Online Dating Sites for a Nubbie

[IMessedUp1]

Hi Everyone,
I was reading the posts of the last several weeks (lots of good info) and would like some input from all of you. I took two years of Spanish in college and have worked in the past in environments where everyone spoke Spanish, but it has been a decade or so since I was emmersed in Latin culture. I'd like to start using a dating site in Colombia (Medellin and Barranquilla) to communicate with local Colombianas. I figure it will be about one year till I can head down to SA and want to get up to speed with the Language. Can you guys suggest a good dating site? I'd like to avoid any scam sites, from what I can tell, it looks like a number of these agencies are not on the up and up. Thanks much in advance!
Cheers,
Arnold

[Chris F]

I really cannot comment about the best dating sites to use but I will say that all of them will have some scammers. It is your job to weed out the bad girls from the sincere ones.
In addition, if your not planning to travel for at least one year you may want to wait to get on these sites a few months before you go on your trip. Most women are not going to wait for one year for you to come down when they have other guys they are writing to who will visit them a lot sooner than that.
Good Luck!!
 

[jselva]

Could someone list some other forums like this one? or some solid dating sites?

[JasonA]

Imessedup1-  agree with 100% with what Chris F said
 
I would recommend latinamericancupid.com.  Most of the profiles on LAC were legit.  Beware the profiles that have only 1 or 2 professional quality photos. Prepare to be bombarded there. 
 
I would not recommend amigos.com.

[IMessedUp1]

Thanks a bunch guys for the info. I'm a bit surprised by several things though, I don't expect any woman to wait for me & I have seen profiles somewhere (some dating site) that included women looking for English speaking men and women that they could practice English with. I may not get much of a response at this point, but that's OK, I can change my status as I get closer to heading to SA.

Also, when I said that some of the things I have seen seemed a bit sketchy, I was referring to the sites themselves. Aren't there a bunch of sites that contain profiles of women that have never signed up and charge for "translation services" (among other things) for these fictitious women (sending back essentially form letters to the US clients)?

There's no substitute for actually being on the ground in another country to get your head around the culture, but that will have to wait for a while. Thanks again for your insights, I appreciate your time!
Hasta,
Arnold

[fathertime]

Hi Everyone,
I was reading the posts of the last several weeks (lots of good info) and would like some input from all of you. I took two years of Spanish in college and have worked in the past in environments where everyone spoke Spanish, but it has been a decade or so since I was emmersed in Latin culture. I'd like to start using a dating site in Colombia (Medellin and Barranquilla) to communicate with local Colombianas. I figure it will be about one year till I can head down to SA and want to get up to speed with the Language. Can you guys suggest a good dating site? I'd like to avoid any scam sites, from what I can tell, it looks like a number of these agencies are not on the up and up. Thanks much in advance!
Cheers,
Arnold

yeah a 1 year out is a long long time, but you can start looking at least, maybe you will get lucky and if you do, who knows maybe something will change and you can get out there sooner.    one of the best things you can do right now, is keep brushing up on spanish, so when you do hit the ground you can do it running! 
good luck,
fathertime!

[mudd]

Hi Everyone,I was reading the posts of the last several weeks (lots of good info) and would like some input from all of you. I took two years of Spanish in college and have worked in the past in environments where everyone spoke Spanish, but it has been a decade or so since I was emmersed in Latin culture. I'd like to start using a dating site in Colombia (Medellin and Barranquilla) to communicate with local Colombianas. I figure it will be about one year till I can head down to SA and want to get up to speed with the Language. Can you guys suggest a good dating site? I'd like to avoid any scam sites, from what I can tell, it looks like a number of these agencies are not on the up and up. Thanks much in advance!Cheers,

facebook is  a good place also,  get some latin contacts from SA and start talking. at least you will know they dont have an agenda like LAC  or CC or Amigos ect

[IMessedUp1]

Hi Mudd,
Good call, I had thought about that as well. I don't have a facebook page - I guess I'll have to get one set up. And Father Time, I hope you're right!
Cheers,
Rick

[JasonA]

Are Latinas open to the 'Facebook Creeper'? 

[htown]

Mudd is this something you've actually done?  How do you do it?  You just contact random chicks on facebook?

[Alabamaboy!]

Tagged.com

[IMessedUp1]

Hey Alabamaboy,
I have never heard of Tagged, can you believe it?? I just looked them up and they're the third largest social media site on the web. Thanks for the info, I'll definitely create a profile on the site and start meeting Colombianas (y Colombianos tambien). I think who ever said that interacting with beautiful women will be plenty of modevation to study Spanish was correct.
Hasta,
Arnold

[mudd]

Mudd is this something you've actually done?  How do you do it?  You just contact random chicks on facebook?

yep and 90% of the time, they add me to their friends list and i can communicate with them.


i hated the concept of facebook, " look at me, see what  i am doing"  going here, going there, basically is a bragging place to show people and friends where your  doing, going to restaurants, vacations ect, but once you figure out how to use  it to your advantage, its a great place to find quality women. i have about 250 girls on mine and you can learn a lot from ther facebook page that you will never learn from latin cupid, colombian cupid ect.


just a point, met a girl a while ago, got her facebook in a round about way, started digging around, turned out she has a novio. would have never figured it out if i didnt have her on facebook.

[A_Thomas]

yep and 90% of the time, they add me to their friends list and i can communicate with them.


i hated the concept of facebook, " look at me, see what  i am doing"  going here, going there, basically is a bragging place to show people and friends where your  doing, going to restaurants, vacations ect, but once you figure out how to use  it to your advantage, its a great place to find quality women. i have about 250 girls on mine and you can learn a lot from ther facebook page that you will never learn from latin cupid, colombian cupid ect.


just a point, met a girl a while ago, got her facebook in a round about way, started digging around, turned out she has a novio. would have never figured it out if i didnt have her on facebook.

 I have never used Facebook to search for women really. Got any tips or tricks for doing so? I've been on FB for quite a while.
 

[IMessedUp1]

Hi Everyone,
I've been "gone" for several weeks. Since I posted this query, I've created several accounts on dating sites and one on Tagged.com. There have been a number of comments made about scams and I stated that I was most worired about the sites themselves. When I first googled Tagged.com, the first articles I saw were about the suit the State of New York filed against the company. They had committed public fraud, and paid a $2.5 million fine. What really got there attention (IMO) was the fact that a number of other states were getting ready to file a similar law suit, or file criminal charges. Tagged.com put out a statement saying that they were changing their business practices - but I was still skeptical.

So, I set up an account, but didn't create a profile. I just wanted to look around and see if the site itself was OK as a platform - that is to say safe. I'm developing a web application myself, and I can quickly figure out how a site can make use of your interactions and profit from it. And the easier it is to commit a crime, the more likely the crime becomes - and with web apps, it's very easy to commit crimes.

After several weeks of using the site, I see no problems with it. And now the comments made by the folks here on this forum are making a lot more sense to me. Apparently, there are a lot of "women" on these sites that aim to scam men like us (I read somewhere that 50% of the time you're chatting with a women on a sit, it's actually a guy you're talking to). About 90% of the communications I receive are from "women" in the sex trade. I like sex plenty, but I don't have time for women that would not make good girlfriends or wives. I can put up with the distractions if I meet women that I would like to date when I get to Colombia, so it's all good.

Still the site has some very odd features and in some ways it is hard to use, they set up things like the "Meet Me" function is such a way that it's a game (instead of a tool). I would like some input about this site. Does anyone know of a resource for getting the most out of Tagged.com and the etiquette for its use? Thanks so much for you advice!
Cheers,
Rick