On Sat, 18 Sep 2010 08:17:45 +0100, Ophelia wrote:

>
> So our Cathy... are you really a 6ft body builder with a beard? <g> I
> guess we have to take each other on trust, until that trust is broken
> eh?

Close, but no cigar. I'm actually 6' 6" - and I don't have a beard. That's
what shavers were invented for. Should I email you some pics of my tattoos? ;-)

But seriously - I know most people we "meet" on-line are generally decent
human beings - but how can anybody be 100% certain about who they're
dealing with on-line until they actually do meet 'face to face' in Real
Life? And even then, how can one be sure that the person turning up at the
meeting *is* indeed the same person, and not someone that has been sent by
the real person in his/her place? You have to admit that even before there
was a computer in almost every [First World country) household and we had
to rely on snail mail, it wasn't unheard of for "pen pals" to send photo's
of their "good-looking friend" to said pen pals because they thought that
sending a real photo of themselves would put him/her off.

Also been several documented cases of teen-aged girls being lured into
believing they were chatting on-line to a boy of similar age and interests
(and even exchanging photos with), only to end up dead when the person
behind the keyboard turned out to be some forty-something murdering
nutcase.

And then you get cases like this:

<http://www.news.com.au/national/girl-harassed-by-girl-facebook-stalker-12/story-e6frfkvr-1225925103284>
or
http://tinyurl.com/2bfp9kc

--
Cheers
Chatty Cathy