Dangers of Online Dating- Buyer Beware

Dangers of Online Dating:

Many people resort to online dating as a means of finding a date or a life partner.  Individuals who use these sites are not necessarily desperate.  With the increasing amounts of hours both men and woman put into their jobs, it may be difficult to land a decent date.  With the help of dating sites, such as Match.com, these daters presume that the good dates are weeded out from the bad ones, leaving them with their prince charming or snow white.  Unfortunately, that is not always the case.  Sometimes, their dates try to rape them, sexually assault them, or even try to kill them.

This brings me to a Las Vegas woman named Mary Kay Beckman.  She recently brought a lawsuit against Match.com after a date she found through the dating site tried killing her.  According to cbsnews, “Match.com paired her with Wade Mitchell Ridley, who she dumped eight days after meeting in September 2010.  Four months later he hid her in a garage and stabbed her ten times.”

Beckman is seeking $10 million from the company for failing to disclose the dangers of online dating.

Here are Some Helpful Tips to Consider When Dating:

Most online dating sites do not conduct a criminal background check on their clients.  Therefore, you should take the initiative and conduct your own research.  You can do so by simply inputting your potential dates name and last name into Google.  If this doesn’t give you much information, you can run a free background check on them or even look up their public criminal records.  If all else fails, you can always hire a private investigator.

If you sense that the person you are dating might pose a threat to your well-being, it would be best to conduct your own research.  Although this process may appear time consuming, this tragedy teaches us that you can never be too careful when it comes to your safety.

Do you think it is the dating site’s responsibility to warn online daters of the dangers of online dating?  Should sexual predator screening systems be mandatory in dating sites?