The internet is a wonderful thing. It’s the font of all knowledge. The Sage to confound all sages. A wonderful meeting place. A place where a person can go incognito.
We’ve all seen it on the internet – the people with names like Jerry Mander, Connie Lingus, Frank Furter, and (almost anything) Smith. Some of the names can be used as jokes, some used as cover for someone wanting to keep from being traced. Going incognito, to be sure.
Something else to be sure of is that many of the people using cover names are the same people who insist that they are being totally honest all the time; insisting that what they hate the most are people who lie.
Ah, the skullduggery.
I ran into someone this past week looking to romance older men, stating her age as less than half mine.
“This particular platform is not where you want to be if you are looking for romance,” I told her.
“Have you ever dated someone on the Internet?” she asked.
I told her that I first met my current wife on the Internet. Her response was, “Oh. Are you married?”
Her oblivious question (posed several times during our exchange) and a few other comments she made led me to believe that there was something up. Well, that and her telling me she could not wait to meet me in person.
I didn’t have the heart (or the stupidity) to tell her that I would be within a two-hour drive from where she said she was from at least twice in the coming week. And yes, my wife would be with me and so would the dog.
Something recommended by the AARP is that if someone wants to meet you, or have you send money/gift cards/candygrams, or want you to invest in (Crypto comes to mind for some reason or another), it’s a good idea to have a video chat first before taking that next step. Chances are that if the person on the other end is having problems or has objections to having a video chat, there’s something rotten in Denmark.
A video chat is a good way to call someone’s bluff. It makes me feel good about calling that bluff.
Yes, there’s the possibility that the person I had been “talking” with was sincere about wanting an older man, or that she was lonely, or that what she really wanted was a family, or she really didn’t care that I was married; but I’m not making book on it. She might not even be a she. Someone incognito, for instance.
For that matter, I may be incognito myself!
Be Seeing You!
bdharrellauthor 