LIZ CHARYNA AND LISA DWYER SCAMMED BY THE SAME MAN

The dating world is a minefield at the best of times but the Internet has added fresh risks, and not just of a broken heart, but also loss of both cash and valuable things to organised con artists. As a higher percentage of people use the web to find relationships, online-dating scams have become one of the major sources of fraud against Canadians, CBC News reports. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, online-dating fraud cost Canadians $17 million last year. And even though the total number of victims is small compared with other scams, in the last three years they lost more money looking for love online than to any other type of fraud. It is also become big business. Your old-school gigolo or gold-digger usually could only drain a couple of people at a time. But the centre's Daniel Williams said organized crime has latched onto online dating as a lucrative source of cash. "It is a big gang," he told CBC News. "They are doing the same thing to many people at the same time."

The advantage of the web, of course, is that the fraudster never has to meet his or her mark, though Williams said they will if the payoff is rich enough. Otherwise, they can tailor their online personas to meet the expectations of the victim and may wait months before introducing the subject of money, he told CBC News. "They can afford to have the money come in many months later because there is a stream of money coming in all the time," said Williams. Even if the fraud is discovered, there's little likelihood of getting your money back and prosecution is difficult if the scam is based abroad.

Besides gang-based operations, small-time scammers still lurk in the online dating world. CTV News reported earlier this month that two Vancouver women lost thousands of dollars to a man who connected with them via Plenty of Fish. After several dates, the women say he charmed them into cashing personal cheques for him, which later bounced. Liz Charyna lost $400 and Lisa Dwyer $2,700. The two women knew each other and were unaware they were seeing the same guy. “He really came across as somebody who has a good job; he mentioned that he was a site supervisor for construction, plus he had a renovation business on the side,” Charyna told CTV News. “He seemed legitimate.” The two women did not realize they had been scammed by the same man until they discussed online dating at the gym. “I need to warn you of this man that I just met,” Charyna told Dwyer. “Oh, I just met him,” Dwyer replied. She started a blog to alert other women and told CTV News she's received emails from several other victims, many too embarrassed to report the fraud. “When something like this happens to you, you just feel sick,” Charyna said. “If you just stay silent, that is where he has his power.” Both women have made official complaints to police. A man with the same name as the one they dated has a long criminal record, including fraud, CTV News said.