PROCEED WITH CAUTION

If anybody pretends to be me on ANY dating or social media site, lures you in with some mad skills, and asks for money:

It's not me.

I don't roll that way. Anybody who knows the real me, knows that "things don't matter; people matter"-Randy Pausch.

I work two, sometimes three jobs, to pay my own way in life.

I'm not looking for plaudits. I'm just explaining.

I started to notice something was awry when I was kicked off of dating sites like Bumble then Hinge. Huh? What'd I do?

So In inquired only to learn that they "protect the privacy" of their members.

Wasn't I one, too, though? I sent emails but kept getting the same reply.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I tried other dating apps, but within a week, I'd be kicked off again.

Now, during this time, I'd been messaged and emailed by men who'd done background checks and such to learn that people were using my pics and knew my kids' names and my dogs' names and places I'd been and what my writing desk looked like, etc...to lure men in and then hound/harass them for money.

No wonder. So much of "me" is out there. Except, well, ME.

I even received a third party notice from a debt collector for over $800 from a dating site I never even met a guy on.

That's when I decided to "take 'em to the mattresses".

I compiled all of the screenshots, fraud alerts, emails, messages, and any and every thing I had to file the ID THEFT report with the FTC.

Within 12 hours, the third party pardoned me.

Duh.

Needless to say everything is changed. Including me.

The long and short of it is that the more we put out there...the more susceptible we are to this kind of bullshit.

But, if we never put ourselves out there...what is the world missing that's good and holy in us?

If we protect ourselves too much, put up too many "fire"walls - both technical and metaphorical...how could anybody penetrate them?

All precautionary measures aside and taken care of: I'm not going to stop doing what I do-posting, blogging, vlogging, playing, writing.

They can't take that from me and they better sure as hell not mess with my kids and my dogs and good people in this world with intentional malice.

I will win the battles, and have ZERO DOUBT that I will win the war.

Keep on, keepin' on, my friends.

XO,

Meg