Welcome To Best Free Dating Sites

What You'll Find…

The goal of Best Free Dating Sites is to educate readers about online dating safety so that they can have a better and risk-free experience. To achieve that goal we give our readers guidelines for examining a free dating website, techniques to use when trying to discern if their blind date is genuine or not, and help with selecting among the best free dating sites available today. Finally, we also compile reviews and collect the latest coupons and deals that are offered from a number of free online dating sites for our readers to use. Enjoy!

Online Daters Beware: The Fake Dating Profile

For all of you online daters out there, you know the quest for love can be a bit trying sometimes.  Now factor in that there are actually fake profiles on dating websites and you might be ready to cancel your membership.  But before you compose a strongly worded email to Match.com, be sure to read the following info on fake dating profiles so you know what they are and how to spot them.

Why are there fakes?  You may come across a faux dating profile for a number of reasons.  For the most part, these “people” who create fake singles do it to solicit business, money, or just for the mere, twisted sake of hurting others.

• Online dating sites.  The business of online dating is just that:  business.  And it’s a big one.  With the oversaturated amount of online dating services vying for the money of singles looking for love, sometimes these companies do whatever it takes to recruit and maintain members who will dish out the dough.  A lot of smaller dating sites don’t have the big advertising bucks that the large ones do, so many of them unscrupulously create fake profiles.  In doing this they are able to populate their community so that it is overflowing with hot singles, luring you to be a part of their site.

Think about this:  Would you want to join a dating site that didn’t have a large selection of singles for you to browse through?  Wouldn’t you rather be a part of one that had thousands upon thousands?  You most likely answered yes to the latter.  That’s how the dating sites see it too.

• Financial scammers.  Another far more serious reason fake profiles exist is to attract the attention of people who might be vulnerable to an attack by an online scammer.  These con artists will sign up to dating sites, create fake profiles complete with fake pictures and fake information to develop relationships and then prey upon their victims vulnerabilities—all to get a hold of their wallets.
• Spammers.  Spammers use dating sites to advertise their products or services.  Many companies like escort services or porn sites will misuse online dating services to gain more customers—they create fake profiles with very attractive people with the hopes of attracting real online daters who will in turn give the companies their business.

How to spot a fake.  Now that you know the reasons for fake profiles, check out what you can do to avoid them:

• Be aware of the dating service.  While fake profiles can exist on any website, the chances of you stumbling upon them on a major dating site that you pay to use are less likely than when you sign up with a new, less popular or free dating site. 
• Too good to be true.  When checking out cyber singles, try not to get too excited when you find someone with a picture that looks like it should be a centerfold shot.  Of course there are plenty of attractive men and women on dating sties, but there’s a good chance that you could find that same picture if you were just to search Google images of “hot girl.”  Many fake profiles are set up with pictures of models or other genetically gifted freaks in order to attract you to the services of the particular site you’re using—hey, we’d all like to join a dating site that’s chalk full of supermodels! 
• Not sufficient info.  Does the profile sound like it was written by some sort of online dating robot?  If you find a profile that doesn’t have enough information on their bio, it doesn’t mean that it is fake, but there’s the chance that it could be.  Even if it’s real, it is really worth your time to pursue someone who didn’t make the effort in the simple step of setting up an online dating profile?  Next! 
• Advertisements.  Some companies who are trying to sell their product or service will create a fake profile on a dating service.  Let’s say if the company is selling some sort of diet pill they may post a profile picture of a very fit individual who talks a lot about the specific pills and products they use to maintain such a physique.  Red flag—this “person” may have motives other than dating. 
• Catches.  Some phony internet profiles can be spotted if you recognize their catch.  This is when companies or people create fake dating profiles with a catch being that you have to visit a certain website (where they are selling a product or service) to carry on conversation with them…or it can even be blatant fraud where they are asking you for money or personal information—whatever you do, don’t fall for this!
• Expiring membership.  Potential matches you’re in communication with before actually joining a dating site might tell you that their profile will be expiring soon and that you will have to chat with them outside of the site.  Most likely this is a dating site that has created their own fake single to capture your business—once they have you baited and reeled in, then the profile disappears.

Be Educated, Be Protected… Understanding and Avoiding Romance Scams

The vast majority of people using online dating sites are just like you; honest and decent souls looking for love. However, there are also those out there who don’t have the right intentions. And I’m not just talking about those creeps sitting on their computers with a spouse and kids in the next room. Recently, many online daters have fallen victim to romance scams. Great news, right? Now not only do you have to watch out for your precious, fragile heart, but you have to watch out for your wallet as well.

Anatomy of a Romance Scam:
So you may be wondering, “What exactly is a romance scam?” This lovely little treat is a con involving false romantic communication with a victim, usually via the medium of online dating sites. Through claims of “undying love and devotion” with flowers and poetry, the orchestrators of these scams gain their victim’s affection and seek out their vulnerable qualities; then they strike. Using tales of family tragedies, medical problems, and other hardships, the schemers will ask their victims to send money to help them in their time of financial crisis. The kind of fraud typically involved with a romance scam includes access to the victim’s money, bank accounts, credit cards, passports, email accounts, and other personal identification or financial information. The con artists responsible for these acts target individuals through online dating websites, usually as a part of a wider money laundering operation.

