Online “friend” asking for photos of my garden

[Stormwet]

So a guy started following me on instagram about two months ago and DMed me three weeks ago complimenting my artwork which I post on there. He told me he lives in my area. We have been talking on there since then and he seems pleasant. On Friday we got talking about gardening and how mild the winter has been and I mentioned my bulbs were up early this year. He then asked for photos of my flowers which I find a little strange. Hasn’t he ever seen a few daffodils and crocuses before? I sent him a zoomed in photo of the daffodils and then yesterday he asked if I could send a photo of all the bulbs in a full garden photo. I’m not comfortable with him seeing my whole garden as I’m concerned he only wants to see the garden so he can see the background streets and find out where I live.

Am I being too anxious or is this a proper cause for concern?

Dont send pictures of a local park or garden just block him and move on good lord I'm not sure why he us taking up so much head space.

He's either going to stalk you or burgle you

Be wary about what metadata you are sending with any picture. Check the settings on your phone.

If you feel uncomfortable trust your instincts.

Oh gosh I would feel very uncomfortable about this. I would stop interacting with him.

The exact location shared by metadata is the concerning thing. If you take a picture on your phone, have a look at its details and there is your location. This gets sent with the photo if you send it to anyone. I think this gets stripped out by Instagram and WhatsApp but other apps may do something else.

I would need to see the actual messages leading up to this to get an idea why he is asking. I would think it's harmless, but you could just say the garden's a mess so no picture, if you want to keep talking to him (mine is a real mess at the minute apart from some nice clumps of bulbs!). Or as others have said maybe it was innuendo for something more intimate, which is why it made you feel so uncomfortable.

If he wanted the metadata, he got that with the close up shot already.

Block him. He’s trying to find out your address. Not for a good reason.

My immediate thought too OP, he wants to find out where you live.

YANBU. It seems a bit off to me too.

Just why would you have a conversation with a complete stranger who friended you for a spurious reason online??? There's a million red flags there already. You know he is absolutely NOT who he says he is, right?

Yes to the metadata included in your photo being an issue.

But seriously, sort your privacy settings so randoms can't connect with you.

Just block. You owe this strange man nothing and he's playing on your fear of "offending".

I’d either block him, send him a fake picture from google or ask him directly why he wants to see the full garden as it’s weird and just see what he replies.

I wouldn’t send him the actual picture and I think you’re right to trust your instincts.

I've had loads of random men contact me on Instagram. I post nice arty pics and no selfies apart from profile pic. They're always weird. Yours may be genuine but Instagram is not a dating site and some men don't seem to know this. I block at hello.

Listen to your gut.

A request for a pic of someone's garden (btw I laughed at 'lady garden') could be quite innocent - if he's into gardens and thinks you're interesting artistically it makes sense that he'd want to see yours rather than just look at some random daffs in the park. However, don't do/send anything you're not comfortable with. Do you know for sure that he lives in your area?

A picture of the garden may well be enough to pick it out on Google Maps or similar - he already knows the rough area at least.

Or he could want to see how big/posh your garden is to see if you're worth trying to get money out of.

The requests seems fine. I am in many gardening groups and we swap pictures all the time. Yes, I can go online and Google “middle-aged woman in Malta” but I would rather see my friend’s holiday photo.
You don’t need to block or send unrelated photo of someone else’s garden. A simple “I am not comfortable with sending you the picture” will suffice.

He's hoping to find your house on satellite images. Just block him. Why are you even bothering with a complete stranger who's making you feel uneasy?

Just say your garden is not good enough to photograph at this time of the year.

Then turn it round and ask him to send a photo of his?

He could just be curious but also have an ulterior motive.

You have stuff in common and are enjoying chatting. Its not unreasonable for him to ask a little more about you as time goes on. If this makes you feel uncomfortable and you don't want to become friendlier with him just tell him you don't have time to chat anymore and block him.

You sound incredibly naive. Don’t engage with strangers through private messaging like that, it’s not how to make friends.

It might be fine but continue to be wary.

'Twas my first thought.

Just don't ask for a return pic of his bulbs.