Cyberdating and phone chat lines ?!?!?!

This is not new for me... but it's definitely DIFFERENT!!!!

A few years ago a girlfriend of mine tried a phone chat line, met someone wonderful... and suggested I give it a try also... I decided to go for it...

After talking to a couple of guys that didn't seem right for me, a call came in from a 'Robert' who stated he was a "Jean Claude Van Damme” look alike... (It was a while ago, remember?)

Hmmm... maybe... it sounded good... I'll give it a try, I thought... We talked a few times, and finally decided to meet at a restaurant for drinks...

I don't drink... but I figure I would have a soda or something and listen to what he had to say... Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

When I got to the restaurant, which was pretty close to my house by the way, the hostess took me straight to his table... On time...check!

He DID look a bit like Jean Claude... Blond, blue eyes, BUILT!!! Cute...check!

We ended up having dinner... apparently he liked what he saw also... (Hey, I was 30 something at that time... awesome personality, long hair, skinny and with a killer pair of legs...which I flaunted in miniskirts all the time!)

Robert and I dated for about 3 months...He cooked me romantic dinners at his place, bought me flowers every time he came to pick me up, etc, etc, etc... unfortunately, he had a very good career that took him away to Chicago... I couldn't follow him 'cause my own career was taking off also...and that was the end of that...

So, now... a 'few' years later... I decided to try CYBER dating... it's the only logical progression, right?

I didn't want to pay to meet anyone... that would feel like prostitution to me... yuck! .... so I tried a few 'free' sites...to see what was available in the way of possible 'suitors' ...

Finally I found a site that seemed to have it all... first of all it's free, had pictures, and you can chat directly with the object of your desire... pretty simple... I filled out my profile, uploaded a couple of pictures and proceeded to take a look at my possible 'matches'...

In a couple of minutes the messages started coming through... Most were from out of towners... Europe even...mostly Italians...very handsome men from their pictures...but I didn't want to pay to meet anyone...much less pay to travel to meet anyone!!

Someone caught my eye though... and I decided what the heck...let me talk to this man... who cares if he's a million miles away... Turns out, he lives only 25 miles away from me... he was visiting family in Italy...and was coming back at the end of the month...

Everything was going very smoothly for the first 2 weeks... but I started to notice he was 'online' mostly at night... while I was already sleeping... (The site tells you what time you log in and out... I wasn't snooping!) He also had added me to his personal e-mail account, and there I could see that he kept making friends with girls left and right...everyday!

That was a huge red flag for me... I figured he was making all these contacts for his return... to have a couple of women ready when he wanted...

I sort of asked him about it... to which of course he replied "they are only friends...I am not interested in them...I only want to meet you"... Mmm!!!

He finally got back to the states, and his first call was to ask me if I would cook him dinner so we could finally meet....That was it... I told him I decided I wasn't ready to date someone that had so many women around... and who wasn't even gentleman enough to take me OUT... so we never got to meet...

No problem I thought....there are still plenty of men on cyberspace...let's keep looking...

After a couple of days...this cute little thing pops up on that site with a very shy "hello"... He's younger than me...has a killer pair of bedroom eyes... and looks VERY good in swim trunks...from his pictures...

We couldn't actually 'chat' because we seemed to be on different time schedules...but he would leave me messages and I responded when I was online...Finally on a Monday, we got online at the same time...and we could not stop 'chatting'... After almost 2 hours I had to leave... (I was at the office!) so we exchanged phone numbers... he asked me to call him on my way home...which is almost an hour drive...and so I did...

Once I got home I had many things to do ... told him if he wanted to, he could call me later that night...

He did, and we ended up talking for almost 4 more hours! I felt like a teenager...neither one of us wanted to hang up... he has such a sweet, manly voice... we talked about everything... his life, his job, his soon-to-be degree in engineering, even his relationship with his mom and his brothers... everything... to me it’s very strange to have a man talk and open up so much...but I LOVED it!!!

I also told him a lot of things... but not everything... I think it's cool to be a bit mysterious...

A couple of days later, he calls…I was out with friends having dinner so I told him to call me later on that night if he wanted to...he did and again we ended up talking till the wee hours of the morning...

Now I'm thinking, this is someone I really want to meet...

I've found out so many little things about him that I like and want in a man...this could be someone whom I can actually date... So I started to prepare myself mentally for the day when we could actually see each other in person...he had also hinted that he wanted to meet in person... I was not the only one...

I was wrong I guess... to this day, he hasn't called back...or even answered the 2 text messages I sent him on different occasions... I guess this time I was the one 'dumped' even before meeting... is this 'karma'?

A few days after not hearing from him, not being one to give up so easily... I tried a new phone chat line... again... Coming home from dinner with friends... since I have such a long commute... I called and waited for someone to 'connect' with me... (I think I need to move closer to my friends!)

"Alex" sends me a message... he seems eager to talk to me... I agreed... Just as soon as we start talking...he says: "I bet I can make you come and see me right now here where I'm staying"...

I asked him what makes him think so…and he starts telling me how he has a business that could change my life forever, he can save me money by cutting my bills in half each month, etc. etc. etc.

When I asked him to explain better, he says that he could pay my bills from some sort of ‘dead’ bank accounts, but that are very much legit, and I would only have to pay him back half of what my total amount would be every month… and a whole slew of other crazy things that I don’t know what to make of it…I played along 'cause I couldn't believe that someone would resort to something like this...

Luckily, I got home… told him I would think about it and get back to him…

The only thing I was able to do was report him for abusing the chat line and hope someone stops him in his tracks…