Some people think that sending a picture is the solution, but according to Cyberflirts, "The most important thing to remember is that a single picture of a person may not tell the whole story. [] When you meet them in person and they could be completely different then what you pictured. You may feel let down and like you never really knew the person..."
When in doubt, ask your online suitor or love interest to send a recent photo. Or even better, ask them to install a webcam program so you can see what they look like live. It is amazing how much you can tell about a person, just by their gestures and eye movements.
The site asks if you would log on to the Internet if you knew it meant, "You would find true love. You would make wonderful new friends. You would discover a new addiction. You would lose every cent you ever saved. You would be stalked in ways you never imagined. You would be betrayed and deceived by strangers you called friends. It's not only possible! It's probable."
Safedating.com is full of first persons stories, sent in by women who were led down the garden path by con-men, married men and perverse persons they met in chat rooms and through message boards.
ERA, an Electronic Relationship Advice site, puts all this in a nutshell on their website, when they say, "most people are fascinated by the process ... their fascination is fueled by the same motive that makes people turn and look at dead animals on the road."
In other words, most people who are on the net are just curious, not serious when it comes to romance. On ERA, the uninitiated can find information about everything from cyber-cheaters (men who talk dirty to someone else beside you on the web), women who pretend to be a lot thinner than they are and men who lie about the size of their assets.
What about liars, cheaters, con men and long distance relationships? There are no statistics out on this either, but my suspicion is that your chances of meeting these on the web are not only similar but probably greater than meeting this kind of person in a bar.
I guess when it comes to human nature, you can change the medium, but you'll still get the same old messages.
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