Online dating: Remember safety begins at home

Follow these tips to stay safe when dating online:

• Consider using a different email address to your usual one when going on to online dating sites.

• Stay on the site for conversation until you feel comfortable moving to other ways of conversing, such as instant messaging, email, phone calls or actual meets. Scammers will attempt to get you away from the site very quickly. Online dating sites have their own security measures in place to reduce the risk of scammers.

• Never share any personal information such as your date of birth, address, phone number, work location or full name until you are completely happy. Trust your instincts, if someone seems too good to be true they probably are. If someone makes you feel uncomfortable, block them and report them - dating sites always have a reporting facility.

• When meeting up make sure you have seen a picture of them. Even take someone with you just until you are happy with the meet and they can leave or give the location, time and details of the person you are meeting to someone you trust and check in with them.

• Arrange to meet in daylight if possible and at a busy public place.

• If you meet in a bar or restaurant and you are not happy, speak with a member of staff and ask them to call you a cab or show you out a safe way. The safety initiative ‘Ask for Angela’ is being rolled out to bars, clubs and other licensed businesses across the country. People who feel unsafe, vulnerable or threatened can discreetly seek help by approaching venue staff and asking them for ‘Angela’. This code-phrase will indicate to staff that they require help with their situation and a trained member of staff will then look to support and assist them. This might be through reuniting them with a friend, seeing them into a taxi, or by calling venue security and/or the police.

• For more information on staying safe visit the Suzy Lamplugh website HERE.