Safety by covering/safecall

You're going to meet someone you don't know. In the first place it's good to have found somebody who could be a potential partner. But you won't really know a person, no matter how many mails have been sent or how many phone conversations you’ve had.

In real life, you cannot really read people’s minds, but we all have some general knowledge as far as human behaviour and nature is concerned and someone’s actions will help you to assess his character. Online you can neither read people’s minds nor are deductions based on behaviour reliable as playing a role and therefore faking for whatever reason is a lot easier in the virtual world.

Thus, you should at least be cautious and meet in public. Keep the option to end the date, if it does not go as desired, and let somebody cover you.

To "cover" means that a confidant, a person you trust, is observing the date in the background. Either this person is accompanying you and is seated so that he can see you, or you are covered via mobile phone. Tell your date that you will be covered. Every reasonable person should appreciate this, and everyone reacting offended should arouse your mistrust.

A good way to cover is via mobile phone. Before the date, agree on a time when to call the person who covers you. It's clever to agree on some code words: On the one hand, choose two options to signal it is a pleasant date like "See you soon" at the end of the call and/or "pizza". Such a word has to be included subtly in the call like "You're not eating pizza again, are you?" - and on the other hand, choose two options to signal it is an unpleasant date which you want to cancel for example "Take care" at the end and/or "lasagna" instead of "pizza".

The advantage is that your date doesn't know the code words and will not even realize that you're transmitting a hidden message. Even in a dangerous situation you can call rescue. If you do not call, the covering person should call you. If he doesn't get an answer, he should initiate help.

So keep in mind: You are being covered, so remember calling the covering person as agreed, no matter how much you enjoy your date at that moment. The person covering should also be informed where and who you are meeting. In any case, you should have something to identify your date. Either you know his address (then you should also compare it to his ID during the date) or you have his landline phone number (you should try it at least once) - with this you're relatively safe. Also, his car's license plate number or a mobile phone number are not that safe but at least sufficient.

Cover Form for download

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