The internet has made it so much easier to meet new people. But having online friends isn't always a walk in the park. You can either have an amazing time together or it can be a complete disaster. Many people walk away from the meeting with a bad taste in their mouth. The following people talk about their horrible experiences with their online friends. While it might be fun to see someone in person, you should prepare yourself for the possible risks that come with it.
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 Surf's Up, Dude
Back during World of Warcraft's second expansion, there was this guy in my guild I'd become friends with mostly through other friends. We talked more and more over time and became fairly close. He had this jerk roommate, and I could hear the guy sometimes, especially when something went wrong during a raid. He'd often scream and throw fits.
My friend told me he wasn't just loud and obnoxious, but verbally and sometimes physically abusive, too. I had my apartment, so I told him to just stay with me; just long enough for him to get back on his feet. He showed up at my place with a trash bag full of his stuff and a laptop. I set him up in the apartment and tried to help him find a job.
Well, he did not want a job. He did not get a job, either. He sat in my apartment, day after day, eating my food and slowly draining my savings. No matter how hard I tried to get him motivated, he would just dig in his heels and somehow become more sedentary. Eventually, I told him he had to go. I couldn't afford to keep him there. He was just couch surfing.
I spoke to some people and eventually pieced together that his method of securing a new "temporary" place was playing on the sympathies of his friends. It just worked well on me because he had that loud, obnoxious roommate to play off of. He wound up calling his aunt to pick him up. I don't know what he told her. As far as I know, he moved in with his sister and brother-in-law after that, but frankly, I don't care where he ended up. He also stole a bunch of my stuff. First and last time I do anything like that.
#2 Snot A Problem
I’ve been active in numerous online communities over the years, and have been fortunate enough to hang out with many of the friends I’ve made on there in person. There has only been one incident I couldn’t cope with. He picked me up at the airport, which was very nice of him, and as soon as we got into the car, he started picking his nose.
There’s a lot that goes through your mind when you hop into a vehicle with someone you’ve never been alone with and you immediately catch them two knuckles deep in their rostrum. I looked quickly away so that he wouldn’t know I caught him and be embarrassed. If he did notice, he didn’t seem embarrassed, so I relaxed a little.
I guessed maybe he was just so confident about himself and our friendship that he’d ascended past caring if I saw him take care of a quick boog. Fine, sure. When I finally looked back at him, he was wiping his fingers across his dashboard. To this day, I’m not sure what to think, but this guy spent the entirety of the few hours we were together scooping out boogers and wiping them off on parts of his car.
I realized I was being transported in a rolling booger shrine and that there was nothing I could touch without needing to wash my hands. I was sitting on a crust of fossilized booger stuff. I had to be. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings—he was a nice dude, but I wound up ollying out of our visit early because I couldn’t handle it. I still wonder if I should have done or said anything to save him some grief in the future but it didn’t feel like it was my place, you know? What do you even say?
#3 Is He Still At The Cafe?
I was talking to a person online I'd known for a few years. We weren't best friends, but we talked daily. He seemed like a nice guy. At some point, he asked where I was from, and I mentioned that I lived in Philly and would be going to the Art Institute there, living in the dorms. I didn't give specifics other than that. Most people knew I was an art student at the time (I posted it regularly on LiveJournal).
A few days later, I came home from class and saw a message on AIM. "I figured out where you live. I'm outside of the dorms at the cafe across the street. Meet me." This guy lived on the west coast, and after finding out where I lived, he made an unannounced trip across the country, tracked down the building where I lived in and was camped out at the cafe across the street... asking me to meet him.
All of this without any prior notice. I immediately felt uncomfortable and didn't know what to do. It's one thing to meet up, but another thing entirely to make a trip cross-country and wait out in front of a person's residence like a creep. I didn't answer the AIM message right away and needed some time to think. More messages started coming through, each reading slightly more hostile than the last.
Okay, this guy traveled all this way... it'd be a jerk move to ignore him, but at the same time, I felt like I was seeing red flags everywhere. I was legitimately creeped out. More messages came, and each time, they started to get more agitated, more impatient. He started asking for my class schedule so he could meet me outside class, asking where I'd be going, where I usually ate, what time my dinner schedule was.
He started getting weirdly specific about wanting to know about every facet of my life. I was getting full-on stalker vibes. So I lied and told him that I was visiting my sister and that I'd be back over the weekend. That's when he said "That's fine. I can wait." And he did. Three days later, he was still there, messaging me that he was "Still at the cafe. Waiting."
