Meeting People Online and Red Flags

I realize a lot of people meet other people these days by chatting online first and then meeting face to face. A lot of my friends have met after chatting online first. I myself have friends online that I've never met face to face, but that doesn't mean you don't have to be careful about meeting people online.

Regardless of the length of time you've chatted them up online, you really don't know this person and have to keep yourself safe. Always meet in a public place for first few times you meet. Let someone know where you're going to be and when you plan to be home and whom you are meeting.

Red Flags
If the person doesn't want to meet in a public place, that should throw up a red flag.
If the person shows up and doesn't look anything like their photo, or are years older than they said they were..that should be a red flag for you. It means they lied and now you can't trust anything they've said to you.

If after you meet this person a few times and find out that none of their family members talk to them, they have strange security concerns, they think people are watching them or they just seem off in some way...you may want to Google the persons name and see if they have anything written about them anywhere.

Don't share personal information with anyone until you feel comfortable with them. There are a lot of nice people out there but there are a lot of people just looking for an easy target also. It's always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to letting new people into your life.