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People think that the dangers of an online dating romance have to do with the fact that you can never be sure who you're dealing with in an online dating situation. There's some truth to this view. That handsome photo could have been cut out of a magazine. That intriguing profile could have been copied from another dating site. The person behind the profile may bear little resemblance to it.

In fact, however, you can run into con-artists in person too. Although it may be easier to cheat online, there are many people out there offline who you would fall in love with at your peril.

The real dangers of an online dating romance - the dangers that are unique to online dating - are more subtle than simple fraud, and much, much harder to avoid and guard against. They are dangers that the online environment, with its heady admixture of speed of communication and total anonymity, have spawned. These are hidden dangers, rarely talked about or even acknowledged by members of the online dating community.

Forewarned is forearmed. Watch out for these five dangers of an online romance. They are as big a risk to your emotional health as a dated photo, or fake profile.

FIVE DANGERS OF AN ONLINE DATING ROMANCE

1. Your online dating partner may be addicted to online dating. That's right. They may have no desire to move to the next stage of meeting in the offline world. People like this can sometimes string their victims on for months or even years with the hope of a face-to-face meeting that never materializes. Often these people prefer long-distance online relationships as these pose a natural barrier to getting together offline.

2. Your online dating partner may be using you to break up with their offline partner. This happens in the offline world too, but it's much harder to conceal. eHarmony requires that members be divorced rather than merely separated to attempt to ensure that members are available for marriage, but most sites don't, and of course people can lie about this even at eHarmony. The mischief here is, of course, that once the offline break up has been completed your online dating partner has no more need of you and will move on having wasted your time, and perhaps broken your heart.

3. Your online dating partner may be seeking ego gratification rather than a real-life romance. Many people wish to be desirable to the opposite sex but have despaired of having this need met in the flesh. The online dating experience is the next best thing. These people will NEVER meet

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