I actually love online communities (Friendster, for example is great for crashing party announcements), so I generally respond positively and genuinely to someone who messages me. Sure, it did seem suspicious when I looked up her profile (0 friends in New York?!) and the original email seemed form-letterish, but I still gave the benefit of the doubt. Now, the 2nd email is just ridiculous.

Below is my experience with this BackSideBabe:

On Friendster:
Date: Thursday, September 29, 2005 13:05:00
Subject: hi Randy

Message: Good afternoon, I’m Jen. I was browsing and happened on your ad and I thought I’d drop you a line. I recently moved to New York and I thought this would be a great way to meet new people. Outside of my work and my neighbor I don’t know anyone around here. So tell me more about yourself? What brings you to world of online personals? To be honest I liked your ad and thought your pic was cute and according to the site we live pretty close by each other. We should meet up for coffee or someting, it’d give us a chance to really get to know each other. LOL, sorry I have a tendency to ramble on sometimes, tell you what if you’re interested just drop me a line and we can get the ball rolling. I rarely have time to check this mail but you can always get a message to me at jen444kay@hotmail.com. Well the day is getting away from me, I should probably get back to work.. I hope to hear from you soon.
Jen

Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 18:22:35 -0700
From: Randy
To: jen444kay@hotmail.com
Subject: El gusto es mio, Jen.

Hi Jen,

The pleasure is mine. I’ve never actually thought of Friendster as a personals site, though. I’ve been on Friendster for most of its existence. I first joined when a few kids at my school joined and they told people about it, who told people about it, who told people about it… and everyone had a profile within a few weeks. I believe ‘viral marketing’ is the official term for this sort of occurance. (reminds me of a certain shampoo commercial…)

Although I would love to grab coffee or eats with you, right now I’m a little far away (Los Angeles, to be exact). I don’t really know when I am moving back to New York, but I will be in New York in two weeks. What are you doing Friday the 14th or Saturday the 15th?

-Randy

From: “jen kay” (jen444kay@hotmail.com)
To: …harvard.edu
Subject: RE: El gusto es mio, Jen.
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 19:44:04 +0000

Hey Randy, thanks for getting in touch! So how’s your Friday going. Any plans this wekend? A bit about me….I’m a Chicago woman, who moved to the New York area for my job (sales) and I officially know 0 people. I never imagined a change like this would be so hard and lonely to say the least. I definitely want to meet up with you soon if you’re down! According to myspace, I live close by so we could really meet whenever you want. GREAT NEWS (if you’re a football fan) my boss gave me 2 tickets to the Giants/Rams game for this Sunday…Care to come with me???

I posted A LOT more pics (as I said I’d give you!) on my newest personal, some are topless but NOT bottomless, but they’re at http://www.localhello.com/jen00 My profile is listed in that site under “BackSideBabe”. I wanted to post my personal info (i.e. phone # and my personal email address) there for 3 real simple reasons. 1) It’s DISCREET! 2) I never have to worry about being contacted by children since only adults are allowed in the site and 3) I know all the replies I receive are genuine. I’ve met 3 people off of this site, and it’s truly made me feel safe. I had a nightmare of an experience in the past that I don’t want to happen again. Thats all I’ve got to say right now, let’s just plan on meeting soon! Cause you know what that means… ;)

Give me a call!

Jen

Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 13:28:17 -0700
From: R
To: jen kay (jen444kay@hotmail.com)
Subject: Re: El gusto es mio, Jen.

Te recomiendo a veces otros fotos, por que esta foto en Friendster no parece genuina.

Chao,
Sr. Randy