a man and a woman chatting via web camA sad story appeared in my inbox last week. It was an email from a woman, let’s call her Rosemary, who met an attractive and attentive widower, let’s call him Albert, on a popular online dating site. Here’s how the story goes. At one time Albert lived in the United States with his late wife, but now he’s living in Nigeria. They correspond via e-mail for a while and he sends lots of (handsome) photos of himself, even copies of his passport. He speaks so sweetly to her and can’t wait to come to the U.S. and finally meet her face to face. All he needs is for her to wire some money to get there.

Is your scam alarm going off yet? It should be, because Rosemary is being scammed. Internet dating scams are the latest fraud craze.

Internet dating scams are really just a variation on the old Nigerian 419 fraud – you know the e-mails you used to find in your inbox from the Nigerian prince that would make you rich if you just helped him get his fortune out of the country?

I don’t want you to think that there’s something inherently bad about online dating services – I know people who have formed good relationships with good people using online dating services. Of course, there’s always the possibility that, like Rosemary, you may meet someone like Albert. Most importantly, you should be sensible and look for warning signs of trouble.

Now, if you or someone you know thinks they’ve been scammed, it’s best to face it and put a stop to it before it gets worse. Report the scam to law enforcement so hopefully your scammer is stopped before (s)he hurts someone else.

Oh – and I should mention that it’s not always men scamming women. Women scam men too. To learn more, check into the types of internet romance scams, and look at the common questions that the US Embassy in Moscow answers.