{"id":10847,"date":"2015-02-24T10:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T18:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/?p=10847"},"modified":"2022-04-13T12:17:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T20:17:13","slug":"look-up-online-acquaintances-with-spokeo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/look-up-online-acquaintances-with-spokeo\/","title":{"rendered":"Look Up Online Acquaintances with Spokeo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The internet is the new meeting spot, the new town hall, the new singles bar. The digital age offers more opportunities than ever before to meet new people whether they live around the corner, or around the globe and we think that\u2019s terrific! We could all benefit from a little outside influence from time to time, and for some people, meeting new folks online could even lead to a lifelong relationship.<\/p>\n<p>Studies say that more than\u00a0a quarter of <i>all <\/i>marriages now begin\u00a0online \u2013 an amazing feat considering two decades ago the term \u201conline dating\u201d didn\u2019t even exist. Outside the dating sphere there are hundreds of ways to connect with new people on the web: Social media, multi-player games, and chat rooms dedicated to various subjects.<\/p>\n<p>With all opportunities come responsibilities and it\u2019s important to remember that no matter how well you know someone online, you don\u2019t <i>really <\/i>know them until you\u2019ve met. It\u2019s only smart to treat even your closest online contacts as strangers until you\u2019ve vetted their identity to protect yourself and your information from harm\u2019s way. A vast majority of the time online relationships and friendships are exactly what they seem\u2026unfortunately a few bad apples have made it impossible to fully trust an online acquaintance until you know who they are.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is, it\u2019s far easier than you think to check out the backstory of someone you\u2019ve been chatting with! Some sites designed for meeting people (especially some dating sites) do a lot of the legwork for you, checking members\u2019 addresses and identities as best they can before allowing them to converse. But at the end of the day it\u2019s your responsibility to do your due diligence on an online friend, particularly if you\u2019re planning on meeting that person in real life.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s always smart to ask for a first and last name, as well as a general idea of where the person lives, even if that\u2019s just a state or city when you\u2019re ready to take the next step. If someone\u2019s hesitant to give out that information you should move forward in your relationship cautiously \u2013 they may have something to hide or being lying about who they are. Once you\u2019ve established an online rapport the natural next step is to have a phone call so you can hear each other\u2019s voices or better yet, video chat. Again, an acquaintance who refuses to speak on the phone or open a video chat with you may be hoping to conceal an accent or a totally different persona altogether.<\/p>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve got some basic background information <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/\">head to Spokeo\u2019s people search engine<\/a> to find out some basic information about your new friend. Using just a first and last name you should be able to cross-reference the information you\u2019ve been told with the information on public records which can help weed out obvious imposters quickly. In some cases it\u2019s even possible to use just a username to find out detailed information about an online persona\u2019s real identity. If everything matches up and you\u2019re still uneasy, consider running a background check from the comfort of your own home. They\u2019re nearly instant, they\u2019re inexpensive, and they can tell you useful information like criminal history and even marital status.<\/p>\n<p><strong>As with anything else, <b>trust your gut<\/b> when it comes to online relationships. If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is and if someone doesn\u2019t follow through or, worse, asks you for money or highly-personal information it\u2019s probably best to cut your losses. The internet can be an almost magical place to expand your horizons and meet people you\u2019d never have met from your tiny farm town or your coastal refuge. Don\u2019t be afraid to see who\u2019s out there! Spokeo\u2019s on your side.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The internet is the new meeting spot, the new town hall, the new singles bar. The digital age offers more opportunities than ever before to meet new people whether they&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":21898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[616,612,614],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dating-advice-how-to","category-guides","category-safety"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Look Up Online Acquaintances with Spokeo - Spokeo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/look-up-online-acquaintances-with-spokeo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Look Up Online Acquaintances with Spokeo - Spokeo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The internet is the new meeting spot, the new town hall, the new singles bar. 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