Lara, 21, is a pretty lass who was not able to finish elementary school because of poverty. She can barely read and write but has her looks to make up for it. She is in deep trouble because her 53-year old American fiance whom she met through the internet is coming and she is afraid her secret will be out. For a year, she had been chatting with him through the help of Manang Liz, a woman in her late forties who make a living out of girls like Lara.



Manang Liz does the typing and the whole conversation while Lara (and all her other clients) just sit beside her looking pretty, smiling at the webcam and pretending to type. She relies on Manang Liz to translate the conversation.

Joyce, 23 is facing a different dilemma. Her fiance is also coming to the Philippines in a few months and she is afraid of meeting him. They chatted almost everyday, had been technically sweethearts for two years, and she has been receiving a monthly allowance from him. The big hitch is that Joyce is not a girl but a guy. And the problem is she had fallen deeply in love with her fiance who thinks she is very much a female.

Lindy's boyfriend will be visiting the Philippines to meet her soon. She is worried because like Joyce, she has been receiving regular allowance from her boyfriend. Lindy swears she is in love with him. She however forgot to tell him that she is very much married with four children and has been using her allowance from him to help defray household expenses. You might say these are made-up situations to but sad to say, these are real-life stories gleaned from conversations in internet cafes.

How can you tell if she is genuine or not? Through the course of your online correspondence, you should already have a large bank of information about your Filipina girlfriend gleaned from bits and pieces of conversation.

Why not keep track of all your conversations since Day 1 or on the day you started to get serious? Later on you can review these conversations and read between the lines. You will be shocked to unearth a lot of revelations that did not seem to matter much while you were still chatting.

Force your intuition to work. You should be able to sense if something is not right, maybe a line here or there that would show inconsistency that would give her away. Check her e-mails for subtle signs to make you suspicious from the start. Did she provide you with a home address or telephone number? If she did, did you try to contact her? If she comes out clean and genuine, then what are you waiting for?