Editor's note: This is part one of an ongoing series on Internet fraud.

Since the advent of the Internet, criminals of every variety have found new ways to commit old crimes. As technology improves, criminals evolve their skills to hack accounts and defraud innocent victims in every way imaginable, taking millions of dollars from Americans each year.

Lurking in the abyss of chat rooms and online dating sites, relationships masked as romance can turn tragic, ending in fraud, violence and even death.

The popularity of social media websites has become a hotbed for crime on its own, opening up a world for “cyberbullying” among children and teens, “cyberstalking” among adults and an anonymous world for child predators to find their next victim.

In an upcoming series, The Mountaineer will ...