Dating in the modern world can thrill you, but it might also terrify you in some instances. With dating apps, you can probably find a much larger pool of candidates than you once could. You no longer need to rely on an acquaintance to set you up, and you can chat with a person before you ever meet with them face to face.
That is a way to start learning about this individual before you encounter them, but how much can a dating app show you about someone? Maybe their depiction of themselves is accurate, or perhaps they’re concealing a lot about their personality, background, and beliefs.
Luckily, ways exist that you can find out more about someone than they tell you. You can do a dating background check. That might be a way to avoid heartache before you fall head over heels for an individual who is not who they first appear.
What is a Dating Background Check?
Researching someone before you meet them is a lot more common than it once was. That is why companies exist that can do a background check on someone.
They will then relate to you all the information they find. You can choose to either move forward and get closer to someone, or you can abandon the relationship if you find out something you don’t like.
You can begin the process by reaching out to a company that does background checks. You can tell them the person’s name who you’re dating or you are considering dating. If you have additional information about that person, that would be ideal.
For instance, if you know their address or where they work, that can get you a much better picture of this person than you would see if you can only provide their first and last name. The dating background check that the site does should scour any social media accounts that belong to this person. It might surprise you how many individuals use social media and don’t bother to make their accounts private.
A dating background check will also probably include a picture of this person’s financial status. It can find out whether this individual has ever declared bankruptcy. It will reveal whether they own property and whether there are any liens against that property.
What Else Can a Dating Background Check Reveal?
You can also find out whether a person ever had a spouse if you pay for a dating background check. It will show their current marital status, so if a person says they divorced their spouse, this will prove whether that’s actually the case or not.
It will show whether they have children. It will show if they have ever been in prison or whether they have any active warrants. It will reveal whether they have ever had a DUI or a DWI.
How Can a Dating Background Check Help You?
If you know someone pretty well when you start dating them, you might not have to do one of these checks. Dating someone you know has that going for it. If you know a person’s background a little bit, you don’t need to start from scratch when figuring out who they are and what’s happening in their life.
If you meet someone through a dating app, though, and you don’t know the first thing about them, that might intrigue you, but you should also keep in mind that this person may try to deceive you. Maybe they’re picking you as a target if they feel like you have money. Perhaps they just want a casual fling, but they’re trying to depict it as something more.
A dating background check cannot tell you everything about someone’s personality or what they want from you, but it will show you some possible red flags if any exist. For instance, if you find out that a person just got out of prison, and they were in there for murder or something equally heinous, you will probably want to reassess the situation before moving forward.
If you see that this person has a lot of debt, that might not be a reason to stop dating them, but you probably want to talk to them about it. Maybe it’s something that the person won’t want to bring up, but you’ll need to discuss it at some point if you’re getting more serious about each other.
How Easy Is It to Do a Dating Background Check?
If you want to do a dating background check, you should know that it is much cheaper and easier than it once was. That is because many companies exist that can do one for you. They all have proprietary software systems that can hunt through the internet for any mention of the person you’re dating or you’re about to date.
You pay the nominal fee, and then you get a full and comprehensive report on that person within a day or so. Sometimes, you get that report back even faster. The software can work so fast that you’ll quickly see anything having to do with that person, and you can figure out how you want to respond to it.
Is Doing This Worth It?
Every person has to make up their own mind about whether to do one of these background checks when they start dating someone. If you don’t feel like you should invade this person’s privacy, you may choose not to take this action.
However, if you don’t, you won’t know much about this individual, especially if you just met them online, and you don’t know the first thing about their life. Maybe they’re very open and honest from the moment you meet them, but perhaps they’re trying to con you.
In the modern age, it’s best not to take any chances. Maybe you’re invading this person’s privacy a little, but it’s worth it to find out whether they don’t have something in their background that you don’t like.
By Susan Melony