Christian Dating Services and Online Safety!
When joining an online Christian dating service the personal
information that you choose to disclose is meant for public
viewing, your financial information however is not.
First: be positive that the site is secure.
Before providing your bank or credit card information to any
online site, confirm that the site is secure by checking the URL
in the address bar of your browser. Secure sites will begin with
https:// rather than http:// with the added "s" designating a
secure server. Internet explorer users can also look for a small
closed padlock at the bottom of the browser window.
Legitimate site owners pay a fee and submit legal documents to a
certification company to receive a secure site certificate which
will be indicate by the https:// at the beginning of the URL. To
be warned if a sites certificate is invalid Internet explorer
users can adjust the advance settings of the browser to warn if
there is a problem with the sites security certificate. Go to
tools-internet options-advance tab, scroll down near the bottom
and ensure that both "Check for publisher's certificate
revocation" and "Warn about invalid site certificates are
checked." With these boxes checked a site with certificate
problems will prompt a warning on your computer.
Second: Know who you're dealing with.
To determine the true owner of a Christian dating service site
do a search on the domain name at Betterwhois.com. The results
will provide information on how long the site has been online,
who registered it and their contact information.
If it is a private registration and the information is not
available, it's time to do some more checking. Alexa.com ranks
websites by the amount of traffic that the site has and details
on how long the site has been online, the name/contact
information of the owner and users reviews and comments relevant
to the site.
If the above two checks haven't provided name or contact
information, it may be time to wonder why the secrecy?
Third: Check the sites privacy policy.
A legitimate site will have a privacy policy indicating what
they will or will not do with your info.
Fourth: Look for contact information on the site.
Should you need to contact the owner to resolve membership
issues are you stuck with email or do they provide a Telephone
number?
Fifth: What is the cancellation policy? Should you decide to
cancel your membership, how do you do it? Will a simple email be
sufficient or do you have to take legal action?
I can't guarantee that these five steps will keep you safe;
following them will minimize your risk.