some authorities are worried that computer-age romance also poses an
unusual potential for violence.
"It's so widespread -- people meeting over the Internet and then going into
a relationship without knowing anything about the person other than what
they learned online," said Deputy District Attorney Christine Trevino.
"It's a mystery that, in today's age, people are so trusting."
Despite the thousands of chat rooms and message boards on the Internet,
violent crime is a rare result of computer courting. But police have seen
enough cases to urge caution. Among them, just within the last year in San
Diego County:
A 43-year-old Vista woman was
choked and beaten into unconsciousnesswith a claw hammer last month, allegedly by an Oregon man, whom she met via
an Internet chat room. He came to San Diego County to meet her.
After being charmed via computer
by a Point Loma man, a Florida womanwas about to fly in for a rendezvous when she discovered her suitor was a
mental patient who once had been arrested in a confrontation with a police
SWAT team.
At least three North County teens
have been assaulted, allegedly by menthey met online.
The risks of online courtship have spawned businesses, including
investigators who conduct background checks on potential partners.
Recognizing the dangers, groups offer Internet classes on how to be safe
online. Even the Guardian Angels have a Web site for such classes.
Vista attorney Linda Alexander is one of a growing number of investigators
who conduct high-tech checks for people interested in pursuing a
relationship with someone they meet online.
Alexander said about 60 percent of the people she checks through public
records are not who they claim to be. She has discovered con artists,
stalkers and even prison inmates posing as singles.
One man who used Alexander's service learned the woman he thought he knew
and loved -- but never had met -- was serving time in prison for
manslaughter.
"You can be anything you want to be over the Internet on the other side of
that screen," Alexander said.
She said it is best to check out the person "before you invest your heart,
your money or your life."
The safeguards cannot protect everyone, however.
Trevino is prosecuting the man from Newberg, Ore., in the May 12 attack on
the Vista woman.
Investigators say the woman had invited Thomas William Abney, 30, to stay
with her for a few days in early May after they began an online
correspondence in April.
Their time together apparently went well until they were saying goodbye
and, authorities say, Abney choked her unconscious and then beat her.
Police say Abney stole the woman's car and was arrested while he waited
aboard a Portland, Ore.-bound plane at Lindbergh Field.
Sheriff's detectives, Trevino and an investigator from the District
Attorney's Office wen