Dating brings all kinds of unique, funny, and odd situations, and online dating is no different. There’s a difference, however, between a light-hearted dating horror story and a dangerous safety issue. One reason online dating gets a bad rap sometimes is that people expect “the worst” in every situation. Daters are smart to be cautious whenever they meet someone new. Not just in the online world, but when a stranger asks you out, when you get set up, or when you simply just don’t know the person you’re out with like you think you do.

The “horror stories” I encountered had to do with the following. Chances are you might encounter these as well.

People Who Don’t Look Like Their Picture

Most people (and yes, I do mean most!) will look very much like the picture they post online. They may change their hair, as one of my dates did. He had a thick head of curly hair on his photo and when I went to meet him he had shaven it bald. I didn’t recognize him at all. But most people will resemble their picture. It will be taken recently, and generally look like they do now.

A few, like one of my coffee dates, however, will be attached to a photo that is several years old. In one case, a guy sent me a picture where he was ten years older and about fifty pounds heavier. He kept apologizing when I met him, to the point where it was clear he had some kind of body issue. The fact was I didn’t care that he was older or heavier, but I didn’t like that he purposely put up a bad picture.

People Who Expect a Relationship

For some reason people forget that dating means getting to know someone. Dating does not make a relationship. In order to have a relationship, you have to first see if you like someone. People tend to forget this and want to push things too far and too fast occasionally.

People Who Whine About Ex’s

Why certain people feel that they are the only ones who have a dating history is beyond me, but hauling out the “my ex was” (crazy, psycho, mean, blah blah blah) conversation line is just plain wrong. If someone starts it, just tell them we all have sad stories, and let’s focus on the lovely date we are currently on instead!

Those are a couple of my horror story dates. What have you encountered?