ONLINE LOVE moves in mysterious ways - especially in cyberspace, where looking for a partner with a click of a mouse is anything but predictable.Far from happy-ever-after, an online romance between an Ipswich man and his would-be Texan bride this week ended with the pair behind bars after a bloody backyard barbecue.
The extraordinary story is the latest example of online love gone wrong.
Like countless others, Liam Gaynor and Lois Perryman met on the internet and fell in love.
After dating online they were finally united last month when Perryman travelled from the US to be with Gaynor in Ipswich.
All was rosy until Gaynor took his fiance to meet his former boss, Paul Hicks, at a Sunday barbecue.
In the space of a few hours, the love affair was in tatters when Perryman and Hicks apparently became enamoured with each other.
Police alleged Gaynor then left the barbecue in a jealous rage and returned with a knife, which he allegedly used to stab Hicks.
But the plot thickened on Wednesday when Hicks told detectives Perryman was the culprit. The former cyber lovers are now in custody after both being charged with attempted murder and grievous bodily harm.
Last month, The Courier-Mail reported how online scammers using three little words - "I love you" - to unlock the bank accounts of vulnerable Queenslanders.
Purporting to be from Nigeria, the culprits used match-maker websites to fleece the lovelorn. One of the hapless victims, Ralph Thomason, lost $20,000.
And the stories keeping coming.
"Tara" went for a dream date with her online love. One thing led to another and the couple ended up in bed. Afterwards he turned to her and said, "that was great but it's helped me realise, I still prefer men".
"Mandy" has given up internet dating after arranging to meet an online friend for a date. After waiting for 45 minutes in the rain she gave up. He later told her that he'd met an old girlfriend on the bus on his way to the date and they decided to give it another go.
Critics of online dating say these horror stories are just the tip of the iceberg. But researcher and author Yvonne Rice says for every horror internet dating experience, there are millions of people who find their "happily ever afters".
"I'm talking age groups from 18 to 80. I'm constantly meeting people who've met their partner on the net. I'm a huge fan of internet dating," Ms Rice said.
In the US alone, 20 million people look for love online each year. And Australian dating website rsvp.com.au boasts a membership of 1.3 million singles.
"It's becoming more socially acceptable. In my travels I've met everyone from the unemployed to a cardio-thoracic surgeon who have use online dating services," Ms Rice said.
Police are not opposed to internet dating sites but members of Queensland's Computer Crimes Unit do advise extreme caution.
"It's not the websites that are the problem, it's the people who use them," said Detective Senior Constable Graeme Edwards.
The unit received "hundreds of complaints a year" from Queenslanders who had fallen victim to online romance scams at an average cost of $35,000, he said.
Dating sites were popular among scammers but not as popular as social networking and genealogy sites where criminals were not required to do much work to gain valuable information.
"The data required to open a bank account, for instance, is often freely available on these sites," Sen-Constable Edwards said.
Perryman will face Ipswich Magistrate's Court on Tuesday. Gaynor is due to appear on November 12.
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