Christian Dating Service Online - Background Check Your Date

Ashley Campbell was twice betrayed by men she met dating online. Both turned out to be married. So she started doing background checks on her dates. Now, the 33-year-old from Laurel, Md., is engaged to a man she met online, but even he had to undergo record checks. Meet Christian Singles Today 

"He wasn't happy" about doing it, Campbell said of her fiance. But eventually he turned over his Social Security number.

In the past ten years, Christian dating services and other online dating services such as Yahoo Personals, Match.com and eHarmony helped make online dating mainstream for 10 million current daters, but safety is an issue. But some seasoned veterans say the thrill of using the Internet's power to find soul mates has given way to caution. Singles now draw on a growing arsenal of security and research tools - from services that verify identity and background to companies that provide temporary phone numbers as a barrier to stalkers. There are sites that allow scorned lovers to warn others away from their bad dates.

The growth of the dating-security industry is part of the evolution of the Internet, where every powerful tool such as online banking or e-mail comes with a dark side of data theft and spam messages. MySpace, which started as a way for kids to exchange likes and dislikes, recently set up checks against sex-offender registries. By comparison, dating websites have been slow to adopt safety-filtering measures; few dating sites conduct their own background checks on members and only one seeks to verify marital status.

Thirty-one percent of American adults say they know someone who has used a dating service, and nearly 60 percent of Internet users said they think a lot of online daters lie about their marital status, according to Pew Internet & American Life Project study last year.

One dating service is the only major Web firm that conducts criminal and marital background checks on all of its members - a practice that keeps 2 percent of applicants from joining because they are convicted felons. Three percent flunk because they are married, the company said.

The company sued a felon who slipped through the background-check process. The chief executive said he won't rule out suing a married person who gets onto the site, either.

"It's emotional harm. When you think of it, if you date someone ... you fall in love with them and find out they're married, it's heartbreaking," Vest said.

One 56-year-old Texas woman discovered how dangerous it can be to try to navigate online dating without a security filter. She dated a man she met on Yahoo Personals for eight months before a simple Google search revealed he was convicted of murder and insurance fraud.

"It was really very scary," said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. "It's very important to do a background check whenever you go out with someone, even if you have to pay" for it, she said. "You really cannot be too safe."

But marketing security and screening features on dating sites can cut both ways for the business.

"No dating service wants to admit there's bad people on their site," said Jim Miller, a consultant to the online dating industry. Offering screening or other security add-ons might suggest to users, " 'you better pay this or you could get raped or dismembered,' " he said, which "is not an inviting come-on for new members."

Some daters turn to a College Park, Md. firm, which verifies someone's age, identity and address - a service it began offering free last week, figuring that will draw customers willing to pay an additional $9.95 for criminal checks. Several other background-check firms, which built their businesses doing criminal checks for employers, are increasingly finding customers interested in researching their dates.

There are also other companies that offer free temporary phone numbers for eBay customers and dating singles who, at least initially, might want to keep their real phone numbers to themselves. 

In any event no matter what Christian Dating Service  you use, you might want to consider a background check if you find someone you might get serious about.  One good reason would be because you don't know if the person is Christian or not or telling the truth.