexual slavery. This international problem does not lose its relevance. Of course, no one lies in wait for them in dark alleys to grab, take away and sell, but there is the Internet, where slave traders feel quite comfortable and lure their victims with promises of prestigious, high-paying jobs or marriage with a wealthy foreigner.
Criminals are very resourceful and use various methods to get their victim. The most common methods are:
- Cheating under the "sign" of a marriage agency … The girls are invited to meet rich single foreigners eager to find a bride in Russia (Ukraine, Belarus, etc.). Correspondence is organized, then again an invitation to come to the potential groom follows, payment of a visa and a ticket (in this case, real). Sometimes fake grooms from abroad register on dating sites as individuals, then the same scheme is applied.
- High-paying job offers … Work in a modeling agency, a prestigious company abroad, a high salary, experience is not required … Many girls come across such ads. Usually caring "employers" draw up the documents, help with the purchase of air tickets, only upon arrival is not a model agency waiting at all, but a "job" in a brothel. Girls should be very, very attentive if they receive such offers on the Internet, because they cannot be hired for a really high-paying and prestigious job without the appropriate education and experience.
Perverts on the Internet
There is another kind of danger of online dating - these are perverts and maniacs. Among the Internet perverts, there are both relatively harmless and deadly, communication with which is fraught with loss of health and life. Although even the "relatively harmless" can shock, cause mental trauma. There is no need to talk about especially dangerous ones, these are maniacs and even serial killers hiding under the guise of charming guys.
You can recognize a pervert on the Internet by some signs:
- Talking too much about sex … According to research by psychologists, perverts are characterized by an extremely developed fantasy, moreover, mainly on a sexual topic. The most mundane objects can evoke erotic associations in them. Most of the jokes and stories will be associated with eroticism.
- Addicted to sex on the phone or skype … The latter fact, of course, does not always indicate that a person is an inveterate pervert and dangerous to society, but the girl should not lose her vigilance.
- Persistent requests to send intimate photos … This also includes attempts to share your own. Men of this kind are often fond of intimate selfies. If a girl does not refuse to look at such pictures, she will immediately be required to provide detailed comments, usually compliments to certain parts of the male body in the photo. This may indicate that the man has a perverse fantasy.
If a girl has the slightest suspicion that her new Internet friend is a pervert, in no case should you agree to a meeting at his apartment or in a deserted place. In the most severe cases, the case may end in persecution and attempted rape, kidnapping, or even murder.
Internet communication rules
There are a number of specific rules for online communication that help girls not to get into an unpleasant or dangerous situation. Let's highlight the main ones here:
- Sign up only on verified dating sites … It is not superfluous to first read the reviews about the site, look at its design, for the availability of full contact information.
- Do not immediately share your full contact information in the correspondence.… Don't rush to share your home address or phone number. It is better to start with general information - e-mail, maximum skype.
- Check carefully all information about a new Internet acquaintance … It will be useful, if possible, to view his social media accounts, photos, profiles. If a man writes that he lives in such and such a city and is the director of such and such a modeling agency (holding, store, etc.), it makes sense to find the agency's website and make sure whether it exists at all and who is the director (owner) there. Usually such information is available on the websites of large, well-known companies.
- Pay attention to all the details … Usually criminals can get confused in little things (today he is a widower with one child, tomorrow with two, for example). To reveal the fact of a lie, it is enough to ask as many questions as possible about the relatives of a pen pal. If a person is lying, the discrepancy in the details will give him away.
- Don't send money to anyone … As mentioned here, there are many ways for scammers to defraud money. If such a topic begins in Internet correspondence, requests to send such and such an amount for whatever it may be, this is a clear sign that it is wiser to stop communicating with a "pen pal".
- Do not send your intimate photos … Even if requests to share an intimate selfie are very persistent and are accompanied by promises from the series “everything will stay between us, no one will see it”, it is better not to give in to persuasion.
How to behave when communicating on the Internet - look at the video:
Of course, everything is impossible to predict, and even the most cautious woman can fall under the spell of experienced Internet criminals, perverts, and maniacs. But nevertheless, it will not be superfluous to be attentive and vigilant, because this is the only way to save yourself from problems and not become victims of online dating.
