Death Threats and Dating---Online, Muslim, Brazalian, Russian, Morroccan, Turkish, Craiglist

Submitted by Straight_Talk_Luigi (United States), May 13, 2009 at 11:01

Hi Yasemin!

Just some thoughts about this:

Let me just first say I sympathize with your past situation, but I had no idea that another was perhaps keeping tabs on you. That's just creepy.

I have often wondered how far some of the women I have talked to would go to get a hold of me, and I knew that at one point they could tell I was sniffing them out and shutting down their on-line profiles. At that time, it was really all I could do.

It is my impression, Yasemin, that on-line meetings and international dating is more dangerous for men than for women. The one notable exception, of course, is the website Craigslist, where several murders of women in the USA have been linked to that site.

That said, it's always a risk. I cannot tell any woman on here that it's not, but most of the time, Yasemin, these situations just end up being finanicial and emotional heartaches. Your situation, though, was very different and it's important for women to be aware that being at someone else's house or party always carries the risk of poisoning, namely date rape.

How extensive is their network? Impossible to tell. Most of the investigation around the internet focuses on two things: Terrorism threats and then child pornography in terms of government-based law enforcement. In terms of private enterprise, the RIAA here in North America has really stepped up fighting on-line piracy and has been successful in a number of avenues. Youtube, a consistent top 5 visited website, was forced by a court order to turn over it's database for investigation.

Yet, the internet may be the only media where the villians are constantly ahead. The reality is that on-line dating often falls under the radar. Special editions of various journalism media have focus on it from time to time, but then again, they also have all the feel-good stories of it, and to my knowledge none of them have followed up on the stories, perhaps because they haven't worked out.

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