The profiles first go through automated screening software, which flags both traits in the profile, such as certain ethnicities, and things that aren't visible in the profile, such as certain IP addresses and even certain passwords that scammers seem to like more than other people.

Then a person on staff looks through the flagged profiles and decides whom to ban, Velasquez says.

The really, really sad part of this scam, is that usually before you lose any cash, you have already lost your heart.

These scammers are patient, and will sometimes be spinning their little web around you for weeks.

Today online dating is everywhere, and for many people it works!

For untold others, it's just another way for scammers to prey on lonely hearts for cash.

Seeking Arrangement has banned 60,000 profiles in the last 10 months, or about 220 a day.

I made many friends, while in Ukraine and many helped me dig for the truth.

That widowed Ukrainian engineer you just met on your favorite dating website? Scam dating profiles are more likely to say they are Catholic; from Nigeria, the Ukraine or the Philippines; widowed and have a doctoral degree—among other characteristics, according to new data compiled by the dating website Seeking

Romance scammers tug at the heartstrings or stroke the ego to get dating site users to send them money.

It will all feel so right, and end so horribly wrong.

The VAST majority of these scammers are located in former Soviet states like the Ukraine, or in Western Africa (think Ghana, Benin and Nigeria) but usually pretend to be located somewhere else, even in the USA.