You may have read this title and thought, “What on earth is a professional online dater?” and the answer to the question is unfortunately rather long and thought provoking. It makes sense to know about these people before you embark on your dating quest, especially if you have never used online dating websites before.

An online dater is someone that uses a dating website, or many dating websites, in order to gain from it in some way or another, without the intentions of getting a happy and healthy relationship out of it. This could fall into many categories:

· -- Guys looking for an “easy lay”

· -- Scams – people, usually of foreign persuasion, looking to get money out of the dating quest.

· -- Married people that are looking for a bit of online flirting, with no intentions of ever meeting you

· -- Kids/young adults simply playing around

One of the easiest things that you can do to avoid falling prey to the professional online daters is to know what you are looking for. There are plenty of tips and tricks that you can use. For example, if someone starts talking to you about money early on in your online relationship, alarm bells should start ringing, especially if they are asking how much money you are making, or savings etc. Money is not something that should matter to someone that you are potentially looking to date, and you wouldn’t talk to a random stranger face to face about your earnings or savings plans, so why would you talk about it with a random stranger that you have come across on the internet. There are plenty of scare stories about Russian scams, and other similar occurrences with online dating.

If a guy or girl that you are talking to refuses to talk about where they live, where they work, children, siblings, etc. there is a good chance that they are either too paranoid to be in a relationship with, or they are hiding something. This something could be a girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife/etc. When you start online dating, you want to get to know the other person to determine whether or not you would want a relationship with them – how can you do this when one or both of you is refusing to talk about the major factors in your lives?

If someone looks too good to be true, there is a good chance that they are. He may seem perfect in every way, but is he or she really the young hottie that you think you are talking to, or is it an average Joe on benefits, just looking for some online fun? Be sensible about your expectations – there is a good chance that you are going to meet the love of your life with online dating, but reserve judgment on the other person until you have at least met them!

In short, if you are in a situation that you feel uncomfortable about in any way, shape or form, get the hell out of there. Online dating is meant to be a fun quest for the perfect partner, and although you probably will have to kiss a lot of frogs before you finally find your prince, (or princess!) you should never feel uncomfortable in the slightest!