Thinking in 180-degree terms... why not start a bunch of fake dating sites designed to rip people off? I could steal oodles of photos from online catalogs, write bogus profiles for them, word it so payment is non-refundable, and then sit back and do nothing but collect money from desperate younger men who fall for it. Then if someone complains about one of my bogus sites, I'd just shut it down and rename it something totally different. The only hard part would be advertising.

I think there's no question that 80+% of the profiles on the "hook-up" sites are bogus (and copied from site to site), and the standard scam is to barrage you with "you received a private message from" messages that all require you to "sign-up" to get. It's pretty sad, but if you fall victim, chalk it up to lessons learned.

You're preaching to the choir. My real question is about the likelihood of victims finding out about my little ripoff operation and tossing me into the harbor.