A Real Story

I downloaded Badoo on a Tuesday night because I was bored and my usual apps felt stale. Within two days I was talking to ‘Marcus,’ 44, who said he was an engineer on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. His profile had the little verified checkmark, six photos including one on what looked like a rig deck, and he texted like a real person — asked about my job at the pharmacy, remembered I mentioned my sister’s wedding was in April, that kind of thing.

We talked for about three weeks, mostly text since his ‘connection out there was bad’ for calls. Then came the ask: his satellite communication card had expired and the company wouldn’t reimburse him fast enough, could I grab a couple hundred dollars in Amazon gift cards so he could get it sorted and finally do a video call. I almost did it. I had the tab open. What stopped me was dumb luck — he texted me ‘good morning’ at what would’ve been 2am his supposed time zone, and when I asked about it he said he’d ‘lost track of days out there.’

I Googled his profile photo that night and it belonged to a stock image site for corporate headshots. I never sent the money, but I did feel embarrassed for weeks about how close I got, and about how normal the whole thing felt while it was happening. Now I tell anyone who’ll listen: if someone on Badoo or anywhere else has a job that conveniently makes video calls and quick meetups impossible, that’s not romantic distance, that’s the whole scheme.