Profile of a Real-Life Victim:
Take online-dater Laura for example. Laura was fresh off the tails of a nasty divorce and with some encouragement from her friends and in an attempt to try her luck on the web, she joined a popular online dating site. In her quest for cyber love, Laura happened to strike up a connection with a man with devastating good looks (according to the picture on his online dating profile) and they quickly began exchanging emails. Before long, Laura was swept off her feet by this man and his messages professing his love and promising her the world….if only he could just get to her. You see, this dreamboat claimed to be a US citizen who was stuck overseas working on a new business venture in Nigeria. With his smooth-talking ways and charm (all scripted material), this man explained that he needed to tie up a few loose ends with his business in order to travel back home. So Laura adhered to his request for funds and transferred $3,000 into her online lover’s bank account. She then chilled champagne, filled every room with roses and waited for her man to arrive at her doorstep. This may come as a shock, but the guy never showed.

Unfortunately, these romance scams are happening more and more frequently. It may seem like you are on your way to a new romance, but if you experience any of the signs or strange behavior that Laura did, proceed with caution. When it comes to online dating, you should never be required to give money to someone. If that should happen, cut off all communication and report the scammer to the dating website; they will aggressively take action. Remember that when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Signs to Watch Out For:
Are you involved in a potential romance scam? If a scammer is trying to pull a fast one over on you, here are some common factors in which to look for:

• You’ve never met face to face
• Correspondent’s profile picture looks like a model out of a magazine
• Love is professed at warp speed
• You receive flowers and other gifts right away
• Correspondent uses atrocious spelling and grammar that does not align with their alleged education level or career
• Correspondent claim to be from the US but is overseas working, often times in Nigeria
• You are asked to give this person money for issues surrounding family emergencies, medical problems, business affairs, etc.
• Correspondent continually asks for money, but never visits

7 Public Online Databases & Techniques to Make Sure Your Blind Date Isn’t A Creep

Meeting someone for the first time is nerve wracking enough. One way to make it a little easier on yourself is to conduct your own background check before you even meet. Is this judgmental? Maybe, but in this day and age, you’re entitled to get a few pointers on who this person is and where they come from before committing to a date. Remember should you find things out about a person and still choose to go on a date with him or her, refrain from bringing up that you were a detective in a former life. This may just flip the tables and make you look like the weird one.

1. Google Hey, it’s basic, but it works and it’s free. There’s no doubt that your first public database for finding info on your blind date is Google. Everyone is Googl-ing people they know (or those they don’t know), so feel free to Google your companion’s name and go to town finding their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Remember that some names are common, so just because you find a person’s profile doesn’t exactly mean it’s the person you’re looking for. Be careful when using Google because you may end finding more than you planned, especially when it comes to tags on Facebook.
2. ZabaSearch This public database allows you to search people by name and phone number. If you start chatting with someone online and that conversation moves to the phone, ZabaSearch will come in handy to see who the person on the other end of the line truly is. It will also give you insight on whether this person uses a phone connected to their parents or worse, their spouse. The bulk of the info on this site is free, but verifying email addresses does require a small fee.
3. Switchboard If you have a person’s first and last name, you can use Switchboard to find their phone number. After having their phone number, you can go to other public databases that show information based on a phone number. In some cases, you can find a person’s address, as well as the residential history of that person based on a phone number. This may be beneficial when getting to know a blind date to make sure the history they’re telling you adds up with the facts.
4. ZoomInfo ZoomInfo is a paid service, but it does the bulk of the work for you. Unlike using Google, which can sometimes bring back a lot of information you don’t need or information that’s irrelevant, ZoomInfo brings in people-related data only. This is helpful for those who are cramped for time or aren’t pros when it comes to search engines.
5. LinkedIn Most professionals use LinkedIn to have some control over their online persona. In a world where many people can share the same name, this means you don’t want a potential employer to mix you up with another person downing a 40 on pictures posted on Facebook. To gain control of their online image, many professionals create a LinkedIn profile, stating their education and employment history. If you’ve been chatting with someone for awhile and they’re presenting themself as a high-powered professional with an impressive academic career, this should be your first stop to see if it’s true. While information on LinkedIn isn’t necessarily official, those who are on it have typically done so to network for work, not snag a date.
6. Yahoo! People Search We love this public data base because it allows for email searches too. Depending on how you meet your blind date, searching his or her email address may come in handy. If you find out the person has opened the email account under a different name, it could be a sign this person is attached and probably not worth your time. You can also search people by name, address or phone number, should you have any of that information.
7. Family Watch Dog A simple search of a name tells you if your potential date is a registered sex offender. Because of parole officers, the vast majority of sex offenders must register their names. As long as they are a registered sex offender in your state and have not taken on a new name or persona (in which case, you have bigger fish to fry), the person’s name and address will pull up what he or she was convicted of and how much time they served.

No matter how or where you meet your blind date, never assume anything. Just because you’re being introduce by a co-worker or on a Christian dating site doesn’t guarantee the person is an upstanding citizen. Keep an open mind when going on this hunt. After all, you don’t want to jump to any conclusions about a person, but you also want to protect yourself. If the idea of dating someone with a misdemeanor from parking tickets makes your stomach flip, you may be better off meeting someone the old-fashioned way (and even then, you can’t be sure he or she is of impeccable moral fiber).