Incomplete IM horror story? Well, not quite.
This chain has mutated into two different endings. One a cautionary tale about the prudence of using BCC, but doesn't actually advise people to stop oversharing, the other an incomplete story hoax.
It's one of those incomplete story forwarding hoaxes, also included in the blind carbon copy advice chain letter. There's not much to it.
the story is written in first person, a style I'm not all that good at writing. So the add on to complete the story will be pretty brief.
* * *
🏃♀️🙎Memes::Late one evening, while online, I received an IM (Instant message) from a gentleman who said he knew me through mutual pals online.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: The old MSN and AOL messenger chats have been shut down. As for Facebook, I think there is an option to send a message before adding as a friend, but you have to have your profile public or visible on one of your friends' lists of friends for some stranger to access it. So that sort of leaves things open.
🏃♀️🙎Memes: We chatted for an hour or so before deciding to keep in touch, as we had so many things in common.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Or he was just feeling you out and only saying he had things in common once you mentioned them, that's more likely.
🏃♀️🙎Memes: I eventually, after a week or so of knowing him, trusted him with my name (first name) and phone number;
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Well that sure didn't take him long to weasel his way in, did it?
🏃♀️🙎Memes: after all, he knew my friends and I felt he must have been OK if they all liked and knew him.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Or so he claimed. Why didn't you check with them first to make sure?
🏃♀️🙎Memes: He knew a lot about them, he knew a lot about me, and he knew a lot about a lot!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: More likely, he just talked big and actually knew a lot about nothing. You were only going on his say so, not anything your friends actually told you yet.
🏃♀️🙎Memes: He seemed like such a nice person, a pleasant person, and someone whom I felt very comfortable sharing my time online (and on the phone) with.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: I get it, you trusted him. I don't.
🏃♀️Meme1: Most of the friends I had made on AOL knew me and I knew them, so I felt quite safe with anyone whom they associated with. We all talked on a regular basis, though we seldom went into chat rooms.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Fine. What's that got to do with this random dude?
🏃♀️🙎Memes: One night, a friend from our group of friends invited me to a chat room where several of the friends had gathered and were chatting
🏃♀️Meme1: (it was an open chat in the members category, romance)
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Bleck.
🏃♀️Meme1: and we were all chatting
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: You already said that.
🏃♀️🙎Memes: when this gentleman popped into the chat room.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Same dude, or is this another weirdo altogether? The term 'gentleman' doesn't seem appropriate here.
🏃♀️🙎Memes: He popped in and then left quickly.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Bad connection, server rejected user, it could be any number of things.
🏃♀️Meme1: He then blocked his buddy list and sent me an IM.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Huh? How would you know if he blocked his buddy list? that doesn't even make sense. If they are buddies, they aren't blocked. But I've never used AOL IM much. So maybe there's some feature you're talking about that I haven't got a clue how it works. Oh well.
🏃♀️Meme1: I instantly became curious as to why he was acting so suspicious.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: I'd say you're the suspicious one if you can tell when somebody else is blocking people on their own account.
🏃♀️🙎Memes: Then, for the first time since I met and started chatting with him, I mentioned him to one of the friends who was in the chat room - one whom this gentleman claimed association with.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Again, why insist on this 'gentleman' bit? You are obviously making this story out to be about him, and how not-so-wonderful he actually turns out to be.
🏃♀️🙎Memes: She was in total awe, she did not know who he was!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: So he's obviously some creep and a liar who trolls chat rooms looking for people to date or con, or both.
🏃♀️Meme1: However, she had experienced the same thing as I had. Only difference was, the guy who sent her an IM claimed to have known her from a former friend online.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: He sounds like a real creepo.
🏃♀️🙎Memes: Things were beginning to look really suspicious. The more she and I chatted, the more suspicious it became. It also became apparent that this guy knew none of us.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: So he was just some random creep, probably even a troll, and who knows what else.
🙎Meme2: FORWARD this to 12 or more people and
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Look like a nitwit. No thanks.
🙎Meme2: the rest of this *TRUE*
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: as hot ice
🙎Meme2: story will
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: NOT
🙎Meme2: appear on your screen!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Because sending to 12 people does only that, nothing additional. It won't give you more of a story that was never finished.
🙎Meme2: Goodluck!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Good grief.
Mutation 1 has the rest of the story.
🏃♀️Meme1: Suddenly, he disappeared off-line for a few days ... then one day he pops back in and sends me an IM saying that we need to talk. He called me at my home and I was very upset,
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Remember, you did give him your phone number. This is just a reminder in case anyone forgot that little detail somewhere above. This guy is a creep but he's not magic, and he won't give you more story for sending bits and pieces of this forward to twelve or any number of people.
🏃♀️Meme1: so I asked him how he really found me and why he had felt the need to lie in the first place. This is where you all need to pay attention: He told me that he spotted my screen name on a forward that one of my friends sent to someone else.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Which just goes to prove sending forwards is a bad idea. Not that this obnoxious twit should be excused for screen-name hunting, but that anyone could get whatever info from your signature and email headers and headers depends on you and how much you share. Be on the same side and don't send forwards period.
