Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my profile.  Remember, it is not required, so feel free to skip the tips or anything you don't like.  It is only here for those who actually want to know me anyway.

Let's get the nasty stuff out of the way first, shall we? 
I know how to ferret out those who are looking for money or otherwise trying to scam me, so don't even bother.   I work in the IT field, so take that as a warning.  You will be sorry.
WANT SOME QUICK TIPS ON HOW TO AVOID OR CATCH SCAMMERS/PREDATORS?: Check the Interests section of my profile.

Let's start with some ways to be successful on this platform.  First and foremost, this is not the real world.  By that I mean, people will "hide" things simply because they have not mentioned them yet.  Be tolerant, be kind, try to give people the benefit of the doubt and for god's sake, if you are wondering, ask questions before you just up and super-rudely block someone without even giving them an idea why.  Look at the context of how things are being said.  If I say, "you are really gorgeous, baby" that is probably predatory behaviour, but if I say, "you are a very beautiful woman, you might not want that photo to be your primary photo," it does not mean I am hitting on you.  This leads into the second suggestion, be open.  Understand that this platform allows for many more things to be misinterpreted than in real life.  Take the time to explain yourself to people.  If they don't want to hear it, then they probably aren't worth your time to begin with.

No, that's not my photo, no, that's not my name.  I do not just make that stuff readily available for anyone who decides to glance at my profile.  I have no problem providing those things to people who actually want to talk to me and get to know me.  I am not hiding, I am simply being cautious.  I think putting those things up straight away as akin to you writing your bank account number on pieces of paper and throwing them to the wind.  No one would ever do that, so why volunteer this information for people who are so obviously shallow you will never have a decent relationship with them in the first place?

If having no real photo of me or my actual name before contact bothers you, I wish you all the best in your search.  To me, those cosmetics are simply too superficial a way to start out any type of decent relationship, so kindly move on and good luck. 

If we do start to chat and you are not in my timezone, expect to see me visiting your profile as I can never keep timezones straight and that is the easiest way to see what time it is where you are.  Not to mention, I can be quite forgetful, so just fair warning.

Also, if you are a religious zealot, you are wasting your time.  I actually love to discuss religion but you will never ever convince me that a loving god would only accept 10-20% of the population.

Beyond that, if you are someone who needs a friend to be a certain height, certain weight, certain age or certain religion, I truly hope you find what you are looking for, honestly, I do, but I do not choose my friends using a ruler or a dipstick and I highly suggest you consider not doing so as well.

Thank you for enduring all of that.  It truly does pain me that my profile has to start out sounding like some kind of scolding mother but unfortunately, there are those who simply need it spelled out.
That having been said, I believe I am kind and caring; yeah, I know, after all of that, it probably doesn't sound like it, but I think kindness and caring are some of the most basic needs for any kind of real relationship.  I am also loyal.  If you want to be friends, I will not leave you unless you want me to.  I understand that friendships have ups and downs and am not going to penalize someone for the downs.  Just be aware, I tend to put in what I am given, so don't expect much of a response if you send me, "Hi my name is John, can we be friends?" or if you send me three sentences and wonder why I am not being conversive.

I also love to learn.  I know lots of people say they do, but I really want to understand things.  I want to see all sides of an issue, and I want to explore different people's opinions.  I have traveled quite a bit, and really enjoy the intricacies of other cultures so that is probably quite the conversation right there. 

I am a computer nerd, a gamer, a photographer, a philosopher, and a graphic designer.  I am an aspiring polyglot, animator, and writer who enjoys both the long deep conversations as well as the short daily "I can't believe this happened today."

As with most people, I have a weird side:
I make pizza with a blow torch
I am a vegetarian, well except for fish...oh, and steak, I love steak!
I truly want to get to know you.  No, I am not just saying that.  I want to know what you think, why you think it, and if you do not know why you think what you do, I would love to explore it with you.
All that I ask is that you are kind and sincere.  I don't really need someone who thinks they want a penpal but really does not want to put the effort into more than two or three messages before bailing.  I am looking for friends.  The kind who are willing to share everything with one another.  I do not really care who you are cosmetically, young, old, thin, fat, whatever you are, wherever you are, I am ok with you if you are ok with me.  Just don't assume that if the conversation starts off slowly that it is because I do not want to talk to you.

