Two tragic events in April are highlighting the risk of dating online, and experts are weighing in.
A Seattle murder investigation is ongoing following the dismemberment of Ingrid Lyne.
Friends say she went on a date the evening before with a man she met online. He is charged with her murder.
Also in April, a man was charged in Jefferson City, Missouri with kidnapping and raping a 19-year-old woman he met using a dating app.
He allegedly picked her up at her home, called her his “submissive” and took her back to his home where he raped her before driving her back home.
Take precautions
“There’s just some common sense things that people can do in terms of online dating,” said Kansas City based security expert Ron Rugen.
Rugen says step one is screening an individual who you’ve met online.
“You just have to listen a lot. You have to ask questions, compare their answers, maybe ask them a question today and three weeks later ask them that same question,” said Rugen. “Liars aren’t all smart. They can’t remember the lie that they told.”
Step two is to be vague on where you live.
“Don’t give them specificity. Don’t say I live in Waldo or I live in Brookside or I live in Westport. Kansas City, for example, is a good enough geographic thing,” said Rugen.
What to do when you meet
Experts suggest telling friends where you are meeting someone you’ve met online, and who you that person is.
“Meet someone in daylight. Meet them in a public place. Let them leave first. Watch them drive away. Make sure they’re not following you,” said Rugen.
Screening potential interest
Other experts suggest doing homework on a potential date before meeting them.
1. Use social media - Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn can be tools to verify information in dating profile
2. Use Reverse Google Search - It may help you see if the dating profile is fake or not
3. Check public records
There’s an app to help
The Companion App works as a digital companion to warn friends if you are having a potential problem.
You open the app and tell it where you are heading to on a map, then send a request to your friends asking for them to be notified if something goes wrong.
Friends will receive a text message and once they click on the sent link, they can follow your movements and receive a notification when you’ve arrived safely or if you haven’t arrived in a given amount of time.
The gyroscope on your phone works as a trip switch for the app. It can sense if you’ve dropped your phone, start running, and if you have headphones in, can tell if they’ve been yanked out of the headphone jack. If you do not tell the app you are ok, all of those triggers prompt the app to send an alert to your friends, asking them to check in on you.
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
