The internet is the place to be when it comes to dating these days. However, there are a certain amount of perils involved, and you want to make sure that you do your homework before you meet anyone offline. You also want to get that meeting out of the way as soon as possible too. Otherwise, you may find out you are wasting your time.
The first guy I ever met online that I wanted to meet offline was a Navy SEAL, or at least he said he was a Navy SEAL. He sent me his picture, and of coure he was hot! The problem is that I had seen the same photo on a SEAL site, and it was listed as someone else. I got suspicious, and started checking into him. I alerted the SEAL community only to have them turn on me. (I too am a veteran, but I was US Army)
One person did check into it. He was a Navy commander who ran the board. This man was living in the commander's home. This guy was dating the commander's daughter, except this guy was already married. The man was impersonating a Navy SEAL who had died after shooting his girlfriend, having a gun battle with the police, and then turning the gun on himself. The impersonator had five warrants out for his arrest. Although this story is extreme, it's what can happen when you meet people online, so choose wisely and choose well.
What I learned from the experience was to get to know the person. Although expectations will be higher the longer you wait to meet, the longer you take to get to know the person, the more information you will have to go on when you finally do make up your mind about the person. The most important thing to remember here is to go slowly. Take your time even though it can be much harder to get to know a person in chat than it is offline. You don't have tools tone of voice, or facial expressions, so you will definitely have to work on your communications skills.
Another important point is don't give out too much personal information up front. The logical next step may be to talk on the phone, but don't give out this information too soon. Make sure you have some trust for the person first.
One way to help you with this is social sites because they have profiles. The less information a person shares, usually the less forthcoming he/she is. Also, if the person has a weird name on the profile, that can be a tip off that the person is less than forthcoming or hiding.
On the upside, social sites make it easier to get to know other people. You can check other social sites to learn more about the person. Sometimes you will find information on one social site you didn't find on another. Background checks are another resource, but to be honest, if you have to run a background check on someone, it's probably a good idea to run.
Dating sites may seem like a good place to find a date, but that's not necessarily true either. I once read that about 35 percent of people on dating sites are already married. Do you really want someone who is looking for his/her next mate without dealing with all that baggage?
Once you consider all these things, then you can make an informed choice about whether or not to meet that person. If he/she has been honest with you, and you have been honest, the chances of things working out definitely increase. There are no guarantees in life, but you can definitely up your chances of finding someone online worth meeting simply by making good choices.
Good luck with that first meeting! There are so many wonderful people out there too, and it will allow you to expand your horizons, as well as increase your experience. You'll find what you are looking for, whether it's online or offline.