|
Finding that special someone is not easy and, depending how you do it, not always safe and secure.
Single Mom Wendy Upton signed on with a Charlotte-based dating service called Christian Single’s Network. Upton hoped the site would help her dating life and help her meet new friends.
“I was married for 10 years and I just don’t know how to do this,” said Upton. “I’ve been on several of the Internet web sites and the thing that was really lacking was a social network of people.”
She paid almost $1,000 for a chance to meet Christian professionals and the opportunity to attend social events.
“It was an entire paycheck basically,” she said.
Upton said the money was hard for her to do without, but she thought in the end it would be worth it. She ended up disappointed. She never went on a single date. She fought to get her money back, but almost a year later, she’s still waiting.
“I asked point blank. I asked for it back they told me they don’t issue refunds,” she said.
She wasn’t the only one who had a problem with Christian Singles Network. They’ve got an unsatisfactory record with Charlotte’s Better Business Bureau. We found no record of the company still being in business. They had no license, no Web site, no phone and they are no longer in their office building off Independence Boulevard.
Upton said other people need to know that just because a dating service says they are going to set you up with certain people, it doesn’t mean they will.
You can lose a lot more than money using a dating service. Things can get dangerous when strangers are involved.
“We have enough sexual assaults around the country without having a new means to conduct it,” said Sergeant Darrell Price with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
“With the onset of the Internet and some of these dating sites it is just increasing the capability for those who wouldn’t ordinarily have that capability,” he said.
Herb Vest started True.com for that reason.
“People need to be safe above all else,” he said.
His site claims to be the only online dating that background checks for felons and married people.
“I can’t guarantee a felon can't get on our site, but I can guarantee they wish they didn’t,” said Vest. “Because we’ll turn them in for wire fraud, we’ll turn them into the parole board and in very egregious cases we’ll sue them.”
In just four years, they’ve turned away thousands of felons and even more people who are married. They’re now pushing for legislation to require all sites to conduct criminal background checks or prominently disclose that they don’t.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with meeting people that way. I just think people need to be very cautious,” said Price.
Here’s some things you can do to protect your own safety.
•Meet the person in a public location for the first several dates
•For the first date, have a friend go with you.
•Get their phone number, name, ask where they work and follow up on that information.
Let the person know you’re taking precautions. If they know you’re checking them out, you’re likely to weed out troublemakers before you meet them. Also, if you are paying a lot of money for a service, make sure it comes with some sort of guarantee.
| 
