TINDER

Around March of 2014, I started talking to this girl on tinder. She seemed cool and
fun, and after about a week of talking, she suggested we meet up in person. She
invited me to this coffee shop, and I accepted. However, the day of, she started
messaging me saying she had to tell me something - Her pictures on tinder weren't
actually of her, and yes, she was a guy. He claimed he really liked talking to me
though and begged me to still meet up with him. Naturally, I declined. I blocked his
profile and continued on with life.
About a week later, I started talking to another girl. Once again, she seemed cool and
fun and we hit if off. She asked me If I spoke to people on Tinder frequently, and
rather stupidly, I told her about my previous encounter with the manlady (weeks
later, I would realize that this new girl was the same girl as the week before).
She asked me if I wanted to meet up and I said sure as long as it was in a public
place. We decided on a cafe and the next day I sat at the table waiting. Five, ten,
fifteen minutes had passed and she was nowhere to be found. I then peered out the
window, and saw, from a cross the street, a man staring at me intently.
I looked away, waited a few seconds, and looked back - he was still standing there
staring. At that point, I left the cafe, got on my bike (I always bike everywhere), and
booked it home. I was definitely a little freaked out, but tried to pull myself together,
and reasoned that no one could have followed me. I then deleted my tinder profile,
and things were normal for a few weeks
About three weeks later, I started getting phone calls. The numbers all showed up as
"Unknown." I picked up the first few times to some guy breathing heavily into the
phone. I was already a little freaked out. After about a day, I stopped picking up any
call unless it displayed the caller's name. I then started receiving texts. At first they
were pretty harmless. Calls for attention and begging me to meet in person. It then
changed to very sexual texts, until eventually the messages became threatening and
whoever was messaging me started throwing out my family and friends' names and
whereabouts. Saying he/she would get them involved unless I answered. Because
they were texting me, I could see a displayed number. But when I called phone
providers, they told me the number couldn't be traced and that it was probably a
tracfone.
Great. I waited about two weeks, not responding to the texts (thinking I shouldn't
feed the troll), but eventually it became too much. I started getting upwards of 50
texts and phone calls a day. I would wake up to 10-20 texts every morning. I then
decided to change my number all together. The texting/calls stopped for a while, but
sure enough, it started happening again. I called my phone provider asking if they
ever gave out numbers at a user's request, and they said their policy stated that they
wouldn't/couldn't unless valid identification was provided.
Then one day, I tried logging into my Facebook, but was denied. Within a day friends
start contacting me asking what the hell I was doing. Saying that they were getting
terrible messages from my account. In particular, one of my girlfriends was receiving
messages about her mom who died years ago. I apologized profusely and told people
what was going on.
I contacted Facebook and explained the situation and they helped me access my
count again, at which point I deactivated it for a while. Enough was enough. I decided
to contact the FBI, explaining what had been going on (for over a month now). They
documented everything but told me since I, or any of my relatives/friends, were in no
immediate danger, they probably wouldn't be able to do anything. At that point I felt
stuck. I thought about hiring a private investigator or a hacker. I decided against it
however and just hoped it would fade out If I never answered.
I left my facebook deactivated and ignored any texts/phone calls. I never had any
trouble at home, but some of my closest friends received the occasional text as well
which weirded us all out. I hated that they got dragged into it. One day I came home
and things felt very eery. Door unlocked, windows open and no one home. A strong
breeze running through the apartment. I did a check of the place and found nothing
else weird so I locked everything up and just waited for my roommates to get home.
It’s been almost seven months now. The calls/texts have more or less stopped. I'll get
an occasional text, but at most one every two weeks. At the peak of it, I was
receiving almost 100 texts a day. It definitely affected my social/personal life. I
became much more weary of the people around me and my surroundings. I just felt
like I couldn't really focus on anything until this stopped. Work was difficult, though I
tried to maintain my composure as best I could. Everything was just weird. Life was
weird.
I've since stopped using all forms of dating apps/websites. Things are getting back to
normal and at this point, I just want to put it all behind me. I'm moving at the end of
this year, so it'll be nice to have a fresh start in a new place. I'm not going to sit here
and say all dating apps are dangerous and no one should use them. But definitely
cover your bases, ask more questions before meeting someone, facetime them first,
skype, anything. I was naive about it, and I regret it. Be safe, stick close to your
friends and try meeting people in more traditional ways!

Vocabulary:
We hit it off - мы нашли общий язык
Frequently - часто
My previous encounter with - первая встреча с
Peer out - выглядывать
Intently - пристально
Whereabouts - местонахождение
Feed the troll - “подкармливать” тролля
Upwards of - свыше
To apologize prefusely - чрезмерно извиняться
To fade out - постепенно исчезать
To weird somebody out - удивлять кого-то своей странностью
Eery - жуткий
At the peak of it - на пике
Composure - самообладание, спокойствие