What the heck are you waiting for? Why are you here? Why didn't you tell me you were coming? My privacy was having huge issues with all of this, and it got to the point where I started feeling legitimately scared. I made a decision. Rather than meet him, I'd log out of AIM, create a new handle, pretend I never existed at that point. I completely abandoned my LiveJournal and started posting under a new name, and went so far as to change my entire online persona. I never heard from him again.
#4 Meme Culture Lives
I saw someone mention my hometown in a comment thread. I messaged that person, and we began chatting. She seemed very cool and intelligent, and one day she invited me to stop by her family's yard sale. I was picturing someone my age (late 20s) who was living alone. Instead, I stumbled upon a 14-year-old girl and her boyfriend.
They were both so young and nerdy that I could barely communicate with them. They spoke in memes. It was like they'd never had friends before. And both of her parents were off too—they tried to hit me up for money. It was creepy as heck. After I was there for about 15 minutes, she looked at me and said, "Awkward Penguin?" and I responded, "Yup, Awkward Penguin." Then I got in my car and left forever.
#5 She Looks Familiar
I was talking to this girl I met on Quizilla back in the day. We met because she made one of those "Which Twilight characters are you?” quizzes, and I was asking for help on making mine. We got to talking and we realized that we were roughly the same age. We also lived in the same state and were only a couple of hours apart.
Fast forward a few months—I started thinking of her as one of my genuine best friends, and we started to broach the subject of meeting in person. My parents, understandably, had their doubts and only agreed to let me meet her if I brought my older brother along (I was 13, he was 18). I agreed, and the girl and I arranged to meet at a museum that was equidistant from both of us.
So the day came, and it was time for me to finally meet this girl I’d been talking to for a solid six to seven months. My brother agreed that he would not breathe down my neck, but that he'd always be within eyeshot. I saw her at the entrance when I walked up, and everything seemed to be going well! After all, she was not an 80-year-old man, and she looked exactly like her pictures, which is really all that I could possibly expect from the situation.
Later on in the day, my brother met up with us so that he could drive us somewhere to get lunch, and everything immediately went downhill from there. This was the first time my brother had really seen her up close, and not from a few meters away, and he got a really confused look on his face. He didn’t react further but stayed pretty quiet for the rest of the drive.
I thought nothing of it and just assumed that he was letting us talk. When we got to the restaurant, she didn’t want to sit on my side of the booth with me. Instead, she chose to sit next to my brother. She said she wanted to be able to look at me while she was talking, but my brother was looking more and more uncomfortable with the situation.
I decided to sit next to him instead. Suddenly, the conversation started to drift from me and her, to just about my brother: what he does for the school, where he works, his friends, etc. I started getting really jealous, and eventually blew up saying, “Are you here to talk to me, or my brother???” She started backpedaling and apologized for ignoring me.
At that moment, my brother finally recognized her. She had been stalking him on MySpace for the past few months, but he didn't realize it was her without all of the terrible filters, makeup angles that he was used to seeing her with. He immediately got super freaked out and said that we needed to leave. We ended up leaving as soon as her parents came to pick her up, and I never heard from her again. And that’s the story of how my junior high online best friend was ALSO my brother's weird MySpace stalker.
#6 Feeling Like A Ghost
I was friends with a bunch of people I met through an online game. After about two years, I decided to meet two of them. They were a long-distance couple, one from one country and the other from mine. They had met many times and had spent two weeks together prior to meeting with me. We met in the city and did some touristy stuff.
But throughout the whole time, they weren't really talking to me. At first, I put it down to anxiety, as I was nervous too. But even after lunch, they were only talking to each other and I felt left out. I even took a sneaky video of them talking to each other and sent it a friend, who agreed it was odd. When it was time for me to leave, I told them I had to go but that I had a nice time, and they continued to chat with each other.
I said it again but got no response, so I started to walk away until one of them said, "Oh, bye." I was really hurt. It was like they didn't want me to be with them. I had spent a lot of money getting down, especially since at the time I didn't have a job. When I got back, I stopped talking to them. The friend who I sent the video to asked them why they were ignoring me, and they tried to turn it on me saying that I was the quiet one. I blocked them all on the game. A few months went by and one of them tried to reconnect with me on social media. It started off well but then he went back to blaming me. I haven't met anyone from the internet since.
#7 Get Your Motor Running
Back in 2016, I was whining to my friend Alan about being single, so he sent me the profile of a girl who was looking for a relationship as well. We'll call her Lilly. She and I hit it off really well. The only issue was that she lived 40 minutes away and I didn't have a car or a job. My desire to meet her pushed me to do a lot. I applied around town and nailed my first job at Subway, saved up for two months and bought myself a car.
Every weekend, I would see her. She was one of the most beautiful women I'd ever met. We would chill and do stuff every weekend. I made a lot of memories with her. I remember on her birthday I took her to the movies and my tire blew out at the side of the road, so we ended up just wandering around a Walmart for six hours while I waited for them to mount some new rubber.
