Do a check now and again...

[John K]

On a lark, I went to Google a few weeks back and did a search on my wife's maiden name.  Sure enough, her original ad from 3 or 4 years ago popped up on a new web site.  I was rather amused when I told Marina about it.  She wasn't.  So, I now had to go through the hassles of getting the ad pulled.

The site owners were unwilling to pull the ad based on my say-so.  They said that men often wrote them to tell them that such and such a girl was married, dead, etc.  They seemed to feel that the men were doing this to try and limit the girl's correspondence to themselves.  Personally, as a lot of these girls ads were the same as when they were on my wife's original website 3 - 4 years ago, I tend to think they might be a little bit off the mark here.

"How about I send you a photo of my wife in her wedding dress?"  I asked, "Would that be sufficient?"  No, they wanted a picture of the two of us together on our wedding day.  I wasn't going to do that, as I and my wife refuse to be a "success story" for some web site we've never even heard of before.  So, I scanned a copy of our marriage certificate instead and emailed it.  That seemed to do the trick, as they pulled my wife's ad.

I guess the moral of the story is to periodically check and see if your wife has an ad out there.  Pictures and ads get recycled periodically, without the girl's knowing.  Dealing with them can be a pain, but at least nobody will be writing to a girl that's already married...

[AllenB]

... in response to Do a check now and again..., posted by John K on Apr 10, 2003

John you are absolutely right. I actually met my UW in a little different way. Her good friend was in Frankfurt at the time with her parents. We became friendly over the next 4 days and when I returned to Chicago we corresponded by email and talked on the telephone.  She suggested we meet again in Kiev and she introduced me to her friends. Anna, I discovered immediately was my soul mate.

Anna was never on any of the dating boards until I came back to the states and she needed a way to communicate with me.  She took membership in a small service in her home town and all of a sudden she was on every site.  She was inundated by letters every day. I never had a problem with this attention to her but is was annoying to her so we set up a private email system for her and now nobody can see her but it took me 3 months to have her removed from every board that I have searched.

[Frank O]

... in response to Re: Do a check now and again..., posted by AllenB on Apr 11, 2003

I took out a personal ad for ME, now I get letters from agencies who saw my ad & took my pic(s) & are offering me their services. I get responses every day almost. I do like those lingerie pics the ladies send though.

[wsbill]

... in response to On the flip side that has happened to me..., posted by Frank O on Apr 11, 2003

From women all over the world wanting my body instead of my high IQ. LOL.

[John K]

... in response to On the flip side that has happened to me..., posted by Frank O on Apr 11, 2003

Years ago, when my wife was still my fiancée, she took a friend to an agency to see if she would be interested in signing up.  While they were there, my wife opened a book of "eligble bachelors you can write to".  My picture and email was in there.  Needless to say she was pretty upset.

I had to explain to her that I had never given anyone my permission to use my photo or email address.  I also pointed out that her advertisement was still on the web, even though we had been engaged for several months by then.  Was I to assume that she was still looking?  She quickly got the point.  

Once you start correspondence via email with a lady, you have to assume that your correspondence is far from secure.  You can expect your email address, photos, and possibly personal details of your life to appear in unscrupulous agencies out there.  Such is one price of finding that special lady.

One point of humor.  My wife had set a friend of hers up on an internet site and, since her friend had no internet, put my address as contact info.  Months later, out of the blue, some Russian guy writes me a letter in Russian, hitting on me.  Marina reads my email, and this letter in particular.  When I come home for lunch, she has this worried expression on her face.  "John," she asks, "are you gay?"

Needless to say, I was dumbfounded.  Why, I wanted to know, did she think that?  Well, I get an email in Russian (which I cannot read) from some guy that's hitting on me.  After thinking about it for a minute or two, I realize that the email is intended Marina's friend.  At least I hope so.  :-)  After reminding Marina about her friends personal ad, she realized what had happened.  

It did make for interesting lunch conversation though...