Lastly, as I said, I am a computer nerd, which means I do not use this on my phone but on a computer.  Interpals has no way for me to set my status to "away" or "offline" so as long as my browser is open, I will show online, even if I am on another browser tab or in another program.  That is all to mean, just because I show online, don't expect that I am sitting and waiting for your message.  It can sometimes take me days to respond to people, but if you take the time to write to me, there is a very high chance I will write back.

Joke of the day:
Wife: Our son keeps stealing money from my purse!
Husband: Hide it in his school books.  He will never open those.

Be kind to one another.  Take care of yourself, and take care of someone else.

I am using this section to tell you about a hobby of mine.  Catching scammers.  Here are some tips and tricks you can use to identify a scammer or to avoid being scammed yourself.

Let's start with a quick guide and then go into specifics.  Their age will be between 24 and 35 because they want to try to appeal to everyone.  Go to their profile.  You will be able to identify them almost immediately this way.  Now I cannot speak much for what the women will see, but men, you will see a model-quality photo.  Just try to put all the pieces together.  A blonde woman, listing her hometown in Thailand, yet does not list Thai on her list of languages at all.  She says she only speaks English, but her bio says she is in Ukraine.  Top that off with the fact that she only opened the account 20 minutes ago.  Scammer!  I actually enjoy posting this information to their wall, because they rarely go back to check.  They are too busy trying to scam people!

Ok, more specifics.  Keep in mind, the golden rule of scamming is to get as much as you can from someone with the least amount of effort.  You want to understand what they do and most importantly why they do it and it will help you identify them.
Why are they here on Interpals?  Scammers are trying to get money from you, so they will collect information.  I will list some ways to avoid them as well as ways to identify them.  Please keep in mind, this is by no means 100%.  Many of the things I will mention can be completely innocent.  The key is to put them all together to identify a pattern or motive.
AVOIDING THEM:
1. Don't put up your photo!  At least not as the primary photo.  It is ok to have photos of yourself, but in a swipe left and right society, many predators are only going to look at your initial photo.  Now maybe you are going to say, but how will I get people contacting me if I don't show my gorgeous face and amazing body?  Do you really want to build a friendship based solely off of your looks?  If you do, there are many other places much more suited for this (including the swipe left/swipe right place).  This also speaks to women being able to avoid those men who seem to think they can contact you, tell you that you are beautiful and they love you, and you will then marry them...within a day.  They found you from your initial photo.  No initial photo of you, no creepy guy begging you to marry him after 1 day.

IDENTIFYING THEM:
1. When someone first contacts you, go check to see if they even bothered to view your profile.  Scammers don't care about who you are or why you are here, they just want to get information.  Information leads to money.  Now there is a caveat here.  Just because I ask you, "so what is your home town like," does not mean I am looking to scam you.  Scammers will specifically look for things they can sell (your email address or phone number) or ways they can impersonate you.
2. Look at their profile.  Did they just open it?  Have they only been on here for hours instead of days or months?  Now, obviously this can't possibly be taken solely on its own.  How about their photos.  Are all of their photos uploaded at the same time?  Do they all look like they might have been taken at the same place?  We we all live our lives.  We take a photo on our night out and we upload it.  We then have a great time at a party and we upload another photo from the party.  Scammers don't do that.  They do everything all at once and when they feel they have exhausted a market, they move on. 
That also brings us to the profile text itself.  If you have read this far, then you know I am a big fan of actually telling people something about yourself.  They don't.  They will have profiles that say, "I am into skiing and love reading."  And that's it.  They put exactly 2 seconds into their profile, so that is how much time you should put into them.  Now, they are getting more clever.  There are places online like Reddit where they can find basic profile scripts that they can copy and paste, so that they don't have only one sentence.  Either way, take the profile as a whole.  If this is someone who has messaged you with "hi" and when you look at their profile, they have been on Interpals for 12 hours, say their home town is in Indonesia, yet their photo is a blonde woman, the only language listed is English, yet in their profile, they state they are in the Ukraine and their name is Anna, despite their profile name saying they are Betty....a classic Indonesian name, you are almost certainly looking at a scammer.  Don't bother to report them, they technically have done nothing wrong.
3. They will quite often want you to leave the platform very quickly in most cases because if they can get your email address or WhatsApp (a sneaky way to get your phone number), that is one step closer to being able to impersonate you. 
It could be as unassuming as a friend request on here (which means they can then see the birthdate you put in, so hopefully, you did not use your real one). They may even be overt and tell you they have a wonderful gift to send to you and all they need is your shipping address.  So, something to consider, as soon as someone messages you, go check to see whether they have viewed your profile.  It doesn't always register, so don't be too hard on people who don't show as having read your profile when they say they did, but quiz them.  "What part of my profile did you like best?"  Even if they aren't a scammer, do you really want to converse with someone who didn't even give you the courtesy of reading what you wrote about yourself?  Isn't that the whole reason you are here; to get to know someone? 
4. Be very wary of the personal information you give out.  Remember the questions you set up when you opened your bank account?  Your favourite pet, your mother's maiden name, your father's middle name.  Unless you are getting married to them, you truly should not be giving out any of this kind of personally identifiable. information.  They have sneaky ways of tricking you into giving them this stuff.  If you live in a small town, list the nearest big town.  Why?  Because if you tell them a small town name and that town only has one post code, now they know your post code.  Don't give out any information that would ever help anyone guess your password.  Honestly, I just banged on the keyboard, made a few changes and used that non-sensical password as my password.  You would be surprised, if you say it to yourself a dozen times over a couple weeks, you will remember it and it will have no connection to you at all, instead of "childsname-yourbirthday"  That kind of stuff is far too easy to guess if they get to know you even a little.