It was all good until I had to leave the state for a vacation with my family for the summer. I was only about 16 at the time of this happening so I had no choice. A month into our long-distance relationship, she sent me a message saying she couldn't do it anymore. I called up Alan and talked to him because I was pretty upset. Five minutes later, he sent me screenshots of her Facebook page, and she was posting up with some new dude already. I dug a little deeper and found out she cheated on me after I left the state.
#8 I'll Be Watching You
About 10 years ago, I was playing this game called Wartune. Really hardcore. Anyway, I met this girl online. We started playing together, then eventually Skyping together. I was going through a bad phase at the time, but somehow we kind of fell in love with each other. We decided we wanted to meet up. The issue was, we lived in countries where our passports were not valid for entry.
Then it got weird... I found a job in Greece and moved there. I rented an apartment and two weeks later, she decided to come to join me... When she arrived, she was not what I expected. Turns out, she was actually 20 years older than me and left a son back in her own country. I didn't know what to do, other than just go with the flow...
She moved in with me and started to become psycho crazy... Like, I'd wake up in the middle of the night and she'd be staring at me, or I'd Skype with my parents and she'd be creepily there, sitting next to me out of view and just looking at me for two hours. I got scared and told my parents. They freaked out and bought me a ticket back home that same night. I left without telling her, leaving all my stuff in the apartment except my passport that was on me.
#9 Dull Or Sharp?
He came to stay at my place as we were driving to PAX East the next day. He flew there and was really excited to show us the sharp objects he brought with him. It scared the heck out of us. Great guy, but wow, were we worried the first night.
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#10 May I Have This Dance?
When I was about 16, a girl I was chatting to for a while on MySpace planned to go to an under-18 dance club. We were going to meet up at a train station and go from there. When she arrived, she looked nothing like her real photos. I still ended up being nice and took her to the dance, but I didn't end up actually dancing with her, I just kept her company. She got really mad and left me. After it finished, her mom picked her up from the dance and I never heard from her again.
#11 Taking A Few Things With Him
I met a guy online from New York when I was about 13. He was a couple of years older than me. We talked on and off a LOT. At some point, we developed a bit of internet romance. Then, when I was 20, I found out he was in Sweden, in the town where I lived. We arranged that he would come and meet me at my place and, if things went well, he could stay for the summer.
On day one, I pretty much wanted him to leave. It was awkward—we didn't connect, he seemed annoyed about everything, and he'd walk off alone at times. It was just so weird. Still, he ended up staying the whole summer even though I told him it was probably not going to work between us. I tried to be anywhere else but home that summer. Then, one day he just disappeared. He took one of my keys and other stuff with him. I changed my locks and never heard from him again.
#12 What A Rude Dude
I knew a girl for years. We met on a Harry Potter fan forum and role-playing site. We really bonded—it was like we were friend-soulmates. Well, fast forward a few years, when she meets a newbie on the site, a guy. He was obviously one of those people who lied on the internet for attention. He had a whole story about how he was in the part of the royal family and my friend bought the whole thing.
She thought I was a jerk for even doubting. Still, we managed to salvage our friendship. I flew out to visit her in California a while later, and it seemed to be going okay, but when we were out at Disneyland one day, I caught her texting the guy, saying how she couldn’t stand me anymore and wished the trip was over already. I was crushed.
We’d poured our hearts out into each other, and she was throwing it away for some guy begging for attention. I flew home and found out she’d blocked me everywhere. We haven’t spoken since.
#13 Emptying That Bank Account
We became online friends via the Brass Goggles forum and we decided to meet up in his hometown over the Easter holidays. I did not own a car back then, so I hitched a ride for the 500-km drive. I went there on Friday and once I arrived, he picked me up from the bus station where my carpool driver had dropped me off. He confessed that his bank had temporarily closed his account due to some "technical difficulty," so I would have to pay for everything this weekend.
We bought a few groceries and went to his apartment. It was filthy and I ended up cleaning his bathroom before I could go myself because I was so grossed out. I was stuck there. There were no carpool options available to get the heck out of there and my booked carpool appointment wasn't until Monday, so I had two and a half whole days that I had to spend with the dude.
In the evening, I called my girlfriend and I cried on the phone because I wanted to go home so badly. I wasn't broke by any means, but what I had wasn't enough to just ditch the guy and go to a motel or something. We spent the time working on our projects and we visited the museum (which I paid for), but I had never been happier to leave someone in my life.
