Dating sites have become rife with scammers, con artists, and cheaters. Married people sometimes pretend to be single, assuring prospective intimate partners of their honest intentions. To avoid getting caught, they use a second mobile number or a secret email address. Your best defense is to recognize the most common signs indicating that someone’s already spoken for. Once you do, you can proceed to look for online marriage records to confirm or refute your suspicions.
Signs They may be Married
When you’re making plans to meet in person with someone you have met online, you might observe unusual patterns. For example, the person never wants to meet spontaneously or is never available on the weekend. Your only chance of a getaway is when they’re on a business trip. Also, they may never be available after 6 pm. These patterns indicate they may be busy doing things with their spouse and kids at these times.
If this person pays for everything in cash, this could be another sign they are married. They might be doing it because they don’t want their spouse to notice the charges on bank or credit card statements. Most people use credit or debit cards to pay for everyday items. Therefore, if this person uses cash exclusively to pay for things they purchase on your dates, this could be an important red flag.
How to Find Out for Sure
You can start your research with a social media search. Social networks can help you find out whether someone is married. If you already have them on your Facebook, you should not trust the relationship status displayed on their profile. Instead, you should look for photos with someone who might look like their significant other. If they have recent photos with someone who looks like their partner, this could mean they’re still involved with that person.
Just like photos can be a sign, so can the absence thereof. As such, you should be wary of notably bare profiles without or with very few pictures and very little information.
Name and Number
You can look up this person’s name on Google to see if it comes upon a company website, a personal website, or on a blog. In addition, you can see whether they have any social network accounts you aren’t connected with.
If you have their number, you can check the phone book or the white pages to see whether it’s listed. You can also try reverse phone lookup through a people finder. The results of your search may indicate that this person is listed at the same address as someone of the opposite gender or with the same last name. Phone listings aren’t always reliable, though. Since the information was published, they might have gotten separated or divorced.
The Local Courthouse
Your best bet is to visit the local courthouse’s site to check for a certificate of marriage. The courthouse should be located in their jurisdiction. You can also find a lot of information using public records. These will show someone’s marriage history and whether they’re currently married because marriage records are public in most states. To search public records, you’ll need this person’s real name, as well as their middle name if their first and last names are common.
Not all marriage licenses or applications are public. There are rules to protect this information in some cities and states, which can differ in terms of data they make public and the way people can access it. If you find a marriage record, you should look for a divorce record too. The marriage might have ended.
Background Check Services
You can use certain websites such as background check providers to look for marriage and divorce records. These sites can search county, state, and sometimes, even national databases. While these services cost more than searching the records in your jurisdiction, they might be helpful.
