You can never be too careful when it comes to finding love online. I did that for awhile, dating people online, having long distance relationships. It was a lot of fun, it was easy, and this was before text messaging was popular. We would fly to one other, meet up with one another for weekend tristes, and send long e-mails of love and spend nights on instant messangers, confessing our heart’s desires. It was both emotional, and physical, in which we’d trade pictures, we’d be intimate online (yeah, cyber sex), and we knew who we were. We even talked on the phone when we could, and that was before cell phones made it easy. So from someone who’s done it, and has been in the deep of it, it amazes me that people can still be duped online.
I think its so much easier to tell if the person you’ve having an e-relationship with is real or not. There’s Skype, where you can hear or see each other. There’s also no excuse with cell phones being able to call all around the country and through VOIP, all around the world. So how is it, that this man, from Illinois, get’s scammed by someone he was having an over 2 and half year relationship with? I can’t judge though, I mean love makes us do crazy things, but this man in the PC World article, gave over $200,000 to his internet lover over the span of that relationship. And he was sending it to all sorts of places. Now, I can only speculate to the guy’s state of mind. You’re either extrememly blinded by love, or he was just a sucker. Maybe this woman online was incredibly convincing. I mean, she even had a fake driver license to convince him of her identity.
This just emphasizes the point of how dangerous the internet is, and how the average user doesn’t question the things that happen on it. The everyday internet user, usually older in age, (this guy was 48), I think, take the net for granted. I mean, that’s why phishing schemes are still popular, spam mail is still littering our inboxes, and people are still falling for scams. Of course, its becoming less and less. I don’t hear much about it in the news or tech news, so I can only assume that the number of people falling for these things are shrinking. I think with all the media coverage in the past is making people more educated, but this guy fell for something. Maybe some elaborate scheme that was thought up by some brilliant theif, but either way, his online ex is richer and he is poorer.
So you can never be too sure about the people you’re hooking up with online. That’s why there were all those warnings about Craigslist or even the e-dating sites, though those are a little more policed and the like. Before confessing undying love to one another, meet in person, find out more about each other, talk on video chat. Not only are you proving to yourself that your online love is real, but you can get a better feel of them. If they ask for money, you should be wary of course. Guys are quick to spend their cash to make their lady happy. Don’t do it. If you’re looking for love, money won’t mean a thing, if you’re looking for a booty call, then some cash might get you somewhere. Its scary to know that people are so easy to take advantage of a yearning heart, so protect yours.
That’s why I think a little, (emphasis on a little) cyber stalking is necessary. Their Facebook, Twitter, or whatever social network, just see if they’re legit. With that information you can move forward in comfort, knowing that they’re not some crazy, scam artist trying to take you for all your money. Of course, this guy in the article is, I think, a special case. He turned a blind eye to things that I believe people would find unusual behavior. So good luck out there, don’t give up on using the internet for finding amour, and don’t be afraid to dump them if all they ask for is money. Sweet, sweet money.
via: PCMag.com http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381050,00.asp
