Tales From the Front by Cheryl Lavin

It seems frequent contributor Harvey isn't the only Super Snooper. Today we hear from two more readers with advice on how to check out a potential date on the Internet.

Laura: The starting point for information should be the user name. For instance, if you've been chatting with who_loves_ya_babe2009, type that exactly in the Google (or other search engine) search space. If the email address they use is loves_to_party1999@usernet.com, then type everything before @ into the search engine.

This is how I got eight pages of results on my ex-husband, including all the sex clubs he belonged to! If I'd only known sooner, like five years!

Margarita: For a fee, you can search a name on a service like Intellius. You can buy a subscription or just get a temporary pass. It will give you all kinds of public records information without having to go to any courthouses or even know the towns they've lived in as a starting point. It will list other people they've lived with, such as family and spouses, and basically give you any names they've ever listed on a form.

If they have a landline and it's not an unlisted number, look in the White Pages online to get their address and then go to Zillow. Look up their address and see what their house looks like. You can judge if they're representing their lifestyle correctly to you. Zillow will also give you the last price paid for the property, the property taxes, and some other info you might find interesting.

Definitely Google their name with "Facebook" in the query to see if they have an online account. If they haven't set the privacy features not to show it, sometimes the photo they use will give you valuable information.

If you search them from within Facebook, you might see more than you did from Google, depending on their settings, but first you have to be a Facebook member.

If you're Googling their name, mix it up with their middle initial or their shortened name and spend some time sifting through more than just the first few hits.

If the person is listed on professional rating sites, there may be client-patient comments on them. Sure some will be fawning and some will be from crackpots, but you may see a pattern of more of one than the other.

The downside to all of this is that the person you're investigating might be a great person, and now you have to not bring up the stuff you found as you go forward with the relationship. Let's face it, what you dig up is stuff they, for whatever reason, didn't tell you themselves, and nobody wants to think they're with a creepy stalker.

And for gosh sakes, don't keep the information on your computer where they might find it someday by accident! Clear your search history, and don't save links.

Cooper: The column on snooping presented a hilarious contradiction. I thought people used online dating services because they didn't have the time to go out and meet people.

But they have to time to spend countless hours online searching databases and search engines for info on their potential dates?

(It doesn't have to take countless hours, and it could save years of heart ache. See Laura's comments at the top of the column.)

Have you investigated someone online? What did you find out? Send your tale, along with your questions and problems to cheryllavin@aol.com. You can visit her blog at www.talesfromthefront.com. To find out more about Cheryl Lavin, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.

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