🏃♀️Meme1: My screen name is what attracted him.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Yeah well, people get attracted to screen names even from within the chats themselves, but this is only one of the less important reasons people need to stop with the chain emails.
🏃♀️Meme1: He then used the screen name of others on the list of forwards to acquaint himself with me and various others from our clique of friends.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Yeah, I get it. The lesson should be clear, but since this is a chain letter after all, it isn't going near it, not the real lesson to be learned. Instead, it will expound on something far less important.
🏃♀️Meme1: He also used the member directory to look up info about others on the list of forwards, so not to look suspicious.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Of course he did. So, anyone got the message to stop with the forwards yet?
🏃♀️Meme1: He said he felt it was the only way he would have the chance to get to know me, and the main attraction to me was "My Screen name" because he thought it was "sexy!"
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: If this guy was that desperate for an online date, why go to all that trouble when there are sites like Match.com and E-Harmony? Info from email forwards does get harvested, but by spammers who want to send out junk mail, and maybe in some cases, identity thieves and other frauds.
🏃♀️Meme1: I was upset,
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: You already established that.
🏃♀️Meme1: needless to say, as I had trusted this man with my personal info ... such as phone number and name. He also knew where I lived (thanks to the phone bill) and I was now his prey!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Well if you and your friends laid off the chain letters and didn't go around giving out your personal info on romance chatrooms, you wouldn't be in this fix.
🏃♀️Meme1: A few days after having last talked to this person and thinking that was the last of him, I received a phone call at 4:00 am, it was this man telling me he was in town to see a friend who lived 20 minutes from my house, and wanted to know if I would like to meet him for coffee or breakfast.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Sheesh, can't that bonehead take a freaking hint and just get lost?
🏃♀️Meme1: When I told him, it was not such a good idea, he became irate and hung up on me. I immediately called him back (caller ID) and explained to him that my husband was back home (trying to scare him)and to please not be so mad (in fear of him and what he might do).
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Gah, you just slammed your husband as some kind of violent loose cannon? Wow, nice going! If you're willing to throw your loved ones and friends under the bus just to scare off some creep, I'm glad I don't know you.
🏃♀️Meme1: His whole demeanor changed and a different person was on the other end of that phone; not the man whom I had talked to online so many times (and seemed so sweet and caring).
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: I don't know why you're so surprised. all that sweet and caring stuff was just an act on his part, and obviously you had already figured that out well before this phone conversation.
🏃♀️Meme1: He was very uneasy and angry towards me.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Of course he was. He realized he couldn't play you any longer.
🏃♀️Meme1: Telling him that my husband had returned and we were reconciling was a lie, and I told him this to make him think I was not alone!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: So - I'm confused. You actually do, or do not have a husband? You're lying so much that I don't know what's going on with you either.
🏃♀️Meme1: Imagine the feeling I felt in the pit of my stomach when he came back with the following response: "You're a lying b—, your husband is not there with you...you are alone!"
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: This creep obviously has played that game many times, and caught a few girls in this same lie. Even if you had a husband there, this creep still would've said it, not knowing your situation. He just knows how to rattle you.
And, since you had trusted him so much in the first few days or week of your online encounter, you might have let it slip that you were single, and he remembered.
🏃♀️Meme1: I hung up on him and immediately called the Broward County Sheriffs office and told them what had happened. They sent an officer over to take a report and said that was really all they could do for me at that time. So, I packed a few belongings into my car, while the deputies waited and drove to my sister's home for the night. I was in shock!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: I get it already.
🏃♀️Meme1: Fifteen or twenty minutes after I arrived at her home, I received a phone call from this man again!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Well, you did give him your phone, you didn't specify mobile or landline, so I'll go with both. And bringing your cell there was, well, you could've turned the phone off, you know.
🏃♀️Meme1: He knew I called the Sheriff and reported him; he knew where I was and he knew my sister and her husband's names!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Because you had talked and talked about absolutely everyone and everything to him when he had your full trust in the beginning, not to mention his online stalking activities. He didn't know you reported him, he only guessed. And if he knew your sis' and her hubby's names, it's likely you had mentioned them to him before, and they were present on one of the chain letters you and your group sent around.
🏃♀️Meme1: People, let me tell you something, this man had been stalking me for weeks and I had no idea!!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: But you made it easy for him with the info on various chain letter forwards and all your chit-chats when he had your trust.
🏃♀️Meme1: I walked, ate, slept and breathed in constant fear until he was finally arrested for stalking! Not for stalking me! Nope! For stalking another lady who lived in Kendall, FL. This is what I was informed of when I was contacted by Kendall Florida detectives (who was contacted by Broward County) when it was discovered he was facing other various charges. Meanwhile, I went on and filed charges against him in Broward County.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: So, his stalking days finally caught up with him and he ended up in the slammer. All's well that ends well, and that is the end of the story.
