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.