As online dating continues to grow and grow so does the sophistication of scammers and tricksters. Who instead of trying to help you make a connection with a woman online simply want to make a connection with your money and leave you with only your "little man" in your hand.

Sign Up to My WebCam... The way this one works, is someone opens an account usually on one of the bigger sites and submits photo's of relatively hot chicks. If they feel like filling out the profile it usually says there bored and horny or looking for a good time. After you write to them they send you an email back saying that they really would like to meet you but in order for them to make sure you are over 18 they have there own site which will give you all there important information and some more steamy pictures as well. However you need a credit card (that's how they verify you're over 18) and after you sing up who knows maybe you can meet for coffee. A similar variation is that they send the email to you first both ways however are just plain scams.

Send Me Money... This one is usually more personal but never the less a scam. How it works is similar to the first except instead of asking you to join a site they tell you that they would like to meet you but live in a different state or country and need you to send them money for the plane ticket, passport, or both. This one at times can be harder to detect as some of them will actually hold a conversation with you emailing back and forth for a few weeks before asking for money. Yet once you send the money the online communication stops as well. If someone is asking for you to send money to them odds are your 1 of 100 and unless you really enjoyed there emails don't send them any money because those emails are all that you are going to have left.

Pay to See Messages... Unlike the first two scams which usually occur on the bigger sites by individuals, the third type is usually on very small sites usually claiming to be a niche site like women who love...(fill in the blank). How it works is they offer you a free trial where you can browse and perhaps even write to other members, the catch being that you have to buy a membership in order to read any of your emails. The membership usually cost anywhere from $20-50 dollars. The scam is nobody else is really an active member as they keep up old profiles and fake profiles giving you the sense that it is really bigger than what it is. An easy way to catch this one is create a profile with no pictures and a profile that is very basic and see how many "emails" you get. If you don't get any within the first 3 days it might be legit, however if they say you got mail and you need to pay you know that it is a fake.

Online dating can be fun, just remember to use a little common sense and if you have to spend money before even meeting to meet realize it is a scam and get out quick.