10 signs your online lover doesn’t exist

Text: Denise Ngo
Photos: Getty Images

After years of loneliness, it’s finally happened: you have found true love. She’s beautiful, funny, and smart. There’s only one problem: You’ve never met in person. You’ve seen pictures of her, have talked to her on the phone, and know the names of all her pets. You’re convinced she’s your soul mate – but let’s be honest. Are you one hundred per cent sure she’s who she says she is?

One of the biggest ironies of having internet access is that it’s made us more vulnerable to trickery than ever. You’d think that with a database of information at our fingertips, it’d be easier to figure out whether we’re being scammed, but it’s proven to be our downfall. Internet pranksters can easily create fake online identifies to prey on gullible people who don’t even bother doing a quick Google search to verify whether the “soul mate” they online really exists.

It’s not as if this type of thing only happens to grandmothers getting solicited by Nigerian princes. It happened to Notre Dame football player Manti Te’o, an American collegiate football player whose “tragic” three-year relationship with a woman claiming to have leukaemia was exposed as a hoax earlier this month. It even happened on our very own shores in 2011, when local blogger Xiaxue exposed a vitriolic Twitter follower, Peter Coffin’s, relationship with hot Japanese girl as an elaborate ruse.

Haven’t met your online S.O. yet? Before you start saving up for that engagement ring, consider the following signs that this person isn’t who she says she is.