Specifically for the men: Scammers will often start off very friendly.  They might open with "Hello, dear."  They will also have a gorgeous woman in the profile photo.  If she looks like she could be a model, she probably is somewhere and this is some dude in central Africa trying to scam you.
Specifically for the women: Beware of military people who are stationed outside their native country.  I am not quite sure why they think this particular scam is so beneficial...maybe so they can gain your trust and then say they cannot afford to go home to their sick grandmother or something like that.  Regardless, This is one to watch out for.

Experience is the cruelest of teachers but you learn...my God do you learn.  ~ C. S. Lewis

Evil actions are quite often made possible by the gaps left in good intentions. ~ Me

Anything can be a good thing, taken in moderation.  Moderation is the key, though.  ~ My Father

You are born looking like your parents, but you die looking like your decisions. ~ My Father

Too many people are trying to find the right person, rather than be the right person themselves. ~ Me

Always assume the person you are talking to knows something you don't  ~ Jordan Peterson

Commitment to dedication is what brings the depth of life ~ My Father

An expensive suit is nothing if you don't accomplish anything in it. ~ My Father

Things are never so bad that they cannot be made worse. ~ Humphrey Bogart

I see you've got your fists out.  Say your piece and get out. ~ The Grateful Dead

You don't get people to stand up on their own two feet and adopt responsibility if everything is handed to them. ~ Jordan Peterson

We have to stop expecting to be offended, and we have to start openly and sincerely listening.  That will lead to a greater understanding of ourselves and others, having compassion for one another, working together towards solutions, because we are all in this together ~ Cassie Jaye

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. ~ Albert Einstein

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get. ~ Confucius

I have a foreboding of an America when the United States is a service and information economy; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true.  When the dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, displaying pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. ~ Carl Sagan, 1995

Conflict delayed is conflict multiplied. ~ My Father

Don't just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it. ~ Jim Rohn

Sometimes going all the way is just the start. ~ MeatLoaf

You can't awaken someone who is pretending to be asleep. ~ My Father

He who cannot rule himself will certainly be ruled by others. ~ Nietzsche

You may ask yourself, "Am I right? Am I wrong?" and you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done!" ~ The Talking Heads

I can't complain but sometimes I still do.  Life's been good to me so far. ~ Joe Walsh

Every decision in life is the swing of a hammer.  It can destroy the wood or it can help build the house that is your life.  Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to see the ramifications of each decision until after the consequences are known, so always try to make the best choices you can. ~ My Father

Do everything you can to save and invest as much money as you can.  It is sad, but also a fact that money brings opportunities you wouldn't otherwise have.  Get your money to work for you so that you do not have to work for your money. ~ My Father

Don't place limits on yourself based on what others believe you can or cannot achieve. ~ My Father

We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living but not a life. We’ve added years to life, not life to years. ~ George Carlin

In a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet.  we spend most of our lives reaching out and trying to communicate.  if during our whole lifetime, we could reach out and really communicate with just two people, we are indeed fortunate. ~ Gene Roddenberry

You're time has come to shine.  All your dreams are on their way.  See how they shine, and if you need a friend, I'm sailing right behind. ~ Simon and Garfunkel

The goal isn't to live forever, but to create something that will. ~ Jamal Edwards

Discipline should come from the inside, not from the outside ~ George Carlin