🏃♀️Meme1: I wanted to share this with you all.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Share share share - seems to me you haven't learned much.
🏃♀️Meme1: And yes, it is all true.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Pardon me for not believing you.
🏃♀️Meme1: Friends, when you forward things
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: See? Didn't I mention somewhere above this chain letter is not going to get to the actual bottom line? I don't forward things.
🏃♀️Meme1: and you leave your friends names out in plain view like that, you are putting THEM and YOURSELF in what could be grave danger.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Don't get melodramatic. Chances of that are very slim, but you can be a bother by sending forwards, whether you leave your friends names in view or not.
🏃♀️Meme1: I hope I have gotten this message across;
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: You didn't give the right message, nor can you, since this is a forward after all.
🏃♀️Meme1: as I have not even begun to mention his assault (rape, using deadly force) charges the detectives from Broward County and Kendall, FL uncovered on him while investigating his prior history!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Oh, right, gotta make sure to get that in there somewhere to really panic the public into spreading this "BCC your friends on chain letters!" thing. Because if your squealing above won't do it, surely bringing rape into it is the coup de gras that will really get people, particularly women, forwarding this message madly!
🏃♀️Meme1: Yes, he had been charged with raping a Tifton, GA lady whom he had met online also. He used the same technique he used on my friend, and me; he stalked her for weeks before finally getting up the nerve to break in to her home (as she slept) and rape and beat her! He was out on bond and his trial was pending all the while when he was online and still trying to do the same thing to more women!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: If he was under arrest, why on earth didn't the police nix his access to the net? This story doesn't add up to anything but a whole lot of fearful alarmist slactivism.
🏃♀️Meme1: People, please!!! Be safe, be careful and BCC!!!!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Knock off all the exclamation marks already. BCC isn't a safety net or a security blanket. You can still get in trouble by sharing too much information with the wrong people, BCC or no BCC. So use a bit more caution generally and don't give out phone numbers and full names to random creeps posing as 'gentlemen' and to avoid emailed info getting out, just stop spreading chain letters, period.
🏃♀️Meme1: This is for real.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: For real over-the-top annoying melodramatics. This is anything but for real. Usually when it screams "This is TRUE!" it isn't. Truth doesn't have to go out of its way to hammer a "This is REAL!" message into anybody's head. You're trying far too hard to convince me this story is real, and you are achieving the exact opposite as a result.
🏃♀️Meme1: Use BCC - Blind Carbon Copy, OR COPY, PASTE to a new email form. Make the "To" to yourself, then list the people you want to e-mail it to in the "BCC" line. (NOT the "CC" line). No matter how many people are listed under the "BCC ", each one will only see their name. Then send.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: No. With Bcc, what I usually see is "Recipient-list suppressed" or some such thing. It's still obvious with a BCC that it's a chain letter that wasn't actually written by a friend personally. I don't appreciate those emails, nor do I send them, so, I have no need of BCC.
🏃♀️Meme1: (BLIND CARBON COPY In Outlook Express, version 5)
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: I haven't used that email program in ages.
🏃♀️Meme1: 1. highlight and copy the part of the message you want to send.
2. Click on the new message icon
3. Right click in the Main window and paste the message there.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Better yet, don't copy-paste. Write your own message instead.
🏃♀️Meme1: 4. Click on the grey "To" button.
5. Highlight the name you want to send the message to
6. Click on the "BCC" button and not the "To" button.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: *Yawn*
🏃♀️Meme1: ( In case you are in AOL and don't know how to BCC, when you put your "send to" names in the top of your e-mail, put a set of parenthesis around the names. This will send your e-mail to your friends, but when they get them, only their own name is on the e-mail. All your other friends' names will not be on it, no matter how many people you sent the mail to.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: I'm not on AOL and even if I was, like mentioned before, I've no use for BCC.
🏃♀️Meme1: Example: (Suzy Q, Tom Jones, Harry James, Peter Piper) When Suzy Q gets her copy her name is the only name on it with BCC before her name. The others are the same way.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: This is pretty much going in one ear and out the other. I don't need BCC because I don't spread chain letters.
🏃♀️🙎Memes: Pass this on,
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: No…
🏃♀️Meme1: but copy the body of the e-mail into another e-mail, so my screen name does not appear on it,
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Apparently someone has already done that. I have no idea what your screen name is.
🏃♀️Meme1: and then BCC to your friends.)
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Am I typing too fast? I said, no…!
🏃♀️Meme1: Protect your screen name,
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: I don't have a screen name, and even if I did, I wouldn't likely have it on an email sigline.
🏃♀️Meme1: and that of your friends.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: It isn't up to me to protect everyone. People have to take responsibility for themselves, and that should start with not putting sensitive information in email signatures, and if that isn't possible such as emailing from work, for goodness sake, don't spread chain letters, especially from work computers. And did I already mention don't give out your number, location etc to random creeps posing as 'gentlemen'?
Over and out.
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