#14 A Conversation With The Wife
I met my online friend many years ago by flying into a different state to meet him. I stayed over at his place for two nights. It was weird from the get-go. I ended up finding out that he was married. He wasn't the wonderful person I'd known over the internet. His wife eventually tracked the whole thing down and started asking me questions. I told her everything she wanted to know.
#15 One Ticked Off Fiance
I'd been chatting to a girl for quite some time and finally ended up visiting her house about 50 miles away for an evening of enjoying each other's company. We woke up the next morning to loud noises, which turned out to be her fiance I knew nothing about, ripping a window off its hinges and climbing in as she'd locked him out. He saw a strange car in the driveway, so he thought she might be in trouble. Alas, it was me in trouble as this guy was huge, and a bit upset by this point. I managed to talk him down and explained the situation, but then the police came and she accused him of breaking and entering. During the time the police were questioning him, I made my escape and high-tailed it out of there.
#16 Ask For A Photo Next Time
This was about 16 years ago. I, a 26-year-old female, was talking to a guy online and we were calling each other back and forth. He lived in New Jersey and I lived in Massachusetts. We finally decided to meet, so he drove up here from NJ. My friend was working at a laundromat at the time so I decided it was a safe place for us to meet.
After hours of waiting, he pulled into the parking lot in an old beat-up car with all his belongings in the back seat. He looked about 50-years-old. He was pretty scary and I was freaked out. I guess he thought he was moving in which was not happening, as I had a roommate. I was trusting to a fault because everything he told me, I believed. Good thing I decided to meet him last minute in a public place. I had to tell him that I was not interested and that he needed to leave that night. That was such a bad situation.
#17 Tall And Loud
I had a layover in Amsterdam and I met up with a buddy I'd been chatting with on Soulseek for years. He gave me the directions to his work and we hung out. We ended up delivering a huge wheel of cheese to a church in the Red Light District, then got tipsy in a bar. The most Dutch experience possible in Amsterdam.
#18 An International Meltdown
I had a guy profess his love for me over Skype. He wanted to visit me. He lived in the UK and I live in the States. At the time, I already had a boyfriend, so I told him I wasn't interested. He replied that he was still going to come, saying that he would wait until I got home from work so we could hang out. It seemed no amount of rejecting him would stop him from coming.
He stayed in a hotel for three weeks while I had to deal with school finals and work. I hung out with him twice: once with a group of friends and once with my boyfriend. He got mad because he said that he wanted to hang out with me, alone in his hotel room. When I said no, he flipped. He flew back home to the UK a few days later and blocked me on all social media.
#19 Party Like It's 1999
I met a girl online once. I can't remember where, but this was around 20 years ago. We chatted for a while and seemed to hit it off. Eventually, she invited me to her house. Turns out, she was having a party with about 30 people. She pretty much ignored me the whole time I was there. I hung out with some cool people and played Mario Kart. Then, I left when everyone else started to. I never spoke to her again.
#20 Not A View On The Can
We had met on an old school roleplay chat and eventually moved to Skyping. We both lived alone at the time, so we'd often put on movies and just chill. That was a big chunk of our relationship. She was 24 and I was 22. She seemed lonelier than me and spent a lot of time complaining about how she had no friends or money.
She was always angling for me to visit. I let her know that I would be helping a friend move places a few hours away, so we'd be passing through. She graciously offered for us to crash at her place on the way. Turned out, she lived in the middle of this very '50s suburban neighborhood, in a one-bedroom house with no doors... on any of the rooms.
The house itself was basically empty with pillows on the floor in lieu of furniture. She had no bathroom door or table, but she had an expensive coffee maker and a metric ton of weight loss shakes. She was sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag. She never had anyone over, because she barely had friends in real life, so her house was staged to keep up appearances with her online friends.
We decided to be polite and make do, but the bathroom was facing the living room such that you had to look dead into the house if you sat on the toilet. Whenever one of us needed to use the bathroom or shower, we were basically exposed to everyone. Naturally, I got massive stomach cramps at like 3 a.m. and had to crawl up and take the stealthiest, most painful #2 of my life while looking over the bodies of my sleeping friends.
#21 Programmed To Complain
He was a semi-famous computer programmer—well known, respected, glorified. He lived a frugal life and traveled around countries giving talks about free software and stuff. I heard he was coming to my country to give some talks and they wanted people to host him, so I applied and got accepted as a host. The first red flag was the email with a list of requirements, from temperature, humidity, pets, food, drinks (right down to brand names), etc.
Despite that all, I moved the kids into shared rooms so he could have his own room, set the AC on, and we were set. The dude turned out to be a horrible guest. He came with his girlfriend, talked super loud really late at night, and got up super early in the morning, loudly stomping about. He was constantly rude and acted like he knew everything. Boy, was I glad when he left.
