Hi everyone, happy hump day! The holiday weekend will be here soon enough!
I’ve been watching Dr Phil alot lately, and the most recent episodes I’ve zoned-in to were regarding catfishes and online scams, where these lonely elderly ladies believed they were in love with a man they met online and they sent them all their retirement money and now they were homeless and broke! It’s so terrible and I felt so badly for them.
And then I became so angry thinking about the people behind the screen actually doing this to them! You have to be evil to take away someone’s retirement they’ve worked for their whole life.
But this happens all the time doesn’t it? Online scams, right? I know my spam folder catches at least a dozen of them EVERY DAY. Good grief.
So now I’m obsessed with all the ways that a predator can hurt innocent people online. Some ideas I’ve come up with are… online scams, catfishing, cyber stalking, cyber harrassment, and even stealing others’ blog content! All so terrible.
I’ve written before here about some of my issues with an online stalker and some ways I’ve found to protect against him.
But what do we do about all those other online transgressions? Have any of you fallen prey to these predators? How did you discover it, and what do you differently now to prevent it?
I think I’d like to do a round-up post regarding this topic, so if you’d like to contribute your story, please let me know because I’d love to include you and give your blog/social media credit for it… If you want to send me your message privately, you can email me at peppervalentine7@gmail.com.
So I don’t trust most people in person, much less on the internet, so I don’t have a personal story, but my former mother in law does. After losing her 2nd husband, she joined an online dating sight for seniors. We were living in North Carolina at the time, and she developed a friendship with someone in Texas. She was all excited when he booked her a plane ticket to Austin. I was a little more skeptical. I wanted an address, a home phone number since he said her cell phone wouldn’t work there and his full name so we could do a background check. When she asked for those things, he deleted his account, canceled her ticket and disappeared. I still get chills thinking about what could have happened.
OMG, that’s scary. Thank goodness you stepped in.
Holy smokes you definitely saved her life! I wish we could track this guy down and CATCH him because he’s definitely doing this to other women too. They never stop at just one. You’re awesome for looking out for her! 🙁
Never had an online or offline stalker, thank goodness! But so sorry that this happened to you and happens often to other people.. It’s a terrible invasion of privacy and totally robs a person of their sense of safety and sanity!!
Oh yes, it messed me up for awhile and I went completely dark online for several years actually. Only recently have I tried having an online presence again. I hope this time around works out much better. I’m alot more careful now. 🙁
Wow. Read your previous post and this is just creepy! I’ve tried to put all these measures in place, but the online world is scary.
I don’t personally have a story, thankfully, but will share your post x
I will keep my fingers crossed that you never have a personal story related to this! 🙂