Some time ago, I started chatting with this person I met online, and soon enough flirting started to happen (we’re both adults), and with it naturally pics also happened. It wasn’t this fast as I’m depicting here, but the specifics of the talks we had aren’t too relevant I think.

Im no newbie on the internet, I know perfectly well the risk I’m putting myself through by doing this, and know a bit about how to detect a creep just wanting to take advantage. And so obviously I checked the pics I received using reverse image search, since the way they spoke and discussed seemed genuine and i had no suspicions about that. The first few selfies showed no matches online, so i kept going.

However the next pics showed perfect matches, and obviously I had to investigate further, which led me to find packs of pictures with that same face and body. Welp, I had do call them out.

I sent them a bigger text explaining that I had found the pics online, and that I had been mislead before and was concerned about their real identity. In the text, I tried my best to not make it sound accusatory, and explicitly said twice that this was not an accusation and that I just wanted an explanation. But that’s when it started going downhill, obviously.

They explained to me that they used to sell these in the past, and were just trying to forget that period of their life, and told me that because I brought it up, they couldn’t speak to me anymore because of shame and stopped replying after explaining it and telling me I was a good guy.

I checked their profile, and it was and is a regular, active, reasonably old account. Soon after we stopped talking a post about a shitty past was made. Also, their talk was nothing like the fake creeps usually do. Genuine interests, had their own sense of humor, shared more personal info before I did, so none of that “omg I’m just like you!!” Talk the fakes do, and there’s also the fact that some pics showed absolutely no matches.

And, I know there are people out there that have their face all over the internet and also look for dates online.

By this point I have sorta moved on, but I’m still on the fence about whether to believe their story, plus there’s still this sensation that I should’ve approached the situation differently, maybe with more caution? Idk.

So, was I the AH? Should I have approached them differently? Did I dodge a bullet?