If you're like a lot of people around this time of year, you may well be looking at vacation destinations. There's a whole planet to choose from, but as most folks know, there are plenty of places that a prudent traveler avoids. Places like Mexico, where the U.S. Embassy has issued a security alert to Americans considering a visit to the Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
With summer travel approaching, officials are issuing a security alert to Americans who are using dating apps in certain areas of Mexico, warning travelers to use caution due to a rise in kidnappings linked to the apps.
On Monday, the US Embassy and consulates in Mexico shared a security alert after confirming “several reports of US citizens being kidnapped by individuals the victims met on dating apps in recent months.”
Honestly, who goes all the way to Mexico to hook up on a "dating" app? Are these really "dating" apps, anyway, or are these nitwits using the more... direct hookup apps? Either way, it's not the smartest thing to do.
There's more:
You’ve got to be careful, buyer beware. You’ve got to assume that something bad could happen to you in this process,” Bobby McDonald, a retired supervisory Secret Service agent and a lecturer in criminal justice at the University of New Haven, shared with Fox News Digital about dating app dangers.
“If you choose to use it, be on extra-high alert. Be extra careful of where you’re meeting this person or persons. Make sure that it’s in a public area. Make sure it’s an area where you’re going to have cellphone service. Make sure that you’re just watching out for yourself, situational awareness. Be careful and let people know where you are,” McDonald urged.
McDonald added that these dating apps are the latest ruse criminals are using.
Some years back, during my years as a jacket-and-tie corporate consultant, I did a job lasting about three months in Puerto Rico. I had seen a couple warnings about travel there, but the locals noted that the gangs in San Juan and the Caribbean coast town of Ponce, where I spent several happy Saturdays on the beach with an ice-cold cerveza and a long green cigar, were mostly left alone by the crooks. Tourists spent a lot of money, and the gangs even sold drugs to visitors, so the tourists were off-limits.
I don't know if that was ever the case in Mexico, but if it was, it's changing.
See Also: Now the Cartels in Mexico Are Dealing in Illicit Fish Trade, Extorting Fishermen
Bobby McDonald shared some other advice that makes good sense:
McDonald recommended that anyone traveling out of the country or even to a new place in the United States “do a little bit of research before you travel” and know what “the surrounding area of where you’re staying is like.”
“You need to make sure that you are cautious of your surroundings. You need to have the phone number of the US Embassy or consulate on your person. You need to make sure that you’ve made extra copies of your passport,” McDonald said. “Not only leaving a copy at home, but having an extra copy with you.”
This all seems like it's belaboring the obvious, but then, I'm a seasoned globetrotter thanks to those jacket-and-tie years, so perhaps my perspective is skewed.
Mexico is and has been a popular vacation spot, and there are, from what I'm told, some beautiful beachfront resorts and so on. But with all that's going on in that failed state, with the cartels, the corruption, the crime, it's probably a place better avoided. There are also beautiful beachfront resorts here in the States, after all, say, in Florida.
But the "dating app" angle, the notion that someone would go to a place like Mexico and immediately bring up a hook-up app. That kind of nitwittery is a head-scratcher, and all too likely to end up with someone campaigning for a Darwin Award.
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