Sometimes, it does not pay to go online.
Sometimes the price is just too high, such as when people forego their relationships by spending too much time on here, like when they ignore their family, career or even the benign laundry; or when their kid runs off and disappears to meet up with a MySpace friend. There are all sorts of horrible things that go on in the underbelly of cyberspace that I’d rather not discuss but you’ve heard spotlighted in the news at one time or another. There’s also fraud and identity theft and computer hacking and all that.
And sometimes, there is no price to replace what one loses because of an online dalliance.
Take for example a San Bruno, California man, who was by all means a successful carpenter and musician. He had a modest home in the suburbs, and had a penchant for Latino women. He built up a reasonable asset base from an inheritance he received from his mother and used the equity to invest in real estate. Then one day, he decided to visit a Brazilian matchmaking website and meet the lady of his dreams, where he eventually found someone upon whom he showered such luxurious gifts, including $20,000 for a car, $10,000 for license to do Botox treatments(!) and college tuition for a child.
That was his downfall.
What followed is frighteningly predictable — fraud activity against his credit cards, confrontation with said lady of his dreams, forcible extortion and robbery of almost $200,000, then his disappearance and murder. Even in the midst of the suspicion, this poor fellow had with him ready a diamond ring. Another case of online dating gone terribly awry.
Not as tragic but still disturbing is what you can encounter while transacting on Craigslist or other classified ad service. There have been reports of crime involving people who, in their interest to add to their collection of gang memorabilia, would seek their victims via Craigslist. Apparently, hoodies are considered a great collectible in some nefarious spaces, so beware what you decide to post on Craigslist. You never know what kind of morally challenged species you can attract. Better yet, carefully screen your buyers and just about anyone you meet over the net.
These are just a few examples of what happens when strangers meet — indeed, this can happen anywhere, but it so happens that the net facilitates the meeting of strangers even more easily.
Always be wary and watchful of your surroundings and the people you deal with; it’s easy to forget that unscrupulous souls lurk everywhere. In some cases, when your online existence meets real life, you may never know what can strike you, especially if money is involved.
< Thank you haha.nu for the odd pic. >
This post will hopefully caution people to be careful.
However, its not just on-line where people need to be careful. I have read of people getting robbed or assaulted after putting classified ads in regular newspapers.
[...] Valley Blogger presents The Web’s Fatal Transactions posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “These are cautionary tales about how to handle yourself [...]