Good rule of thumb for any meeting where you might end up in a non-public space.
If you're just doing a buy/sell thing, you can count on doing the entire exchange in a public space. If you're meeting someone for a date, you might end up in a more secluded setting. It doesn't happen as much around where I live, but I've read stories of it happening in other parts of the world
With my experience with dating sites if I was into murdering random internet strangers I don't think I'd use dating sites to acquire targets, the amount of legwork would be unreasonable, it's almost impossible to get anyone to talk to on those things.
How am I supposed to lure potential victims to my kill dungeon if they ghost me all the time? Seriously it's a problem.
As a gay man, this is also pretty common. I have a friend who knows if I ever get laid, specifically because he's my emergency "if I'm murdered here's what to tell the people" person.
I actually had a girl take a picture of me while I was driving specifically for that purpose when I picked her up for our first date. She told me "I just need to send my friend your picture in case you murder me." Lol
Honestly be way better to take a picture of the vehicle plate, then she doesn't even have to make you aware of it, and the plate is in a database, unlike your face. On top of that, she can use a police procedure that exists for making vehicle stops: touch the side of your car with a bare hand, leaving prints on the finish for forensics.
Or, IDK, maybe she did all of the above
Edit: Now that I think about it, making you aware of it might actually be part of the plan. If you were going to murder her, you might just cut the date off early instead, saving her some time and a murder
I once went on a date with a girl and when I got to the bar there were four of her friends at the table! They left once they made sure I wasn't a murderer.
How did they make sure you were not a murderer though? You didn't murder her instantly in the restaurant in front of them and tjat was good enough for them.
My friend and I just share our phone locations with eachother whenever one of us has a date with someone new. It makes everything dead simple. I can check at any time and see that they are not in a dumpster behind the Aldi.
If you pass along the profile screenshot, the police could reach out to Bumble for the details. Dating apps have an incentive to boot bad users off their platform, and a murder-y one would be bad for business
I have seen a couple of girls looking stuck and helped them out. I made sure they took a picture of the reg and passed it on. To me it makes sense, increasing the chances of someone being found out makes them less likely to be a danger.
My pet hate is realising I am walking behind some girl who has started looking nervous. There is very little you can do to alleviate it. If you slow down it looks suspicious, and they don't want you near them so it is hard to walk past to get in front. It is a price most men face because of other people misgivings.
Ah, the good old "stop, act as if there was a good reason for that, and casually look around to see if there are any witnesses" of the rapist/thief preparing to pounce.
Or at least, that's how it might very well be read by somebody already afraid and getting a bit paranoid because some guy has been walking behind her for the last couple of blocks.
The best way to not act suspicious is to not act at all - unless you're a great actor, doing a mini-performance instead of just keep on doing your thing normally will often feel off to most people, especially if they're a bit paranoid and thus extra alert for anything unusual.
Ideally, IMHO, just ignore that person altogether, as any reaction, even just accelerating your step to pass that person because you're trying to be nice and not seem to be following her, might be noticed (from the sound of the footsteps) and increase a person's paranoia.
No, I am saying that veering from the action of simply walking as you normally would is viewed with suspicion, because they have no idea where you have gone. Dropping further back and moving out of view, only to find you come back into view later on, can make somebody who feels threatened even more so. There is no correct action to alleviate the issue.
I should also that this is not a situation I find myself in these days. I don't work shifts anymore, so rarely find that I am walking home in the dark. It was something that was quite common in my younger days. Mainly due to where I lived at the time and the fact I was not a car driver.
I have found so many rat runs through estates. When the traffic is bad and you see cars veering off. I often have followed the cars that look like they are heading in my direction. I have never ended up on a stranger's drive way yet.
It's partly fatalistic humor, partly practical. There is risk in the situation to everyone involved, but it's way higher for women. You inform people of the circumstances of the date to increase your safety.
Letting someone else know your whereabouts is good defensive thinking. Wrapping the real need to do it in humor is a way to remove some of the sting from the truth of why youre doing it.
