This is off topic but relevant and I hope you find it interesting in case you are single.
I separated from my husband in 1985 when my children were only 4 and 7yo and divorced in 1987. I was born in 1942 so I am older than Marion but single in the 90s. I also wished to get married again. I was told about a magazine named, Singles, so I began to reply to ads and meet potential men. It was very rare that any of them told the truth about themselves. For example, one man lied about his height so he said he would meet me at the bar of a hotel. He was sitting on a stool and when he got up, he was much shorter than he said he was - shorter than I was even. They lied about the fact that they owned property and much later you would find out that they were renting it. They put pictures of themselves when they were ten years younger and claimed that that was the only picture they had of themselves.
In about 1999, the first internet dating website began in the US but it was international. So being computer literate, I decided to give it a try. I am a traveller and by this time, I had given up on Australian men who I thought I could not trust to tell the truth about themselves and was prepared to move for love having parented my children alone for many years. I decided it was my time now with the children older now to find love wherever that many be. A Neurologist replied to my ad and fell in love with my photo almost immediately. He lived in Montreal and said he had been dating there but had not found anyone that he liked. He began to phone me from Canada and suggested I fly over to meet him there to spend Christmas in Montreal and then fly down to St Vincent in the Caribbean for two weeks where he used to lecture new doctors in Neurology every year. He said he was given a house there and a maid to cook and clean. It sounded too wonderful to be true. In order to test his sincerity, I told him I could not afford the airfares so he sent $2000 AUD for me to fly around the world. I told him that I would also need a chaperone so he asked his daughter to join us and I shared a room with her. Looking back, I took a terrible risk in trusting him but I did because he said he was a doctor and he sent me the money as promised. In this case, he had been totally honest and we had a great time but other issues got in the way so we did not get married (that had been on the cards since our first phone call even).
Many men claim to be doctors and are not. Like me, many women fancy marrying a doctor. I am now 77yo and started playing Words to Friends on my iPhone in July last year while overseas. There have been so far over 50 men who seem more interested in chatting with me than playing scrabble. I look younger in photos than my age as I dye my hair and have good skin. You do not have to reveal your age as it is not a dating site.
I had no intention of chatting to them but they are persistent. They want to know where I am from as I do not reveal that on my profile as it is not relevant. At first I assumed that all the guys were genuine. They said they wanted to find new friends. But I gave only one word answers or told them I was not interested in chatting. Then one guy told me some fantastic story that he was from the US and working as a doctor for the United Nations in Africa somewhere. He said he was widowed and had one young daughter. His wife was killed in a car accident. His daughter was in the care of a lady and he was looking for a wife to look after the daughter while he was overseas and for the future. He also asked for my email so we could keep chatting off site. This all sounded too far-fetched for me so I refused. So I looked up doctors on the UN website in the country he claimed he was in but could not find the name he used which was Jone Ben but he may not have used his real name anyway.
After he could feel that I was suspicious, he stopped chatting. I enjoyed playing scrabble against him as he was good. But others try to get my email address in the first few moves! When I refuse, they stop playing and disappear. I then report them for impersonation and block them. I must have blocked about 50 by now. Months ago, I wondered if there was anything about scammers on the internet and found this website
https://www.watchforscams.com/words-with-friends-scammer.html
After that, I have found that most men on there who wish to chat are scammers so I began to have fun with them saying that I lived in Russia or was a lesbian and am 80yo. I even named myself "I don't chat" but they still tried chatting with me. They seem to tell similar stories. They are all widowed as wife had a car accident, only one child and live in the USA but they are often Nigerians. They always ask where you are from and try to get your email address.
On RSVP, many men claim to be professionals so I used to do searches on their names on Linkedin and also found that some were bankrupt but were renting some fantastic apartment on the north side and claiming to have been the CEO of some company or other.
Women do the same to men in lying about their age and putting younger photos up and often scam men or steal things if they visit the man and stay overnight.
I gave up meeting men on the internet years ago after being disappointed so many times by the lies told. It often took a while to find out and by that time you are smitten with them. I used to trust first and find out later and now it is the reverse.
In saying all this, I can really relate to Marion and her vulnerability due to not sharing the names/contact details of who she was dating and her overseas contact numbers, addresses, itinerary and people she was in contact with. I shared these details with my children and still do when I travel so that if anything happens to me, they know where I am/have been as I have been travelling often alone for 3 months at a time every year since I retired.
In summary, there are con men and women everywhere and they will do whatever it takes to scam you for as much as they can if money is their goal and/or they could be rapists or murderers. But not all are like that, thank goodness. Many people have found love through meeting strangers by mail, online, etc.
By the way, due to my early disappointing experiences meeting men through the Singles magazine, in 1987 to 1994, I decided to start a group which I named "Meeting Point" in my own home when my children were staying with their father for the weekend. They were catered-for upmarket cocktail parties for single professionals from 35-55yo whom I screened over the phone first and made up cards for each of them with full details. Eventually I had about 7,000 on my mailing list. I wanted people to meet in the privacy of a home. They soon met people and disappeared but often came back when that romance ended or they got married and had babies.