#22 That New Mixtape Is Fresh
I was on Rainbow Six Siege one day, and I got into a game with a really nice kid. We talked and realized we lived within a five-mile radius of each other. Over the span of three months, we played and played until he finally decided we should meet up. We planned on going to a park with a few other people, and when I got there, he had a completely shaved head and a ton of face tattoos. He started saying how he was an aspiring rapper, and that never came up in conversation when we played. Turns out, the only reason he met me was to get me to listen to him on SoundCloud. I dipped out of there immediately, because I didn’t want to have to deal with his nonsense.
#23 The Tooth Hurts
I talked to her for a couple of months, pretty casually. She was a very attractive girl. Then, she started to get suggestive with the conversation Before long, she invited me to visit, a couple of hours away. I drove to her town, and she looked just like her pictures. Very pretty, very sweet, and very fun. But wow, her teeth... She had braces, which I knew, but it was like she hadn't brushed in months.
They were full of crust. It was horrible. I'd never seen anything like it and cannot overstate how vile it was. After I went home, she kept wanting to talk online, but I didn't know how to tell her that her mouth was completely repulsive. I ended up just sort of snubbing her. I feel bad about it, but what do you do? How can you not realize you've basically got a toilet embedded in your face?
#24 Have It Your Way
I met up with online friends who I had known for 10+ years. My plane was delayed on the tarmac for more than three hours. I was feeling off, but I just attributed it to the dumb travel delays. I got off the plane some four hours late, walked up to my friends, said, “Hi guys,” and immediately started projectile vomiting. I did not stop vomiting for the next three days.
Foto Wuestenigel
#25 Looking For Some Trouble
I was visiting the US from Europe and met up with a bunch of people I already knew over the internet. There was this one guy named Trevor. He seemed like a good dude online, but in real life, he was completely insufferable. In the space of about 10 hours, he tried to get the number of some Wendy's waitress even though she clearly wanted nothing to do with him. Then, we were walking around the downtown area and he tried to get us to dare him into trying to climb some of the buildings there.
Later that evening at a bar, he wanted us to buy him drinks even though he wasn't yet 21. When we refused, we didn't see him for half an hour, during which he had gotten into an argument with another patron. At that point, me and my friend, who I was traveling with, just laughed at him and said we weren't going to do anything if he got into a fight. We were tourists in the US and had no desire to get into trouble during our vacation.
#26 Is There A Doctor In The House?
A few years back, I got some dental surgery because I was born with an underbite. I remember asking for advice in this Facebook group for people in my situation and I met this girl who I had a lot in common with. We went to the same school, had the same dentist, and it was all perfect. We decided one day, since we had a dentist appointment the same day, that we would go together.
My appointment went great, but hers went completely wrong. She seemed nervous, so I tried to calm her down. When she finished her appointment, she suddenly passed out on the floor. I was terrified—I had never seen someone pass out and I didn’t know what to do. Thankfully the dentist was located inside a hospital and therefore tons of nurses came running to help her.
They started asking me questions and I stood there thinking, “I only JUST met her today, I don’t know that much about her, let alone what her health situation is like, how should I know?!” They got her a hospital bed and I remember being terrified, trying to give her water through a straw. I tried to ask if I could call her parents to pick her up, but she insisted that they shouldn’t worry about her.
Desperately, I asked my father to come to pick us up since I didn’t have a car. My friend agreed to it. My dad arrived 30 minutes later due to heavy traffic. We were ready to go when she fainted again. Eventually, an on-call doctor showed up at our house to check up on her. That's when I told her she should probably go home and be with her parents.
#27 Do It Yourself
I met a guy online. I happened to go on holiday near where he lived. I pestered my parents to let me go meet him and they made me a deal—I'd walk with him from his job to a train station where they would later pick me up. He worked at a clinic for uneducated people who mostly had various learning disabilities. He put in badly homemade lip piercings made of thick wobbly wire to impress me. He had a plastic leather coat and drawn-on marker tattoos. His personality was also sticky and awkward. My parents picked me up earlier upon my request.
#28 Waste Of Money
I met a girl online through a mutual friend, she lived about 12 hours away. She and I talked, all the time, for about six years—Skype calls, games, phone calls, etc. We made a deal that we’d be each other’s backups should neither of us find someone worth marrying. Flash forward a few years later—I broke up with my long-time girlfriend and started getting a bit more affectionate with this online girl. I told her I was going to visit her, so I dropped about $1,000 to make the trip. Right before I left, she posted a picture of her kissing some other dude.
#29 Gamers Unite?
