Has This Happened to You?

i bet it hasn't happened to anyone here, but forewarned is forearmed, i always say:

Q: To make a long and stupid story short, I met a guy on Craigslist who said all the right things. We had plans to meet a few times (once I bought a train ticket to visit him; another time I prepared an expensive meal), but he always canceled at the last minute. He had an excuse—an anxiety problem. After a few months, I called him on it. He admitted that he enjoyed the thrill of toying with people and was only interested in the chase. Fast-forward a few months: I find out that he has been doing this to several people, working as a team with two friends. They trade notes on the people they mess with. There's no financial gain for him, and no sexual one either, because he never meets or screws any of the girls he manipulates. He calls it "Internet terrorism." It's about power. Should I launch my own campaign against him? I've already reached out to a few girls who have been glad to hear the real story. Part of me wants revenge, but another part of me just wants to wash my hands of the whole situation. Also, I am worried that the embarrassing photos I sent him will end up on some website somewhere. He told some people he wants to start a website exposing his "triumphs." —TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES

A:The only way to protect yourself from liars and flakes and Nigerian scam artists trolling websites like Craigslist, TAC, is to insist on meeting in person, right away, and to brook no excuses—particularly idiotic ones like "anxiety." Anyone who talks a good game in a chat room or via e-mail but can't, for whatever reason, meet in person is either married or not who or where or what he claims to be. The number of straight men alone pretending to be teenage lesbians online exceeds the actual number of teenage lesbians by a factor of 100. You know all of this now, TAC, thanks to this Internet terrorist and his a**hole buddies. And what should you do about it? Out him, of course. Put up a website of your own, call him on his bull****, alert other women to his game, and flag his a** whenever you spot him on Craigslist. Will this result in your photos winding up on websites? Yes, it will. But your photos are going to wind up on websites anyway, TAC, so you might as well take your revenge. And, hey, you might want to consider getting out in front of the scandal. If the photos are coming out anyway, any halfway decent crisis management expert would advise you to post them on your own damn website first—along with that long, brutal takedown you're going to write about this Internet terrorist and his f***witted friends.

If she were smart she could turn them into cyberangels.com They have been around along time and first appeared in Readers Digest. They have also been on Americas most wanted as well. They deal with cyber bullies stalkers and so on.

IF any of you experience this AT all..REPORT IT to them!

Totally bizarre and totally sick behavior - from my standpoint.

I guess these guys are just men who feel they've been harmed by women in the past and are acting out a revenge fantasy. Weird.

The internet - because it removes the inhibitions of face to face contact - "empowers" a lot of very sick, very psychologically unhealthy individuals. That's why, as the advice columnist implied, meeting in real life as soon as possible is so crucial. :eek:

Very good point Harrison. The same thought crossed my mind. But hey it took me almost 4 YEARS to actually have a face to face with my love. Of course there was a few obstacles in our way, and it started off as just friends. But to just jump into a meeting if you dont have safeguards in place is very scary advice.

Yeah.

WWW has become a stressful place these days. I have a MySpace account. I check my Inbox once in a while. One day, I received a message from an angry lady. This lady was not happy with the fact that my salary in MySpace profile said I was making more than 100K. She was very outraged. She asked me if I was a drug dealer?

It hurt my feelings and I was going to type an angry response. But then I realized it was Thanksgiving season and probably she was having a bad holiday. So, she took it out on me. I just put her on ignore and moved on.

I think we provide way too much info too soon on the internet. People send nude pics of themselves to perfect strangers, or financial info as to how much they make (cough*) or what do they do for a living.

Even the phone number can be backtracked and a stalker can find your home address.

That is so sad, but I really think that the "good guys" need to put on the sheriff's badge and begin to do something about these "bad" ones! I do think you should notify whoever is incharge with that site and apprise them of this situation. There is also one site out there that does post the names of men and anything else about them who do do this (and there are many) as well as scam women financially (but I think we women are now more savvy that this, thank goodness). I have forgotten it's name, but the one that G mentioned does not ring a bell.

Anyway, I do think that you are right about meeting as soon as feasible, as that would eliminate these type of men much sooner.

My best to you....