Security and Privacy Over the Internet
(With respects to internet relationships)


If you're reading this page, you're probably on the internet a lot, because I know my page isn't easy to find. Chances are, you've probably also spent some time chatting. And *maybe* you even have an internet boyfriend/girlfriend. That's great. That's wonderful. Just don't let yourself get TOO involved, or you may regret it. How do I know? My Tale of Woe

First, I'd like to ask that you not email me or put a post in my guestbook telling me hoe stupid I was. I *know* I was stupid, I wrote this rant to warn other people *not* to be stupid.

This little story started when I met "Bob". Actually, I had known him for months but never really talked to him. I was smarting over a break-up. He was a sympathetic "ear". One thing lead to another and we started exchaning the L word. A few months went by and we started talking about getting married. After I graduated from college (3 years from now), I was going to move near him and we were going to live together so why shouldn't we get married? We hadn't even met yet. And might I mention that this guy was 16 at the time.

We were planning to meet this past summer. After he found out how much the ticket cost, I got an email asking me for money because he couldn't afford the ticket. Because I loved him so much, and wanted to see him so badly, I sent him 200 dollars, putting myself in a financial bind because I had just lost my job. He had actually asked for more and said that he would pay me the difference when he got here but I wasn't *that* stupid.

Finally, in July, the big day came. We had a nice little visit but while he was here, I felt obligated to do a few things that were against my morals, to please him (Stupid me). He's not a person of very high moral character. I slept with him, because even though I wanted to wait for marriage, I knew that he wasn't a virgin and I thought that we were going to get married. I wanted to please him, so I did it. It wasn't that great. I also did something even worse, that I won't say. All I will say is that before I did this, when I looked at other women who had done it, I thought of them as disgusting creatures who willingly degraded themselves. Now, I'm no better than them, because although I knew better, and I didn't *want* to do it, he wanted me to so I did.

For the next month after he left, we had a few fights and almost broke up, then things settled down for awhile. I became worried about someone, feared for my safety and set about eliminating all personal info from the net. I had info in ICQ, but no way to access it for the summer. I gave my password to him so he could do it, because I loved and trusted him.

Isn't he a great guy? Here's where the trouble starts

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