I heard my friend ordering a pizza over Xbox Live. I got his address. I knew he lived about 30 minutes away. I asked him if he wanted me to come over to play Rock Band. He jokingly agreed, then said he'd kick my butt if I ever actually showed up. He had a history of getting angry very easily. He often broke controllers, punched holes in walls, snapped discs in half, etc. He would go from 0 to 100 in an instant.
I went to his house with two friends despite his warnings. I almost didn't find his house because it was the only one without numbers. My friends stayed in the car and I knocked on the door. No answer. I went back to the car to get a piece of cheese for his mailbox. As I was getting close to the mailbox, an older man came out. It was his dad. He angrily asked what I wanted.
I said I was looking for my Xbox friend. He went back inside and a couple of minutes later, a beefcake came out of the house. He was not at all what I was expecting. At this point, I was shaking and stuttering. We talked for a bit, then we left. It could've been so much worse. From that point on, he was much more careful about what he agreed to.
#30 Some Unwanted Plans
I met a guy on OkCupid a few years back. We'd only been chatting for a day when he asked me to coffee. I usually like to chat longer before meeting in person, but I decided I was cute, so whatever. As I was getting ready for the date, my phone kept buzzing and he was randomly sending me selfies. He sent me three or four pictures of himself with no context. Weird but hey, he looked good. I brushed it off.
Fast forward to the date—the guy was AT LEAST 100 lbs heavier than he represented in his profile pictures. He was a hulking mountain of a man, standing at least 6'4" and taking up the space of a small car. Not wanting to judge by appearances, I sat down. Within 20 minutes, he was deep into a story about the time his friend did something to anger him, so he "hacked his accounts and exposed all his personal information online."
I was terrified to stay and too terrified to leave. Then he started telling me about his really nice car and how he and I would be taking it out for the weekend. I interrupted, saying, "Excuse me, aren't you being a bit presumptuous?" He shut me down and continued talking about all the things he had planned for me, which apparently I didn't have a say in. I was utterly terrified because the guy was psycho, but I'd had enough. I made an excuse to leave and nearly ran to my car. He told me to text him and continually gestured at his phone as I walked off. I blocked his number at the next red light.
#31 A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
I met my buddy in H1Z1 during launch. We had the same interests in games and he was the same age. I work three 12 hour shifts a week, and he is a stay-at-home dad, so we played very often over the course of a few years and bonded. I flew down to meet him once and we had fun. I met his family and all was chill until his wife asked how we met.
She was under the assumption that I met her husband in person. I said "H1Z1" and a look of horror came across her face. "Online?!?!" She immediately took pictures of me and said, "I sent these to my parents in case anything happens." The cringe did eventually subside after a few rounds of drinks and she eventually apologized, saying, "I was a mama bear at that moment."
#32 A Prom Disaster
I told him I was not interested in a romantic relationship. He took it hard. He apologized and things went normal for a year. He then asked me to go to his prom with a group, so I did. Turns out, he'd told them we were very much in love and on the verge of a relationship if not for my baggage. He never told them that I was an online friend and that was the first time we had ever met.
#33 One Crazy Journey
I chatted with a girl for around five years. She lived in Ohio and we talked almost every day. Around the four-year mark, she suggested I visit Ohio. We had always had a close friendship, so I thought it'd be fine. As I was graduating high school in 2002, my parents sat me down and said, “Your graduation gift is a round-trip ticket anywhere you want to go.” Out of the blue, I remembered the Ohio offer. So, instead of thinking it through, I just said, “I’d like to go to Ohio.”
I told the girl I was buying a plane ticket, then I found myself in Columbus, Ohio being picked up by a girl I’d never met... staying with a girl I’d never met. The plan was to crash at her place, drive to Kings Island, and then stay at her friend’s place before going to Cedar Point. Well, we made it to King’s Island on a Friday. That was fine. And then... it got really freaking weird.
After Kings Island, I realized this girl was debating if I was a romantic interest or not. On Saturday, we left for her friend’s house in Cincinnati. I was asked to sleep in her friend’s room in the basement, which was covered floor to ceiling in boy band posters. On Sunday, I woke up to the sound of this girl crying upstairs. Her car was towed, there was no chance of getting her car back until Monday.
An hour later, the girl’s friend’s parents came home. No boys allowed. So there I was, stuck in the basement with no food or water. Finally, at like 11 p.m., they sneaked me out and told me to wander the streets of Cincinnati solo to find the lone Taco Bell open to eat. I did and it was scary as heck. Then, I sneaked back in. No Cedar Point, but at least I ate.
On Monday morning, the friend’s parents went to work. I got to go upstairs. The girl and her friend figured out how to get the repo guys to deliver her car. We got the car, and the girl drove me back to Columbus. We awkwardly spend the night again with her mom inquiring why I flew out to meet an online girl, and the next morning, they dropped me back at the airport. The whole thing was one weird trip, man. Still can’t believe I did that.
