Jasmine Triggs’s story is a cautionary tale for many. And now the 23-year-old has decided to share her account in the hope that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
Triggs was heartbroken and angry after she was left stranded at a Texas airport when a mystery man blocked her number as she stepped off a 2½-hour flight from Indiana, Daily Star reported. She had forked out £300 (about R6 400) for the ticket.
The two had met online a week before making plans to meet in person. Triggs booked a return ticket from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Texas.
As soon as she stepped off the plane, she discovered that her guy had blocked her number, leaving her stranded in Houston, 1 500km away from home.
"I was talking to this guy for about a week and he asked me to come out to Texas,“ she told the publication.
"We were talking the morning I was due to go.
"We were talking and talking and talking every day, about where he went to school, how he'd been a cheerleader and had a robotics company.
"I liked him. We'd been getting to know each other but it was sexual as well.“
Triggs said the two met via an iMessage group chat after being introduced by a mutual friend.
"When I was on the plane, all my messages were sending to everyone apart from him," she said.
"I didn't hear from him all morning and once I landed, I called him, but I realised he'd blocked my number and I was panicking.
"People from the group chat were calling him and he blocked them as well."
She later posted the incident online to warn others of the dangers of making plans to meet people they've never met in person.