Saturday, April 21, 2007

Somewhere on a bathroom wall . . .

are the words, "For a good time call Gina at ****-****." Or so it seems. I had a text message several weeks ago that said, "Hey Gina want to chat?" from no one I knew. That wouldn't have troubled me much aside from the fact that they knew my name. This afternoon, I got a phone call from a man and initially all I could understand (due to his thick accent, and the fact that my reception in the stairwell wasn't great) was, "company" and "rent." Since we'd just talked with a property agent about someone taking over our lease, I thought he might be calling in reference to that. I asked him again what he wanted. He said "I am looking for a company."
I said, "You want me to help you find a job?"
He said, "No, I am looking for company."
And I realized that the first thing he said was, "I am looking for company for rent." In other words, he thinks I'm a call girl.
So I said, "I am married with two small children. Don't ever call this number again." Then proceeded to call my husband and ponder why people out there seem to think I will respond to this kind of propositioning.

My hand phone isn't the only place I get this. On an almost daily basis, I get instant messages from random men across Asia asking if I'd like to chat, get to know them, meet them when they come to Singapore. At first I thought it was because my husband put my kindergarten picture on my IM (I was a pretty cute 5 year old, despite my Dorothy Hamill haircut). So I changed it to a picture of me and Erik. Doesn't deter them. I'm sure they're sending out their creepy messages to many people across the globe, but I have no desire to be included. Once I responded and said I was enormously fat and had horrible body odor. He didn't care, so I blocked him. Now I just block them all.

One more call or message and I'm changing my number. Just goes to show - there are perverts everywhere.

3 comments:

Ryan said...

wow. that's kind of creepy. maybe it started out as a prank and blew out of proportion. I think if something similar were to happen to me I'd change my number after the 10th call or so and turn the phone off untill it was fixed.

Anonymous said...

Hi Gina, just want to mention that I can understand what you feel and must be thinking about all those perverts. I also want to point out to you that because your profile in Skype gives out a lot of personal information, people contact you knowing who you are. For example, the link to your blog is as good as sending an invitation to people to read your diary. Your skype profile also has your real name on it.. it also has your phone number i see.
Should just not list your number there, and put a pseudonym instead of a name... and not put the link to your blog. But i understand also that that should be your perogative and you shouldn't be dictated by the actions of a bunch of perverts who spoil the internet for the rest of society.

Anyway, good luck to you in your search for a new home.

Gina Marie said...

Vince - thanks! My husband set up my profile for me and I didn't know what he'd put on there. I just changed a few things. Hopefully the creeping will cease.