#34 Gotta Get Up And Go
I met a girl in an AOL chatroom. Back then, there were no digital pics to send unless you had a scanner, which was expensive. Your best bet was asking for a description and hoping the other person wasn't lying. So anyway, I asked for her age, gender, and location. She was a few states away, was a couple of years older than me, went to the gym, was a college athlete, etc.
We were chatting for a couple of weeks, then one afternoon I had nothing to do so I decided to drive my happy self six hours to her dorm. I spent that time imagining this exotic, Amazon of a woman to be waiting for me there. I pulled up to her dorm at about 11 p.m., all excited. I knocked on her door and this giant woman with eyes that went in opposite directions was looking down at me. I was pretty muscular, but she had me beat. My broke, 19-year-old self was six hours from home in the middle of the night with nowhere to go. After some very awkward conversation and attempts to get physical, I got out and drove back home at about 1 a.m. You kids are darn lucky to have instant pics.
#35 This Photograph Isn't Proof
Many years ago, I had a small group of friends online and we mostly talked through message boards. I guess the subject of where we all lived didn’t come up before because one day, one particular girl and I discovered we lived in the same city. We had known each other for a few years by this time and she seemed sweet. She said she was a model and had posted some of her modeling photos, so I had a general idea of what she looked like.
We arranged a time and public place to meet up. When I arrived, it was obvious she was no model and the photos she posted were not her. She also wasn’t sweet or funny; I think maybe she felt insecure because I knew she lied about her photos. The meeting didn’t last long. I went back home and told our group about how she wasn’t who she said she was.
She then posted real photos of herself as “proof” she hadn’t lied... I don’t know what she was thinking. Eventually, she broke off from our group and went silent for a short time until suddenly, a few of us were being stalked by an “anonymous” person who apparently knew all these details about our lives. It was relentless for a while but I tend to change screen names often so she seemed to lose track of me, or maybe just lost interest. This all happened nearly 20 years ago and I still live in the same city but haven’t seen any trace of her since the day we met. I’ve actually met a few others from that same group since then and they’ve all been awesome. One person has come to visit me several times and we’ve become very good friends over the years.
#36 Getting Wrecked In Real Life
I finally met up with several guys from our Guild Wars 2 guild. It was awesome... until we played Disc Golf. The course was pretty deep in a park surrounded by woods. Most of the holes were in amongst the trees. We started playing in the morning and that’s when things got bad. Turns out, several of them were much better than me. It was horrifying. Hole after hole I was rapidly falling behind. I could see the look of pleasure in their eyes. They were trying to hide it but I knew they enjoyed destroying me. I lost. Badly. We still play games online together, but I’m never inviting them to play Disc Golf ever again.
#37 Couldn't Take "No" For An Answer
I had a friend who I thought was a really cool pal. He'd expressed interest in me multiple times, but I'd turned him down each time, reasoning that "I'm not into men." He visited and it was really bad. He hit on me at the gym and dug into my private IM logs. Shortly after he departed, he went on a tirade about how I was a bad person for leading him on and such. When I got a girlfriend, he threw a jealous fit and blocked me on all forms of contact. I should have blocked him myself. Jerk.
#38 Straight Up The Block
In freshman year of high school, I felt lonely and wanted to find a friend to talk about things. I only had my sister to talk to but she was very busy. I tried out an app that looks pretty similar to Tinder but is directed to making friends instead. I tried it for about a week with no luck and decided to delete it, but left my Snapchat in case someone found my description interesting.
A few days later and I get a friend request on my Snapchat. I got curious so I texted them and they said they found me on the app. We talked for a day and found out we had a lot of stuff in common. We were both free and I decided to invite her to my house. We ate quesadillas, watched Stranger Things on Netflix, and walked around with my dog.
She left and I thought we had lots of fun, but apparently, she didn’t because she blocked me on both Instagram and Snapchat. At the time, I had no idea about ghosting, so I thought she deleted her account or something else. So what did I do? I spent about a week trying to contact her again, just to ask why she ghosted me. After a bunch of internet stalking, she finally texted me, but it’s not what I was expecting.
She text-yelled at me, cursing me out and calling me crazy because I wouldn’t leave her alone. Clearly, I was oblivious to her sudden anger. I kept asking her why she blocked me but she wouldn’t give me a reason. I even said, “You can never talk to me again after this, but just tell me what I did wrong,” but she wasn’t saying anything. After the conversation went on for a loop for 10 minutes, she blocked me again. I literally have no idea why she ghosted me after just one time hanging out but whatever, I’m over trying to figure it out.
