With all the spam I receive, both on the site and via e-mail, imagine my dismay when I see this in my inbox today (sans editorial markups for grammar and spelling, since it would be rendered unreadable):

i would really love to email you with a real connection instead of on this. i love your long blond hair how old are you? please email me back i would really apreciate it!

wanna be your email friend or real life friend,

Aliyah

Phishing for e-mail addresses, are we?  Because there exists no picture on this site where I have long blond hair.  In fact, it’s been many ages since I had long blond hair—many ages—and not one photo from that time can be found on my blog.

I suppose it goes along with all the phishing messages that say something like this:

Please don’t ignore me. I’m a young pretty Russian girl. I’m sitting in an internet cafe and found your address on that dating site. Please email me. I’d love to get to know you. My address is whatever_address@whatever_domain. Don’t reply to this message because I borrowed a friend’s account and won’t get your reply.

Perhaps you’ve seen it; perhaps not.  In either case, it’s rather silly because, if you’re in an internet cafe, why would you need to borrow a friend’s e-mail account?

Oh, and there’s this fact: I’ve never in my life seen or signed up on a dating site.  Just thought I’d say. . .