There’s no denying it: online dating is one of the fastest-growing ways to meet someone. You’ve likely encountered someone online that you’d like to meet in person.
While it can be exciting to meet someone new in this way, there is a question you should consider before you arrange a face-to-face meeting. How do you know if the guy you met online is genuine?
Like real life, the Internet allows you to meet real people. But it also makes it easier for scam artists and other shady characters to prey on you. If you want to protect yourself, here are some tips to help you know if the guy you have met online is real or not.
Why would you want to look up a guy you met online?
I have to admit. I don’t think it’s necessary to look a guy up online when you start chatting with a guy on a dating site. What’s the point in researching a man you’re not sure a relationship will develop?
But, if you’ve been talking with a guy, you can see the potential to be your man. And you get a gut feeling something isn’t right about him. Or if the guy is deceptive with you about his past. It’s time to get suspicious.
It’s a good idea to perform a thorough background check on him. The guy you’re communicating with online may not be authentic. People will do a lot to hide their identity online.
The guy could be hiding a criminal past and trying to get access to your financial information. Or they’re catfishing, trying to trick you into an emotional, romantic relationship.
But there are ways to find out if the guy you met online is real.
Take a closer look at the guy’s online dating profile.
Dating is hard, but it’s even harder when you don’t know if the guy you met online is real. Taking a close look at the guy’s dating profile pictures can tell you a lot about them, especially if they’re the type to use deceptive photos.
Someone that isn’t real will have all professional photos in their dating profile. If a man sends you a message and he looks like a million bucks in all his pictures, chances are he isn’t real.
An actual person’s profile pictures aren’t all professional photographs. Real people don’t look like models in all their pictures. When a genuine person takes a picture, the lighting and the angle of the shot aren’t perfect.
A real man will have a lot of variety in the pictures he posts to his dating profile. He will have a picture of himself with friends and family members. A photo of himself on vacation if he is into traveling. And a picture of himself doing an activity.
If you want to know if the guy you met online is realistic, look for variety and quality in his profile pictures. If his shots aren’t all professional looking and there is a lot of variety to his photographs, the man is real.
Google the guy
Googling is usually the first thing we all do when we’re meeting someone new. Google is a great and helpful tool, but it is also a fantastic source of information about people.
Whether you are looking to find out information about the cause of your heartburn or trying to see if that guy who is messaging you online is actual, Google can help.
If you have the guy’s name, then look him up on Google. There’s a lot of information you can find out about a person on google. You can see if they’re on other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Suppose the guy has a common name like John Smith. Yet you know some other details about the person, like where he lives. Enter the name and where he lives into google enclosed in quotation marks. For instance, “John Smith Detroit.”
Google will provide you with public records for the person you googled. If you know the last know address of the person, you can use it to verify if the guy you met online is real.
Do a Google Image Search – a Guy with bad intention online won’t use a real photo
Another great way to find out if the guy you met online is real or not is by reverse searching his profile images. If a guy is catfishing you, google images will return all the other places the image shows up.
If the image shows up on all his social media profiles, then the guy is likely authentic. But if his profile image shows up in a stranger’s Facebook profile, your online crush is a fake.
Here’s how to do a reverse image search:
Copy the profile picture to your computer
- Go to images.google.com
- Click on the camera icon to upload the saved profile picture.
- The results will show at the bottom of the page. You can either click through the image results to see where the image shows up elsewhere online. Or you can explore the “similar images” section.
You can also conduct a similar image search from your phone by using the Google Lens app.
Do a public records search to determine if an online man is real.
An extra option is to conduct a public records search. Public records are information recorded by governments and made public for all citizens.
By conducting a public records search, you will see if the guy owns a home and has a criminal history. You’ll know his marital status, the names of relatives, and other information. A public records search is all helpful information to determine if he is real or not.
There are several services you can use to conduct these searches. Most if not all charge a fee for this service.
The Takeaway
The end goal for most women. Who are dipping their toes into online dating for the first time is to find someone genuine. Internet dating makes it hard to know with certainty whether the guy you are messaging is real.
No woman wants to look foolish by a smooth-talking Casanova. Although, I do not believe women should background check every man. There are times when a woman should. For example, when you get a gut feeling, a man is deceptive.
If you follow some of the advice in this article, you will know for sure that the guy on the other end of the computer is authentic.
