Quote Originally Posted by carback
And it's also best as women, not to give them our phone number.
And sometimes even that's not enough. Back before cell phones I didn't want to give out my home number to an online guy until I'd met him. One guy was so affronted that I didn't trust him with my phone number that he used my email address and some software from a private investigator friend of his to track down my full name and address . . . just to prove that he could. Funnily enough, and much to his surprise, that did not endear him to me.

Although I never really felt threatened by this guy, I'm totally with carback about being careful. Besides the phone numbers and the meeting in public places, also think about using a secondary easy-to-trash email address for your online dating activites.

A friend's trying to get me back into the online dating world again. (I try every 5 years or so; my online experiences - not so good). This time I'm even thinking of getting a pay-as-you-go cell phone so that I don't have to give anyone my real cell phone number to start with. My real cell phone number is dearer to me than even my home number these days!

Yes, I have many friends with good online dating experiences, so I know it's possible. I just want to minimize my risks because my loony quotient unfortunately seems to be higher than most.

Cathy