#39 A Trio Of Trouble
I played World of Warcraft years ago with majority Australian players. A few years after we stopped playing, three of them came to the States for a mate’s wedding. I invited them to stay with me for a few days. I think my liver would have struck out its own if it had a chance. Lesson: When you’re smallish in size, never try to keep up, drink-wise, with Australians!
#40 Getting In Her Space
I had an online friend from clear across the globe. I knew he had a crush, but I wasn’t interested and told him so. He would talk about coming to visit someday to meet me, but I told him I wasn’t comfortable with him coming here “for me.” He said he understood and that was the last I’d heard of it. At least, until my mother informed me that she’d talked to him at length and decided to invite him to stay with us for a month. I was so horrified. When I tried to explain to her why that was so not okay, she told me it was her house and she’d have whatever guests she wanted.
He arrived. It was horribly awkward. He had no sense of personal space and often moved so silently through the house I’d have no idea he was standing behind me while I did the dishes or something. He’d knock on my bedroom door insistently. My mom then forced us into an eight-hour car ride to Disney for several days, and then abandoned me at Disney with him and my siblings. He always tried to touch me or be in my personal space and I spent basically a month in a constant state of anxiety and stress. I never spoke to him again after he went home, for which I was vilified, and to this day my mother has never once apologized to me for any of it.
#41 I'm A Big Kid Now
I was talking to this guy for a few weeks online and things were going well. We decided to meet up for a date. He actually seemed like a cool guy. A lot of other online dates I had in the past were bad from the start. However, at the end of the date, he invited me to his place. He gave me a tour of his home—this beautiful house in LA, which was probably crazy expensive.
We got to his room and I said, "Oh, I gotta see how big your closet it because I'm sure it's the dream closet." I opened the door and it was a huge closet, but it was full of these nicely organized boxes. I asked him about the boxes. He was quiet for a while and asked me if I had any fetishes. I told him, not really, just typical stuff. He opened one of the boxes and they were full of new diapers.
He told me that each row was a different brand and size. He said that he liked to wear diapers and was really into trying different brands, styles, and materials. He then took off his pants and showed me he was wearing a diaper. I really did not know what to say. I am a psychotherapist in real life, so I think sometimes my neutral response to odd things makes people feel validated.
I just stared at him for a second and thought, why did he have to be into diapers? He started telling me that he enjoyed wearing them to work, around the city and even liked to "use" them, just to see if anyone would notice. I stayed for like 15 more minutes more, but after that, I never saw him again.
#42 Wild Confrontation At Wild Wings
On a break from university, I met a guildmate with whom I played World of Warcraft. When I got there with my boyfriend, the guildie and his girlfriend were intoxicated (I wasn't 21 yet, so we all met at Buffalo Wild Wings). They ended up getting in a fight with another guy (I never did figure out who he was). I was in the way and ended up getting punched, at which point my boyfriend went nuts. Someone called the police, we gave statements, and he apologized profusely next time he got on the game.
#43 Hold My Bags, Please
My friend and I were huge League of Legends fanatics. We played it for hours after school. We would meet amazing people often. We started talking with these two girls who lived two hours away. At some point, we decided to meet at a mall nearby. We all got there and it was awkward as heck. My friend and I were basically third-wheeling both of the girls as they bought lingerie and talked about their boyfriends.
#44 Satisfaction Isn't Guaranteed
I had spoken to a kid online all summer before we both were to start at the same college in the fall as freshmen. We chatted online with no problems, but never really spoke of anything of substance. We met for the first time about two to three weeks into the semester, after settling in for a bit. I went to his dorm room to chat. During the first 20 minutes of us talking, he seemed a little weird, but not so bad. Then suddenly he laid down on his bed, brought his knees up into the air, and hugged them in his arms so that he could fart. I got out of there after that and never spoke to him again.
#45 What A Mess
In the early 2000s, I was part of an online moms group. I became really friendly with several people and really close to one person in particular. We used to talk on the phone frequently and talked about meeting each other. Me, my son and now ex-boyfriend went to her state for a week. Her husband was nice and her kids were cute. She, on the other hand, was a witch.
I walked in on a conversation that she and her best friend were having. She basically was only friends with people if she could benefit from them in some way. Also, her house was dirty. Food was left out everywhere, the garbage was overflowing, the works. I saw a roach on the wall in broad daylight. I freaked out and she told me it was no big deal.
When we got home, all three of us stripped down to our underwear on the back porch and none of our clothes came in the house until I could wash them. I found ants all over my son's clothes when I put them in the washer. I never spoke to her again. Once she realized I knew what she was doing, she didn't want to be friends anymore.
