8 things that can go wrong when online dating

The Public Health Agency of Canada found that since 1999, there has been a startling rise in sexually transmitted infections. Now with the relative ease of finding dates thanks to technology, online daters face a greater risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease, says a study. "There is that chemistry thing online," Cindy Masaro, a PhD candidate and nurse clinician at the STI/HIV clinic at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, told The Vancouver Sun. "I started seeing friends that were in these totally intimate relationships with people they'd never met before."

You can be scammed for money

Joan Romano, a 53-year-old divorced woman from Lynbrook, N.Y., met a man named "Austin Miller" on popular dating site Match.com. He told Romano he was a decorated soldier based in Kabul, Afghanistan, and even sent her a picture of himself in uniform. Romano thought she hit the jackpot - a good-looking guy - but found herself being scammed out of a lot of money. Romano sent the "soldier" a $1,000 laptop and $25,000 within a six-month span before realizing she had been had.

There was another report of a woman who met a man on Jewish-dating site JDate who asked her to send him $1,300 to pay for a hotel bill after supposedly being robbed while on a business trip in Dubai.

You can be sexually assaulted

Carole Markin would've never predicted the legal ordeal that would result after meeting Alan Paul Wurtzel on Match.com. During a date, Markin says Wurtzel sexually assaulted her. Wurtzel, who has been convicted of six other sexual assault charges of different women, now faces felony charges. Markin also has a pending civil suit against the popular dating website to force them to implement mandatory sexual predator screening for all members.

You can find yourself on a date with your long lost sibling

That's what happened to Sarah Kemp and George Bentley. The two found each other on a website while looking for love. After swapping emails and pictures, the pair arranged for a date in London. It was then when they discovered just how much they had in common. Perfect pair? More like brother and sister!

You can be robbed

You could be the victim of a mugging while on a date. Marsha Grayson, a 28-year-old Bremerton, Wash. woman , was recently charged with first-degree robbery after she allegedly pulled a knife out on her date after meeting at a 7-Eleven and drove off with his $80.

There was also another report that a woman was robbed at gunpoint in Vallejo, Calif. by a man she met on an online dating service. The suspect drove off with the Kia Spectra she was driving, a loaner from a friend.

You can be murdered

The most serious of consequences to dating online is murder. On May 2011, a 60-year-old woman from Jackson, Miss., was found dead and badly beaten. George Affleck, the 55-year-old man Dianne "De" Hearn met on Match.com, has since been indicted on a capital murder charge of her death.

You can attract a creepy stalker

Your relationship status - if you fill out that part of your profile, that is - is available for all to keep track of. And thanks to the Break-Up Notifier app, those crushing on you can be the first to know when you've suddenly become single. Although the app seems harmless, one important question comes to mind: Do you want to date someone who is following your relationship whereabouts that closely online? One has to question a potential dater's sanity before agreeing to hang out. Is this normal?

You can unsuspectingly date someone who's married

We've talked to many online daters who have said that some men and women they've met online weren't exactly what they seemed once they were face to face. This comes as no surprise. After all, it's easy to get carried away and lie when there's no one policing your profile. From not looking exactly like their pictures to lying about their true relationship statuses, online daters beware. He or she can be ugly, creepy, even married.