Virtual bar girls

Being one who trusts the internet as much as any other means for encountering someone of interest, I sometimes fish the waters of internet dating sites.

For what it is worth, if I was dependent on these sites as a source of food, I'd be looking rather skeletal by now.

It's not so much the pickings, you have a broad cross section of people on these sites (I helped my ex find a girlfriend on my way out of Mississippi...long and strange story, but suffice it to say that the woman she got involved with was expecting a different person than the one she got (how many hours did I spend ghost-writing personal letters or standing by to assist in online chats to explain cultural references? don't ask...I felt like Cyrano...trying to do the right thing for someone oblivious to what it was doing to me...))

But the disingenuousness of some sites...I partially filled out a profile on a site called "Mate1" a long time ago, never actually paid up to join up...but over the last few months, I've started getting a lot of notifications of emails I've received on that site(but to read my emails there, I would have to pay and join)

After about fifteen emails from some interestingly enough named women (I hoped) I took advantage of a three-day trial for $1.95, just so I could see what emails I had been getting...

I had fifteen emails. Fourteen were form letters from "Online Ambassadors"...an interesting concept where members may be given a free membership as long as they email enough suckers so that they sign up to see who these women are who have been emailing them...sort of like the girls at the local bar who ask you to buy them a drink but really have no intention of actually sitting down and talking with you, they're just there to help move booze.

I realize such bait-and-date operations are probably fairly common in the competitive world of online dating, but I am so glad I took the buck ninety five route to find out (and cancelled before the end of the 72 hour tour)...I would've felt like an idiot had I bought the memberhip.

Not all sites have that lack of integrity, but you should watch what you say and do, and what information you give out. Me, I'm not afraid to give out my real-world information, as my life is pretty much an open book, but you should be careful...and watch out for people who say they've never done something like this, then order the usual.