I personally don't know any women who have ever gone to someone's house to purchase something. You meet in a well lit public place during the day, just like any sane person. Women do face threats to their health and safety when going out with strange men. It seems you're under the impression that murder is what we are trying to avoid when it's much much more common that women are raped and/or drugged on dates. Although avoiding murder is also a top priority but that's a given for literally everyone on the planet.
I personally don't know any women who have ever gone to someone's house to purchase something.
My wife and I sell things all the time online (Kijiji or FB market), and I'd say that women probably come 75% of the time.
We do meet in the driveway, but they often come to our door when they don't read our instructions. Never inside, although, I've been invited inside homes before when picking stuff up.
High value items often require meeting in a public place, but guys will come to the house for those, too. In those cases, I'll only do it during the day, and with at least three security cameras rolling and another person with me (wife, son, etc.).
No seller is going to leave their house to meet someone for a $10 item, even though people do ask for free delivery on low value items all the time😂
You do have to be sensible when buying stuff through online local markets. Check reviews on the person, check to see how long they've been on the platform, and what kind of items they have sale. I'll ignore buyers who have new accounts and no previous interactions.
We sold a double strollor in the mid nineties. I was at home alone when the girl turned up to buy it on her own. It was raining so she came in to look at it. I never really thought about it the time. I was just happy that something was not going to waste at the time.
I've had lots of women come pick up plates/glasses when I got rid of my excess. Weirdest was a 155cm tall Asian woman who was at most 40kg. She took a 15kg box of assorted plates & cups and headed to the nearest bus stop. 😅
I sent my wife to pick up a laptop the other day. With a ton of cash in her pocket. To the worst part of town. To the worst building in that neighbourhood.
She said the guy was nice and that she gave him some tips on where to move once his contract was up.
It's about finding the sweet spot for being murder-y. You want to be just murder-y enough to be interesting and mysterious, but no so much that there's actual fear for their lives. OTOH, being not murder-y at all is boring and unfuckable. The dude with the man bun writing poetry about birds is not getting the date in the first place. Meanwhile, "probably not a murderer but I can't rule it out" is heading back to their place for a nightcap.
Girls actually text each other like, "I'm meeting a guy allegedly named Brian here 📌If he murders me here's his Bumble pic so he can be brought to justice" and then the reply's like "You got it girl - have fun tonight! 😘😜"
To be fair, that's a good thing. It creates a natural filter. If they weren't going to put in that bare minimum effort of saying "hi" on an app where everyone using it is aware that the women have to message first, they probably weren't going to be any good as a date.
Seriously. I'm 18 and just moved out this summer. The amount of people acting like creeps in public was insane at first. Now that I've been on testosterone for a while and started passing as male in public, it's been happening significantly less often. (Not never, but much less frequent).
I try to keep an eye out and be the helpful bystander in bad situations, and any advice on that would be appreciated. Stay safe out there, lemmings <3
Honestly? Call the police and don’t get personally involved.
People in the 21st century seem to have forgotten the damage one human being can do to another. With respect to your life choices, you still have the body of an 18 year old girl and pretty much any average male over the age of 16 would be able to overpower you without much effort.
Fair point! I definitely wouldn't try to physically overpower someone; in addition to what you pointed out, I have a musculoskeletal condition that makes me pretty weak lol. I do appreciate you pointing that out though since I wasn't all that specific in the question.
Calling the police really is probably the only thing to do. I just hate feeling helpless watching stuff happen to people, y'know? But yeah, anything else would probably just make s bad situation worse. 🤷
I think that the best two emotions is greed and competition, because that's what science says are the best and most adaptible ones and the other ones are useless, and some I don't understand, even others ones, the other ones are either bad, cost too much + they don't make sense and they dont work on women unlike money
lol
edit: Oh did I mention by the way that I am also a bigot and racist? I know it's not relevant, but there you go.
What are you on about? First you're calling competition an emotion, then you're claiming "science" has declared certain emotions "better and more adaptible". Can you try to explain your point again when you're sober?
Edit: Pretty sure someone was just having fun on Lemmy while drinking/high, after viewing the user's post right before this one. As it doesn't seem like a good faith position I withdraw my questions.