Wi-Fi Is Boost, Not Bane, To Secure Networks

Women Try To Track Down Serial Online Proposer

from the an-officer-and-a-gentleman? dept

Wed, Jun 11th 2003 2:48am — Mike Masnick

In the past, we've had a few stories about the "perils" of online dating, but I think this one beats the rest. I'm going to try to refrain from taking any cracks at the NY Times and their recent troubles distinguishing fact from fiction, but I have to admit, the following story reads like fiction. Apparently, an American Army office stationed in Afghanistan has been making the rounds on online dating sites. He's apparently such a romantic both via email and satellite phone, that he hasn't had much trouble making women fall for him. In fact, this virtual Don Juan asked a woman to marry him, even though they had never met. That worked out so well, that he asked another 50 or so to marry him as well. The story all came crashing down recently, when a local news program did a short broadcast on one of the women, waiting for her "fianc�" to return from overseas. The video from the story was posted to MSNBC, where a few of the other women saw it... and soon they started tracking each other down. They compared notes, and found that they were all simultaneously being wooed by the same man - often using the same emails (and occasionally having him take the words of one of the women, and spin them back around to use on a different woman). The real Colonel Kassem Saleh is apparently already married. There is a question, though, of whether or not he's actually done anything illegal, though many of the women want to see him go to jail. Some of them were already deep into planning weddings and are in a state of shock. As I said, it reads like fiction. I'm sure someone is already negotiating the movie rights.

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7 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2003 @ 2:55am

Very common
I know at least one other guy who does exactly what this guy does, but he's open about it as well. His trick is to let people underestimate him -- he looks like a harmless nerd, so women assume he can't possibly be serious about his exploits. He's always "about to marry" at least 4 women. He goes on these North American Road Tours where he fucks his way across the continent. In one week, he fucked an anorexic nurse in Philadelphia, whose sharp elbows hurt his stomach, and then he drove over to Pittsburgh to fuck a 300 pound woman in a trailer park.

Back in Connecticut, I knew another guy who worked as a hospital orderly, he had an S&M dungeon set up in the basement, knew pretty much every nurse and prostitute in the state. He was 1. in an environment with 10 women for every man, 2. a part time massage therapist, and 3. a part time pot dealer. He knew a cop who could get him out of trouble whenever he got busted, and the cop was an even bigger womanizer than he.

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- Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2003 @ 3:10am
  
  Re: Very common
  Oh, and I forgot to mention that the orderly guy has a bookshelf full of video tapes of himself with his women. He's had 3 open marriages, in which he lived with his wife and other girlfriend(s) at the same time. He emigrated here from Hungary during the Cold War, and on his asylum application, he put down the reason for coming to America as "sex, drugs, and rock and roll."
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u2604ab, 11 Jun 2003 @ 8:48am

funny
There was a match.com banner ad at the bottom of the article. Is NYT doing contextual advertizing?
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Belinda Carter, 30 Dec 2003 @ 4:25am

Col. Saleh
Actually, it reads like a fantasy, because it it. First of all, the count of 50 was the count of the addresses in his email directory which included many other personal unrelated addresses. The actual count of contacts over a 7 year period is about 30.

Second, the man only met about 12 of the women, whom he corresponded with and had intimate contact with only about 6 in the 7 years. Also, he was legally married during that time, but had a consentual separation from his 'wife' whom he did not live with.

Third, you have to be some kind of idiot to think about getting married to someone whom you have never met. Gads!

Four - Yes, what he did was very, very wrong, even if it was just 4 women, but the women need to take some responsibility for their action too. I wonder what part of 'dumb' don't they understand. Movies - Ho, hum, dumb. Maybe a comedy......
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- kilroy, 1 Jun 2006 @ 1:57pm
  
  Re: Col. Saleh
  WOW you're smart! Will you marry me?
  
  Just kidding. I like the poit you make about the people having to take responsibility for their own actions. No matter how lonely you are you might want to take some time and determine if the person you are corresponding with is for real. After all anyone can tell me what I want to hear but when it comes to putting your money where your mouth is I find most of the time ... those people want to split the cheque.
  
  Have fun - play safe ... I always said.
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mike-ish, 1 Jun 2006 @ 3:30pm

on the internet...
no one knows you're a dawg!
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jun 2006 @ 3:42pm

Your on the internet looking for a husband.. Ha Ha Ha I dont blam him More power to him. He has done nothing wrong.
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