I used to be an avid internet dater. In those days of surfing profiles, I noticed many users put their last name in their screenname. In this post I am going to tell you why using a last name is a dangerous mistake, on the part of the user who uses their last name.

What you've heard is true, some people just lead a very boring lifestyle. People with a boring life generally have trouble in the world of romance. As you know, boring people troll the internet looking for romance, which draws them to internet dating sites. It is on these dating sites where boring people can become dangerous to other users.

Infactuation is a common trend amongst the desperate romantic who exists on the internet. What happens is these people see a seemingly common profile they like. They will latch on to it because they feel a connection to that person. Over time, the deperate romantic will become more interested in the targeted user. It's at this point, the desperate romantic will start using the free internet tools to find out more about the targeted users lifestyle.

Thanks to the internet we can find a lot of information on a specific person. The ring of Information websites is endless on the net. There are high school reunion websites to find out where someone went to high school. White pages is tabbed on every major website, this is a good place to find a phone number and match someone's last name to their first name. Also, there are public record websites on every corner of the internet, these sites will match someones name to their age for free. Finally, Google can find any missed bits of information on someone. Finding someone's contact information on the internet is free, easy, and quick.

Fortunately, there are steps that can be taken to prevent being the apple of a unwanted eye.

* The very first step is to not use you last name in your screenname. You shouldn't even use a variation between your last name and another word. You're going to have to create a unique screenname. So be creative!

* Don't use any nouns! Pronouns are the King of the deck! You don't need to list the college or high school you attended. You should never use a noun stating which company employs you. If you play sports don't list your respected team. This means don't use a picture of yourself in uniform, a practice picture will suffice in your profile. The same should go for someone who has all their profile pics taken at the same location.

* Use caution when stating local destinations of your interest. Someone from the net could follow you to a public spot. No one likes having a stalker problem.

* Don't allow youself to be fooled because you have low self esteem. As I mentioned above, there could be something about you that someone likes. On the internet, you're just as much of a target as Model Mary.

* Take breaks from internet dating after your subscription expires. This will give your fan time to forget about you and move on to the next profile. Also, this cures internet dating burnout.

* Carefully read and organize your emails. If you've made contact with a fan he/she won't be able to wait with the reply back to you. Look for strange comments within your received emails like, " You haven't logged in for 3 weeks.".

* Don't give anyone any contact information, untill you've had time to make a judgement on them...

* Know what kind of person you're trying to avoid. Generally, a desperate romantic has a intelligence quota of 120 or better. So, they are pretty good at putting two and two together to form one. Typically, these people have lower self esteem.

Most of the time these people won't bother to contact you but it's still creppy to know someone could find you. The truth is, this wouldn't be a problem if people could be more positive and feel better about themselves.