Meet me at the net... cafe!

I was watching an interesting episode of Dr. Phil the other day. It was about a woman who was engaged to a man that she met on the Internet and for 3 years had a relationship with him. They even became engaged. The thing is this couple had never met in person. The woman was lured into a deceptive web, even to the point of her giving this man 5ooo dollars. She sent him a check! When I heard this I was almost yelling at the T.V. It turns out that this woman was lied to. With the help of Dr. Phil and his team of investigators the man was exposed as a fraud and even had a significant other. His name , age, occupation and photo were false. The photo he used was of a not so known actor from many years ago. For 3 years he led this woman to believe that he was a pilot for the US air force and was stationed in Iraq. Of course this man did not want to go on the Dr. Phil show to try to explain himself. He was caught. What made me astonished even more was this woman tried to defend him saying that she did not want to destroy the connection because she was hoping to get her 5ooo dollars back. Dr. Phil told her that she would probably never see that money again and that she should move on. While I shake my head at this crazy scenario, I have to say that I know of 3 people in my life who have gone the route of the Internet dating thing and so far have been successful. These 3 couples are happily together. Kinda funny don't you think. I guess that it's okay to take a chance as long as you are smart about it. Like maybe meet the person a few times. Get to know them before sending them money. One of the couples I know did meet someone else online and when it came to her actually meeting the guy she knew right away that he was only after one thing and one thing alone. Her money. She quickly ended the relationship before it could even get any where. Good thing she did because she met a wonderful guy who has now become a part of our family. She met him on the Internet too. She lived in the States and he in Canada. But after several months of chatting and such they met. And the rest is history. So I have witnessed first hand that a net romance can work. But I also know that a person must be cautious. What do you think about the whole Internet dating?