To Google or not to Google — that is the burning ‘due diligence’ question around researching a prospective love interest.
American woman Emma has sounded a huge dating alarm, urging all women to make the effort to look up their dates online.
Emma says she once made an awful discovery after Googling her date’s name, and has shared her creepy story in her podcast, That’s Unhinged.
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“This is a lesson for every girl everywhere,” she said in a now-viral clip on TikTok.
When Emma was a university student, she met a guy at a bar; he came across as charming and charismatic.
“He was 28, and said he owned his own company and was taking all his employees for a night out,” she said in the video.
“They were raving about him and he bought all their drinks.”
Emma and the man then spent the night together at his apartment.
She woke up the next morning and, she said, everything was going well at first.
“He was being so affectionate towards me and explained that he had to go into the office but that I could take my time, sleep in, help myself to coffee and let myself out,” she said.
“I was thinking this is amazing, this feels like a dream, I could marry this man.”
He left for work and that’s when it occurred to Emma to search online for his name.
“Normally I don’t like to google my dates’ names but, for some reason, I decided to google him,” she said.
The first thing that came up was that “he had been in jail for eight years because he murdered someone”.
“He shot them, point black in their face, over a digital camera — and I had just spent the night with him,” she said.
“My hands are sweating even thinking about this now. I was in a murderer’s apartment.
“I ran out the door. I cannot express how quickly to you I was out that door.”
Emma continued to hear regularly from the man, who would call and text her, and leave voicemails.
“I eventually had to block his number. His number is saved in my phone as ‘The Killer’,” she said.
“Moral of the story is to Google people. Don’t feel bad about it.
“If they did something bad, usually it will come up in a Google search right away.”
Emma’s video has received more than 690,000 views.
“Will never not Google someone now,” said one.
“Lesson learned,” noted a second, while a third added: “Unhinged is right.”
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