It's probably new to no one except me that Google has a reverse image search function, meaning that you can plug the image into the search bar, and if that picture is anywhere on the internet, Google will be able to find it. I learned that from Nev on Catfish.
This week, I decided to go Encyclopedia Brown on this guy's ass. "Kevin" had contacted me online a few years ago and sent his picture. We spoke for a few days, and then he started getting weird. He had a ridiculous obsession with girls in boyshorts. And would inexplicably send me pictures of girls...in boyshorts, most of them of a female "friend" of his. I started to get creeped out and stopped talking to him.
After my radio silence, he sent an email telling me that he had sent me a fake picture, and he actually wasn't who he said he was. He had sent a picture of his friend. My response was, "Well, can you fix me up with that guy," because he was pretty cute. And he answered, "Yeah, I guess I can ask if he'll talk to you." About a day later, I received a message from a "Mike". I was pretty sure that it was the same guy as "Kevin", but at this point, it was kind of amusing.
Needless to say, I stopped talking to both Kevin and/or Mike within a day or so because he and/or they were just plain weird.
Going through some old emails for blog material, I came across the Kevin/Mike exchange and the guy's picture. Wondering who this guy might be, I plugged his image into Google. And his linkedin picture came up. [Just a note: no fairy-tale ending here, the real Kevin/Mike is married.]
Let's break down the facts, ma'am. Fake Kevin/Mike had about 8 pictures of this guy, and the female friend, AND the two of them together. So, it had to have been someone who had access to these pictures somehow. It was most likely someone that he knew. Doing a little bit more research from the name on the linkedin profile, I discovered real Kevin/Mike's facebook page and that he was married to the "female friend". Now, here was the dilemma. I would want to know if someone was sending my picture to strangers on the internet and claiming that it was me. I would especially want to know if he was sending pictures of my wife! But, I would also be kind of creeped out if some random girl Ace Ventura-ed me.
Not usually one to be embarrassed, I believed that the right thing to do would be to let real Kevin/Mike know about fake Kevin/Mike. And so, I sent him this:
"Hi! You don't know me personally. This is very weird and random, but I thought that you should know. I know I would want to! A couple of years ago, I met a guy online. He told me that his name was Kevin and he sent me your picture AND a picture of your wife. As we talked more, he sent me more and more pictures of you two, so I think that it must be someone that you know. We only talked for a couple of days because he started to seem sketchy, so I ultimately stopped talking to him.
I reversed google image searched you so that I could tell you because I think that if a friend of mine was sending out my picture and pictures of my wife to random strangers on the internet, I would want to know that. I can give you more information if you need or want it. Or you can just ignore this message which is ok too. I just wanted to let you know."
I'm not sure if I'll hear back from the real Kevin/Mike. But, hopefully, I have rid the world of one more lying liar. I can't help but think that real Kevin/Mike's wife in her boyshorts is smiling at me from somewhere else...or maybe she's horrified by the whole ordeal because her husband is showing her racy pictures to all of his friends.
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